Fumimaro Konoe

Konoe, Fumimaro 

Born Oct. 12, 1891, in Kyoto; died Dec. 16, 1945, in Tokyo. Prince, Japanese statesman.

From 1933 to 1937, Konoe was chairman of the House of Peers. From June 1937 to January 1939 he was the prime minister of Japan. In July 1937 his government began a war to conquer all of China. In 1938 it organized an armed attack on the USSR in the region of Lake Khasan. In 1938, with the slogan that the New Order was to be built in Asia, the Konoe government announced a policy of aggression by Japan in Asia From July 1940 to October 1941 he again occupied the post of prime minister. After political parties were dissolved in 1940, he was the organizer and first president of the Imperial Rule Assistance Association. In September 1940 the Konoe government signed a treaty of alliance, the aggressive Tripartite Pact, with Germany and Italy. After the capitulation of Japan in World War II (1945), Konoe committed suicide.