Kōki Hirota

First diplomatic career

After graduation, Hirota entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to become a career diplomat, and he served in a number of overseas posts. In 1923, he became director of the Europe and America Department of the Foreign Ministry. After he was minister to the Netherlands, he was ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1928 to 1932.

In 1933, Hirota became Foreign Minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Saitō Makoto, just after Japan had withdrawn from the League of Nations. He retained the position in the subsequent cabinet of Admiral Keisuke Okada.

Upon assuming the post, Hirota explicitly pursued a stated policy of Harmony Diplomacy (Kyōwa Gaikō) to stabilize Japan's international isolation. He attempted to negotiate with the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, and China to ease tensions, believing diplomacy should embrace "the great spirit of international harmony." Despite these diplomatic efforts, Western powers, including the Roosevelt administration, remained distrustful of Japan's expansion and ignored his attempts at securing treaties.

As Foreign Minister, Hirota negotiated the purchase of the Chinese Eastern Railway in Manchuria from Soviet interests. He also promulgated the Hirota Sangensoku (the Three Principles by Hirota) on 28 October 1935 as the definitive statement of Japan's position towards China. The three principles were the establishment of a Japan–China–Manchukuo bloc, the organization of a Sino-Japanese common front against the spread of communism, and the suppression of anti-Japanese activities within China. These principle marked a sharp turn in Hirota's diplomacy, essentially acting as an official recognition of the Army's actions in North China, reversing any hopes for reconciliation. Hirota argued that warlordism and Chinese Communism represented a "festering sore deep down in the bosom of Eastern Asia" that threatened "all Asian races with sure and inescapable death" and considered further military engagement in China to be "heroic surgery," rather than invasion.

Premiership (1936–1937)

In 1936, following the failed 26 February incident, the Tōseiha's political control was empowered further over the civilian government. Hirota was selected to replace Okada as Prime Minister of Japan under this military supremacy. Hirota placated the military by reinstating the system by which only active-duty Army or Navy officers (see Minister of War Military Attache System) could serve in the Cabinet posts of war minister or navy minister. The military, via the institution of the Imperial General Headquarters, had abused the system in the past to bring down civilian governments.

During his premiership, Hirota oversaw the signing of the Anti-Comintern Pact in November 1936. He aggressively sought to have Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Government join this anti-communist alliance to achieve a "Sino-Japanese partnership." However, when China rejected this demand, Hirota's vision for an anti-communist partnership collapsed

Hirota's term lasted for slightly less than a year. He resigned after a disagreement with Hisaichi Terauchi, who was serving as the war minister, over a speech by the Rikken Seiyūkai representative Kunimatsu Hamada criticizing military interference in politics. Kazushige Ugaki was appointed as his successor but was unable to form the government because of army opposition. In February 1937, Senjūrō Hayashi was appointed to replace Hirota as prime minister.

Second diplomatic career

Hirota soon returned to government service as foreign minister under Hayashi's successor, Prince Fumimaro Konoe. By the time of the Trautmann mediation in early 1938, the rational diplomat of 1933 had been entirely subsumed by the militaristic environment. When deciding the fate of the peace negotiations, Hirota aggressively allied with military hardliners like War Minister Sugiyama to terminate the mediation, overriding the caution of military moderates like General Tada. He eventually retired in 1938.

In 1945, however, Hirota returned to government service to lead Japanese peace negotiations with the Soviet Union. At the time, Japan and the Soviet Union were still under a non-aggression pact even though all other Allied Powers had declared war on Japan. Hirota attempted to persuade Joseph Stalin's government to stay out of the war, but the Soviet Union ultimately declared war on Japan in between the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Postwar

Following Japan's surrender, Hirota was arrested as a Class A war criminal and brought before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE). He offered no defense and was found guilty of the following charges:

• Count 1 (waging wars of aggression, and war or wars in violation of international law)
• Count 27 (waging unprovoked war against the Republic of China)
• Count 55 (disregard for duty to prevent breaches of the laws of war)

He was sentenced to death by hanging and was executed at Sugamo Prison. The severity of his sentence remains controversial, as Hirota was the only civilian executed as a result of the IMTFE proceedings.

As foreign minister, Hirota had received regular reports from the War Ministry about the military's atrocities, such as the Nanjing Massacre, but lacked any authority over the offending military units themselves. Nonetheless, the tribunal condemned Hirota's failure to insist for the Japanese Cabinet act to put an end to the atrocities.

Hirota was a civilian bureaucrat and was popular among the public, which led to a petition for a reduced sentence gathering 29,985 signatures in Japan. Even today, his name is often mentioned when the Tokyo Trials are debated in Japan as a "victor's justice" trial. Generally, he is often portrayed as a minister who was opposed to the war but unable to resist pressure from the military. He is also the protagonist of the novel and drama "Rakujitsu Moyu" ("The Setting Sun Burns").

Honours

• Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure (1933)
• Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun (1934)