Mitsumasa Yonai

Mitsumasa Yonai was born on March 2, 1880, in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture, Japan. He was the first son of former samurai Yonai Nagamasa, who had served the Nanbu clan of the Morioka Domain. He entered the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in 1901 and graduated in 1903. He served in various administrative and naval positions, including as a naval attaché to Russia and Poland, a commander of several fleets and naval districts, and a chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff. He was promoted to admiral in 1937 and became the Minister of the Navy. He was a supporter of the Washington Naval Treaty and the London Naval Treaty, which limited the naval armaments of Japan and other major powers. He also advocated for a peaceful resolution of the conflicts with China and the Western powers, and opposed the Tripartite Pact with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. He became the Prime Minister of Japan in January 1940, with the backing of Emperor Hirohito, but he faced strong opposition from the army and the pro-Axis factions. He resigned in July 1940, after failing to prevent the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War and the occupation of French Indochina. He continued to serve as the Minister of the Navy until December 1945, and oversaw the dissolution of the Japanese navy after the end of World War II. He was one of the few senior officials who survived the war and was not prosecuted for war crimes. He died of heart failure on April 20, 1948, in Tokyo. He was buried in his hometown of Morioka. He is remembered as a moderate and a pacifist who tried to avoid war with the United States and to end the Pacific War. He was also a patron of the arts and culture, and supported the preservation of the Shinto shrines and the imperial institution.