Fumimaro Konoe

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Junior Second Rank Prince Fumimaro Konoe
近衞 文麿
Prime Minister of Japan
In office 16 July 1940 – 18 October 1941
Monarch	Hirohito
Preceded by	Mitsumasa Yonai
Succeeded by	Hideki Tojo
In office 4 June 1937 – 5 January 1939
Monarch	Hirohito
Preceded by	Senjūrō Hayashi
Succeeded by	Kiichirō Hiranuma
Personal details
Born	(1891-10-12)12 October 1891 Tokyo, Empire of Japan
Died	16 December 1945(1945-12-16) (aged 54) Tekigai-sō, Tokyo, Allied-occupied Japan
Cause of death	Suicide by cyanide
Political party	Imperial Rule Assistance Association (1940–1945)
Other political affiliations	Independent (Before 1940)
Spouse	Konoe Chiyoko (1896–1980)
Parent(s)	Konoe Atsumaro Maeda Sawako
Education	First Higher School Tokyo Imperial University
Alma mater	Kyoto Imperial University
Signature
Japanese name
Kanji	近衞 文麿
Transcriptions Romanization Konoe Fumimaro

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Statism in Shōwa Japan
Organizations and factions Imperial Rule Assistance Association Imperial Rule Assistance Political Association Yokusan Sonendan National Spiritual Mobilization Movement League of Diet Members Supporting the Prosecution of the Holy War Great Japan Youth Party Shōwa Kenkyūkai Kōdōha Young Officers Movement Tōseiha National Foundation Society Black Ocean Society Cherry Blossom Society Japanese Committee on Trade and Information Fleet faction Yūzonsha
Events March Incident Mukden Incident Withdrawal from the League of Nations Imperial Colors Incident League of Blood Incident May 15 Incident Military Academy Incident Withdrawal from the Washington Naval Treaty February 26 Incident Marco Polo Bridge Incident State General Mobilization Law Tripartite Pact Formation of the Taisei Yokusankai Appointment of Hideki Tojo Pacific War Kyūjō incident Purge
Ideology Fascism Totalitarianism Statism Shintaisei Kokutai Yamato-damashii Bushido Gekokujō Ultranationalism Corporatism State capitalism Militarism State Shinto Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere Shōwa Restoration Hakkō ichiu Expansionism Propaganda Pan-Asianism
People Fumimaro Konoe Hideki Tojo Sadao Araki Ikki Kita Shūmei Ōkawa Nobusuke Kishi Nisshō Inoue Tanaka Chigaku Masanobu Tsuji Jinzaburō Masaki Kuniaki Koiso Hiranuma Kiichirō Kanji Ishiwara Kingoro Hashimoto
Atrocities Mass killings Nanjing Massacre Sook Ching Manila massacre Bataan Death March Hell ship Sexual slavery Use of chemical weapons Human experimentation Slavery Use of biological weapons
Media and literature Shinmin no Michi How Japan Plans to Win Momotaro: Sacred Sailors Momotarō no Umiwashi Moyuru ōzora The Most Beautiful "Ode of Showa Restoration"
Related American cover-up of Japanese war crimes International Military Tribunal for the Far East Japanese history textbook controversies Korean collaborators with Imperial Japan
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Prince Fumimaro Konoe (Japanese: 近衞 文麿, Hepburn: Konoe Fumimaro, 12 October 1891 – 16 December 1945) was a Japanese politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1937 to 1939 and from 1940 to 1941. He presided over the Japanese invasion of China in 1937 and the breakdown in relations with the United States, which ultimately culminated in Japan's entry into World War II. He also played a central role in transforming his country into a totalitarian state by passing the State General Mobilization Law and founding the Imperial Rule Assistance Association by dissolving all other political parties.

Born in Tokyo to a prominent aristocratic family, Konoe took up his father's seat in the House of Peers of the Imperial Diet in 1916. He was a member of the Japanese delegation at the Paris Peace Conference. In 1933, Konoe assumed the presidency of the House of Peers. In 1937, on the recommendation of his mentor Saionji Kinmochi, Konoe was appointed prime minister by Emperor Hirohito. The Marco Polo Bridge Incident took place a month after his appointment and escalated into full-scale warfare. Konoe oversaw Japanese victories during the early phase of the Second Sino-Japanese War and pushed through the State General Mobilization Law, placing the country on war-time footing. Konoe resigned as prime minister in 1939 as Chinese resistance continued and the war dragged on.

Konoe served as chairman of the Privy Council until 1940 when he was again appointed prime minister. The Imperial Rule Assistance Association was founded later that year, while Japan concluded the Tripartite Pact with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, launched an invasion of French Indochina and formally recognized Wang Jingwei's government in Nanjing. In 1941, Japan concluded the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact. Despite Konoe's attempts to resolve tensions with the United States, the rigid timetable imposed on negotiations by the military and his own administration's inflexibility set Japan on the path to war. Politically isolated, Konoe resigned as prime minister in October 1941 and was replaced by Hideki Tojo. Six weeks later the Pacific War broke out following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.

Konoe remained a close advisor to Hirohito until the end of World War II and played a role in the fall of Tojo cabinet in 1944. At the start of the Allied occupation of Japan, he served in the cabinet of Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni. After coming under suspicion of war crimes, Konoe committed suicide in December 1945, aged 54, by ingesting cyanide.