SNA (Tokyo) — In 1939, rightwing ideologue Kiichiro Hiranuma came to power, but he refrained from attempting to institute any major policy changes. However, he soon presided over a series of disasters, each of which clearly indicated that Japan’s military-led foreign policy had miscalculated fundamental realities.

Transcript

On January 5, 1939, Kiichiro Hiranuma became prime minister of Japan.

Hiranuma had originally made his career through the Ministry of Justice and the law courts, and he was one of the nation’s most prominent rightwing ideologues, sometimes regarded as being a Japanese fascist. He had played a significant part in bringing down moderate Cabinets led by Reijiro Wakatsuki and Makoto Saito.

But upon coming to power as prime minister, Hiranuma refrained from taking any dramatic actions to reshape Japanese politics or society. He continued along in the same basic policy lines established by his predecessor, Fumimaro Konoe.

All of the major problems which Hiranuma faced during his time in office were related to foreign policy.

Tensions with the Anglo-American powers had long been escalating, in part due to Japanese military aggression in China—especially Tokyo’s efforts to gain a tighter hold over China’s foreign trade.

The growing US dissatisfaction with Japanese economic policies on the Chinese coast led to Washington’s abrupt announcement in July 1939 of its withdrawal from the US-Japan Treaty of Commerce and Navigation, which had been in place since 1911.

The Hiranuma administration was then hit by two even larger shocks the following month.

Border skirmishes with the Soviet Union heated up again, this time near the village of Nomonhan in Mongolia. The Imperial Army had again escalated conflict and were again exposed as being overconfident and underprepared.

A Soviet counteroffensive near Nomonhan overwhelmed Japanese forces, leaving the stunned Imperial Army with tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers dead on the battlefield.

But the biggest shock of all was the news from Europe that Nazi Germany had signed a nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union. This was in direct contradiction to Japan’s 1936 treaty with Germany, which had bound Tokyo and Berlin into a loose alliance directed against any potential Soviet threat.

Up until that point, the Hiranuma government had actually been aiming to strengthen its ties with Germany, seeing it as an important anchor for its diplomatic and security policies.

The Japanese government was dumbfounded by this rapid series of disasters. Within the space of just about a month, the US trade treaty was gone, the Imperial Army had been seriously bloodied by the Soviets, and Japan had been betrayed by its only Great Power ally.

Kiichiro Hiranuma took responsibility for these disasters and resigned on August 30, 1939. He had served for 238 days.

Hiranuma never returned as prime minister, but he remained a top level figure in a variety of posts throughout the war years. After the war, he was tried and convicted as a Class A War Criminal, but avoided a death sentence. He died of natural causes in 1952.

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