Prince Fumimaro Konoe (近衞 文麿, Konoe Fumimaro; 12 October 1891 – 16 December 1945) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1937 to 1939 and from 1940 to 1941. He presided over the Japanese invasion of China in 1937 and breakdown in relations with the United States which eventually culminated in the Second World War's expansion to the Asia-Pacific theater. Konoe also played a central role in transforming Japan into a totalitarian state by pushing through the State General Mobilization Law and establishing the Imperial Rule Assistance Association.
Born in Tokyo to a prominent aristocratic family, Konoe graduated from Kyoto University and took up his father's seat in the House of Peers in 1916. He was a member of the Japanese delegation at the Paris Peace Conference following World War I, and served as president of the House of Peers from 1933 to 1937. In June 1937, Konoe became prime minister of Japan on the recommendation of his mentor Saionji Kinmochi. When the Marco Polo Bridge Incident took place a month later, he oversaw an escalation of tensions with China which ultimately culminated in the Second Sino-Japanese War. During the early years of the conflict, Konoe's government presided over numerous victories against Chinese forces as well as the widespread perpetration of war crimes (including the Nanjing Massacre). In 1938, he enacted the State General Mobilization Law which massively expanded the government's control over Japanese civilians in order to place the country on a war footing. In January 1939, Konoe resigned as the Japanese military proved unable to achieve a decisive victory in China.
After resigning as Japan's head of government, Konoe served as chairman of the Privy Council until being once again appointed prime minister in July 1940. Later that year, he founded the Imperial Rule Assistance Association and oversaw the signing of the Tripartite Pact with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. During his second premiership, Konoe also presided over the Japanese invasion of French Indochina, the formal recognition of Wang Jingwei's puppet government in Nanjing and the conclusion of the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact. Despite attempting to resolve growing tensions with the United States, a rigid timetable imposed by the military on the negotiations and Konoe's own inflexibility set the two countries on the path to war. Politically isolated, Konoe resigned as premier in October 1941 and was replaced by Hideki Tojo. Six weeks later, the Pacific War broke out after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Konoe remained a close advisor to Emperor Hirohito until the end of World War II and played a key role in the fall of the Tōjō Cabinet in 1944. At the start of the Allied occupation of Japan in August 1945, he briefly served as a minister in the cabinet of Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni, but came under suspicion of war crimes. On 16 December 1945, Konoe committed suicide by ingesting cyanide before he could be arrested by the authorities.
Fumimaro Konoe (often Konoye), was born in Tokyo on 12 October 1891 to the prominent Konoe family, one of the main branches of the ancient Fujiwara clan. This made the Konoe "head of the most prestigious, and highest ranking noble house in the realm." They had first become independent of the Fujiwara in the 12th century, when Minamoto no Yoritomo divided the Fujiwara into the Five Regent Houses (go-sekke). Japanese historian Eri Hotta described the Konoe as "First among the go-sekke"; Fumimaro would be its 29th leader. While the average height of Japanese people at that time was around 160 cm (5 ft 3 in), Konoe was over 180 cm (5 ft 11 in) tall.
Konoe's father, Atsumaro, had been politically active, having organized the Anti-Russia Society in 1903. Fumimaro's mother died shortly after his birth; his father then married her younger sister. Fumimaro was misled into thinking she was his real mother, and found out the truth when he was 12 years old after his father's death.
Upon his father's death in 1912, Fumimaro not only inherited his father's aristocratic title of kōshaku (duke or prince) but also his debt. Thanks to the financial support of the zaibatsu Sumitomo, which he received throughout his career, and the auction of Fujiwara heirlooms, the family was able to become solvent. Fumimaro's younger brother, Hidemaro Konoye, later became a symphony conductor and founded NHK Symphony Orchestra.
After graduating from Taimei Elementary School, he went on to study at Gakushuin, which was an institution to educate the children of the children of Japan's nobility. He was inspired by Inazo Nitobe, the dean of the First Higher School. Uncharacteristically for someone from a high-ranking aristocratic background, he chose to study at the First Higher School for university preparatory education, instead of staying at Gakushuin. Upon graduating in 1912, he proceeded to study philosophy at Tokyo Imperial University, where he again studied together with his former peers from Gakushuin. Konoe subsequently transferred to the law department of Kyoto Imperial University. One of his professors was the Marxist economist Hajime Kawakami. Under Kawakami's influence, Konoe became interested in socialism as a student and wrote a Japanese translation of Oscar Wilde's "The Soul of Man Under Socialism."
While in Kyoto, Konoe met the genrō Saionji Kinmochi and became his protégé. After graduation, Fumimaro turned to Saionji for advice about starting a political career, and worked briefly in the home ministry before accompanying his mentor to Versailles as part of the Japanese peace delegation.
In December 1918, ahead of the peace conference, Konoe published an essay entitled "Reject the Anglo-American-Centered Pacifism" (英米本位の平和主義を排す, eibei-hon'i no heiwashugi o haisu). In this article, he argued that western democracies were supporting democracy, peace, and self-determination only hypocritically, while actually undermining those ideals through racially discriminatory imperialism. He attacked the League of Nations as an effort to institutionalize the status quo: colonial hegemony by the western powers. This essay became known to American journalist Thomas Franklin Fairfax Millard who translated it and wrote a rebuttal in his journal, Millard's Review of the Far East. Saionji considered Konoe's writing reckless, but, after it became internationally read, Konoe was invited to dinner by Sun Yat-sen. Sun admired Japan's quick modernization; at the dinner, they discussed pan-Asian nationalism.
During the Paris Peace Conference, Konoe was one of the Japanese diplomats who proposed the Racial Equality Proposal for the Covenant of the League of Nations. When the Racial Equality Clause came up before the committee, it received the support of Japan, France, Yugoslavia, Greece, Italy, Brazil, Czechoslovakia, and China. However, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson overturned the vote, declaring that the clause needed unanimous support. Konoe regarded the rejection of the Racial Equality Clause as a significant setback and a reflection of discriminatory attitudes toward Japan.
Upon his return to Japan he published a booklet where he described his travels to France, Britain and the U.S. Konoe noted how he was angered by rising anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States and how the US government discriminated against Japanese immigrants. He also described China as a rival to Japan in international relations.
In 1916, while at university, Fumimaro took his father's seat in the House of Peers, upper house of the Imperial Diet. After his return from Europe he was aggressively recruited by the most powerful political faction of Japan's budding Taishō democracy of the 1920s: the kenkyukai, a conservative, militaristic faction, led by Yamagata Aritomo and generally opposed to democratic reform. In September 1922, he joined them.
The opposing faction was the seiyukai, led by Hara Takashi, which drew its strength from the lower house. Eventually the seiyukai was able to gain the Aritomo's support, and Hara Takashi became prime minister in 1918. Konoe believed the House of Peers should stay neutral in factional party politics, lest a partisan-seeming peerage have their privileges restricted. He therefore supported Takashi's seiyukai government, as did most of the kenkyukai.