Koki Hirota

Kōki Hirota was a Japanese diplomat and politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1936 to 1937. He was executed for war crimes committed during the Second Sino-Japanese War at the Tokyo Trials. Hirota graduated from the law school of Tokyo University and entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to become a career diplomat. He served in a number of overseas posts, including ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1928 to 1932. He became foreign minister in 1933, just after Japan had withdrawn from the League of Nations. He negotiated the purchase of the Chinese Eastern Railway in Manchuria from Soviet interests and promulgated the Hirota Sangensoku, the three principles of Japan's position towards China. He became prime minister in 1936 and followed army dictates. His regime saw increased military spending, government interference in the economy, growth of aggression in China, and the signing of the Anti-Comintern Pact with Nazi Germany and Italy. He resigned under army pressure in 1937 and later served as foreign minister and president of the cabinet planning board under Fumimaro Konoye. In 1945, he negotiated to keep the USSR from declaring war on Japan. After the war, he was arrested as a war criminal and convicted of crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. He was hanged at Sugamo Prison on 23 December 1948.