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Tag Archives: Kuniaki Koiso

Shigeru Yoshida and the Conservative Client State

Shigeru Yoshida’s second premiership from 1948-1954 was one of the most transformative in Japanese history, taking the nation from its progressive, unstable early postwar era into a long period of entrenched conservative rule, ostensibly exercising independence but in reality functioning as a client state absorbed into the informal American empire.

Kuniaki Koiso and the Inescapable Slide Toward Defeat

Imperial Army officer Kuniaki Koiso became prime minister well after Japan’s position in the Pacific War had already become hopeless. It took him months to reach this understanding personally, and when he ultimately came to realize that his own ability to command the situation was also close to zero, he stepped down.