Mitsumasa Yonai

was a Japanese navy officer and politician. He served as admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy, Minister of the Navy, and Prime Minister of Japan in 1940.

Early life and career Yonai was born on 2 March 1880, in Mitsuwari, Iwate Prefecture, the first son of former samurai Yonai Nagamasa. Nagamasa had formerly served the Nanbu clan of the Morioka Domain.

He entered Kajichō Elementary School in 1886, and entered Morioka Middle School in 1890. After graduating from Morioka Middle School, he entered the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy. After midshipman service on the corvette , and cruiser he was commissioned as ensign in January 1903. He served in administrative positions until near the end of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, when he went to sea again on the destroyer and the cruiser .

After the war, he served as chief gunnery officer on the cruiser , battleship , and cruiser . After his promotion to lieutenant commander in December 1912, he graduated from the Naval War College and was assigned as naval attaché to Russia during the height of World War I, from 1915 to 1917. While overseas, he was promoted to commander; after the collapse of the Russian Empire, he was recalled to Japan and later became executive officer on the battleship . When Hata resigned, Yonai was subsequently forced to resign on July 21, 1940. The Japanese Constitution required the Army Minister to be an active-duty general and no other general would accept the position, due to the pro-Axis stance of the Imperial Japanese Army. The Tripartite Pact was signed on September 27, 1940.

Subsequent political activity Yonai served as the Deputy Prime Minister and concurrently as the Navy Minister again under the cabinet of Prime Minister Kuniaki Koiso from July 22, 1944, during which time he returned to the active duty roster from the reserve list. By this time, Saipan had fallen to the Allies.

Yonai remained Navy Minister under the administration of Prime Minister Kantarō Suzuki. In the last few weeks before Japan's surrender, he sided with Prime Minister Suzuki and Foreign Minister Shigenori Tōgō in support of acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration and surrender of Japan in opposition to Army Minister Korechika Anami, Chief of Naval General Staff Admiral Soemu Toyoda and Chief of the Army General Staff General Yoshijirō Umezu.

Yonai remained Navy Minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni and cabinet of Prime Minister Kijūrō Shidehara from August 1945, during which time he presided over the final dissolution of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

He played a major role during the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in working with the major defendants, such as former Prime Minister Hideki Tōjō, to coordinate their testimonies so that Emperor Hirohito would be spared from indictment. According to his interpreter Suichi Mizota, in March 1946 Bonner Fellers asked him to make Tōjō bear all responsibility for the Greater East Asia War.

Yonai suffered from high blood pressure most of his life, but died of pneumonia on 20 April 1948 at the age of 68. His grave is located at the temple of Enko-ji in his hometown of Morioka.

Assessment Minister of the Imperial Japanese Navy (1937–1939) Because of Yonai’s work as a military attaché in Russia and Poland and his travels around European countries, he had a broader perspective of world affairs than many other senior Japanese military officials. In the late 1930s Yonai already analyzed the naval capabilities of the Imperial Japanese Navy and Allied countries, versus those of Germany and Italy and he concluded that Japan should not ally itself with the Axis powers. In addition to his experience as an attaché, he had participated in the Battle of the Japan Sea (known in the West as the Battle of Tsushima) during the Russo-Japanese War as a lieutenant, so he understood the realities of naval warfare. Hence, on August 8, 1939, at the five-ministry commission that was intended to make a plan for war, the Minister of Finance, Ishiwata, asked Yonai, "Is it possible for the Imperial Japanese Navy to triumph over America and Britain?" (Agawa, n.d.). Yonai answered, "No. The Imperial Japanese Navy is not designed to open fire against them. The Third Reich and the Italian Navy are out of question." (Agawa, n.d.).

After the historical triumph of the Battle of the Japan Sea in 1905 during the Russo-Japanese War, the Imperial Japanese Navy was the world's third strongest. By the end of World War I, Japan had a powerful battle fleet. In the 1930s, following the Washington Naval Treaty, Japan built a strong naval aviation arm with excellent aircraft and pilots. Even so, the Imperial Japanese Navy could not compete against the Royal Navy and the United States Navy, the top two navies in the world. Consequently, the much smaller Kriegsmarine (German Navy) and the Regia Marina (Italian Navy) could not defeat these two dominants. Furthermore, the Imperial Japanese Navy had been made overconfident by its victory and was not willing to acknowledge a position of inferiority. However, his unique experiences made him convinced of his view. Therefore, Yonai clearly announced his opinion: the Imperial Japanese Navy would lose if it attacked the Royal Navy and the United States Navy.

Pre-premiership Before he was chosen as the Prime Minister, Yonai showed strong leadership particularly in crisis. On February 26, 1936, there was an attempted coup d'état led by young officers of the Imperial Japanese Army. The generals of the Imperial Japanese Army struggled to decide the appellation of the rebel troops, whom the generals were hesitant to refer to as rebels because it was extremely shameful for them to admit internecine strife. Hence, the generals were hesitant. On the other hand, Yonai, the commander-in-chief of the Sasebo Naval District, instantaneously labeled them as "Insurrectional troops", (Agawa, n.d.) and let the chief of his staff, Admiral Inoue Shigeyoshi, publish his position to all the Sasebo Naval District. Because of this immediate announcement, navy officers in the Sasebo Naval District were compelled to stop participating with the rebellion troops. Yonai's prompt action as the supreme commander tranquilized the Sasebo Naval District. This action is extremely rare because having presented the belongings of the Emperor is the supreme honor and the utmost expression of amiability.

In popular culture In the 2011 film Isoroku, Yonai was portrayed by actor Akira Emoto In the 2015 film The Emperor in August, Yonai was portrayed by actor Ikuji Nakamura