Masayuki Tani

Masayuki Tani
谷正之
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
Died 16 October 1962 (aged 73)

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

Tani was a career diplomat before assuming ministerial roles.[2] More specifically, he was Japanese ambassador to France (1918-1923), to the US (1927–1930) and to Manchukuo (1933–1936).[1] In addition, he was chief of Asian Bureau in the ministry of foreign affairs.[3] He also worked as counsellor to the Japanese embassy in Hsinking 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 lasted short. Since bureaucracts in the ministry of foreign affairs resented Tani,[2] on 21 April 1943, he was replaced by Mamoru Shigemitsu.[10]

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,[11] becoming the third post-war ambassador of Japan to the US.[7]

Personal life

Tani was married and had three children, a daughter and two sons.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 Louis Frédéric; Käthe Roth (2002). Japan Encyclopedia. Harvard University Press. p. 949. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
  2. 1 2 Ben Ami Shillony (1991). Politics and Culture in Wartime Japan. Oxford University Press. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-19-820260-8. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
  3. ↑ Sakai, Tetsuya (1988). "The Soviet Factor in Japanese Foreign Policy, 1923-1937" (PDF). Acta Slavica Japonica 6: 27–40. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
  4. ↑ "Japanese seek British truce in China areas". The Pittsburgh Press (Shanghai). The United Press. 23 March 1938. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
  5. ↑ Ian Hill Nish (2002). Japanese Foreign Policy in the Interwar Period. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 144. ISBN 978-0-275-94791-0. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
  6. ↑ "Japan's new foreign minister". The Straits Times (Tokyo). 24 September 1939. p. 12. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 "Tani's outlook shaped by GIS". The Spokesman Review (Tokyo). AP. 11 February 1956. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
  8. 1 2 Horst Boog; Gerhard Krebs; Detlef Vogel (4 May 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. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
  9. ↑ "Militarist named Togo's successor". The Evening Independent (Tokyo). 17 September 1942. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
  10. ↑ "Japan's cabinet changes". The Sydney Morning Herald (New York). AAP. 21 April 1943. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
  11. ↑ "Telegram From the Embassy in Japan to the Department of State". US Department of State. 2 April 1955. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
Political offices
Preceded by
Shigenori Tōgō		 Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan
1942–1943 		Succeeded by
Mamoru Shigemitsu
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