Koki Hirota: Only Civil Official Being Hanged
By Wang Jianlang
Among the seven Class-A Japanese war criminals condemned to be hanged by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, Koki Hirota was the only civil official.
He was born in Fukuoka Prefecture, Kyushu in 1878. He was deeply influenced by expansionist theories in his early years. In 1901 he was admitted to the Law School of Tokyo Imperial University.
Taking part in drafting the Twenty-one Demands
During the summer of 1903 Hirota made a tour of observation in northeast China and Korea. Based on that visit he submitted a report, holding that a war between Japan and Russia was inevitable, and thus Japan should gain the initiative by striking first. In 1906 he entered the diplomatic circles. In 1913 he became Head of the First Section of the Trade Bureau with the Foreign Ministry. Japan forced in 1915 the Twenty-one Demands on the Beijing warlord government to accept that it inherited all the rights Germany had enjoyed in east China"s Shandong Province. Hirota was one of the draftsmen of the aggressive document that seriously violated the sovereignty of China. Afterwards he won one promotion after another, holding the successive posts of Head of the Second Section of the Intelligence Agency with the Foreign Ministry, Vice Head of the Intelligence Agency, Director of the Bureau of European and American Affairs, Envoy to the Netherlands and Ambassador to the Soviet Union.
After assuming the office of Foreign Minister in 1933, under the disguise of "peaceful diplomacy" Hirota vigorously supported the Japanese government and the military in their aggression against China.
During his tenure of office, Japan forced China to sign the Qin-Doihara and He-Umezu agreements and promoted the "autonomy movement in north China."
To strengthen its control over north China, falsely accusing the Chinese authorities of going against the Tanggu Accord, Japan in 1935 made representations to the National Government and threatened to use force. On June 9, General Officer commanding China Garrison Army Yoshijiro Umezu raised a series of unreasonable demands to He Yingqin, acting chairman of the KMT Peiping (Beijing) Military Subcommittee. He replied on July 6 to meet all the demands, making possible for Japan to occupy important strategic points in the Peiping-Tianjin area.
In May 1935, several Japanese spies were detained by Chinese army in Chahar. Using it as an excuse, Japan raised unreasonable demands once again. Bowing to its threat, the KMT government sent Qin Dechun, Chahar"s acting provincial chairman, to negotiate with Kenji Doihara, head of the Japanese secret service agency in Shenyang, and signed the Qin-Doihara Agreement.
Meanwhile, Japan interfered wantonly in China"s efforts to improve relations with the US and the UK. In April 1934 the Foreign Ministry"s Intelligence Agency claimed that if China tried to use other countries to shut Japan out, Japan would have to attack.
In October 1935 Hirota put forward three principles regarding the Japanese-Chinese relationship: 1. China should ban anti-Japanese activities completely, and rather than relying on the US and the UK, it should adopt a pro-Japanese policy; 2. China should formally recognize the Manchukuo, and realize tripartite economic cooperation among China, Japan and Manchukuo in north China; 3. Japan and China should carry out anti-Communist cooperation. The three principles would actually put China under Japan"s military, political and economic control.
Establishment of a fascist regime in Japan
Following the February 26 Incident in 1936, the right-wing army faction in charge of Japan"s government named Hirota Prime Minister.
