Masayuki Tani
Masayuki Tani | |
|---|---|
| 谷正之 | |
.jpg) | |
| Minister of Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 17 September 1942 – 21 April 1943 | |
| Prime Minister | Hideki Tōjō |
| Preceded by | Shigenori Tōgō |
| Succeeded by | Mamoru Shigemitsu |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 2 September 1889 Kumamoto prefecture, Japan |
| Died | 16 October 1962 (aged 73) Tokyo, Japan |
Masayuki Tani (谷正之) (2 September 1889 – 16 October 1962)[1] was a Japanese diplomat and politician who was briefly foreign minister of Japan from September 1942 to 21 April 1943 during World War II.
Career
[edit]Tani was a career diplomat before assuming ministerial roles.[2] More specifically, he served at the embassy in France (1918–1923), United States (1927–1930) and Manchukuo (1933–1936).[1] In 1930, he was chief of Asian Bureau in the ministry of foreign affairs.[3] He also worked as counsellor to the Japanese embassy in Xinjing and as ambassador-at-large in China.[4]
He served as vice minister of foreign affairs in the cabinet of Mitsumasa Yonai[5] when appointed under then foreign minister Kichisaburō Nomura on 24 September 1939.[6]
Then Tani served as information chief and also, foreign minister in the cabinet of Hideki Tōjō.[7] He was appointed foreign minister on 17 September 1942.[8][9] During his tenure, Japan continued to encourage a separate peace between Germany and the Soviet Union.[8] However, his term was short. Since bureaucrats in the ministry of foreign affairs resented Tani,[2] on 21 April 1943, he was replaced by Mamoru Shigemitsu.[10] After that, he received Shigemitsu's former post of Japanese ambassador in Nanjing to the Reorganized National Government of China.[11]
After World War II, Tani was detained as a suspect of war crimes until December 1948.[7] However, he was not convicted.[7] Then he served again as Japan's ambassador to the United States from March 1956 to April 1957,[12] becoming the third post-war ambassador of Japan to the US.[7]
Personal life
[edit]Tani was married and had three children, a daughter and two sons.[7]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Louis Frédéric; Käthe Roth (2002). Japan Encyclopedia. Harvard University Press. p. 949. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5.
- ^ a b Ben Ami Shillony (1991). Politics and Culture in Wartime Japan. Oxford University Press. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-19-820260-8.
- ^ Sakai, Tetsuya (1988). "The Soviet Factor in Japanese Foreign Policy, 1923-1937" (PDF). Acta Slavica Japonica. 6: 27–40. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
- ^ "Japanese seek British truce in China areas". The Pittsburgh Press. Shanghai. The United Press. 23 March 1938. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
- ^ Ian Hill Nish (2002). Japanese Foreign Policy in the Interwar Period. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 144. ISBN 978-0-275-94791-0.
- ^ "Japan's new foreign minister". The Straits Times. Tokyo. 24 September 1939. p. 12. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
- ^ a b c d e "Tani's outlook shaped by GIS". The Spokesman Review. Tokyo. AP. 11 February 1956. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
- ^ a b Horst Boog; Gerhard Krebs; Detlef Vogel (2006). Germany and the Second World War: Volume VII: The Strategic Air War in Europe and the War in the West and East Asia, 1943-1944/5. Oxford University Press. p. 740. ISBN 978-0-19-822889-9.
- ^ "Militarist named Togo's successor". The Evening Independent. Tokyo. 17 September 1942. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
- ^ "Japan's cabinet changes". The Sydney Morning Herald. New York. AAP. 21 April 1943. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
- ^ Boyle, John H. (1972). China and Japan at War, 1937-1945; The Politics of Collaboration. Stanford University Press. p. 307. ISBN 0804708002.
- ^ "Telegram From the Embassy in Japan to the Department of State". US Department of State. 2 April 1955. Retrieved 8 January 2013.