Kazushige Ugaki
Kazushige Ugaki (1868-1956) was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, leader of the Control faction (toseiha), and a Cabinet officer. He was Vice War Minister in 1923, and War Minister in the 1924 Kiyoura cabinet, and held that post through the first Wakatsuki cabinet and the first and second Kato cabinets, reducing arms in 1925.[1]
He was re-elected as War Minister in the Hamaguchi cabinet in 1929, but resigned from the post due to his involvement in the March Incident of 1931, which was intended to install him as Prime Minister. [2] Part of his decision against a coup came from discussions with Teiichi Suzuki, the direct subordinate of Tetsuzan Nagata. Ugaki's arrest was one of the demands of the coup leaders of the February 26, 1936 Incident.
He was made governor general of Korea between 1931 and 1936. In 1937, he was asked to form a government but was unable to get cooperation from the Army. He became, in 1938, Foreign Minister and Minister of Colonial Department in the first Konoe cabinet, and attempted to make peace with China.
After the war, he was in the Upper house of the Diet from 1953 to his death.[3]
References
- ↑ Ugaki, Kazushige, National Diet Library
- ↑ War Responsibility--delving into the past (1) / Who should bear the most blame for the Showa War?, Yomiuri Shimbun
- ↑ David Bergamini (1971), Japan's Imperial Conspiracy, Morrow, p. 11041