Ichirō Hatoyama
Ichirō Hatoyama (鳩山 一郎, Hatoyama Ichirō, 1 January 1883 – 7 March 1959) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1954 to 1956. During his tenure he oversaw the formation of the Liberal Democratic Party and restored official relations with the Soviet Union.
Not to be confused with Iichirō Hatoyama.
Ichirō Hatoyama
Genji Matsuda
Makoto Saito (acting)
1 January 1883
Tokyo City, Empire of Japan
7 March 1959 (aged 76)
Bunkyō, Japan
Liberal Democratic (1955–1959)
Rikken Seiyūkai (1915–1940)
Japan Liberal Party (1945–1948)
Democratic Liberal Party (1948–1950)
Liberal Party (1950–1953)
Liberal Party–Hatoyama (1953)
Liberal Party (1953)
Japan Democratic Party (1954–1955)
Kaoru
Iichiro
Yuriko
Reiko
Setsuko
Keiko
Nobuko
Hatoyama was born in Tokyo into a prominent and cosmopolitan family. After graduating from Tokyo Imperial University he soon entered political life and was first elected to the Diet in 1915 as a member of the Seiyukai political party. He served as chief cabinet secretary under Giichi Tanaka and minister of education under Tsuyoshi Inukai and Makoto Saitō. He was one of the leading members of the Seiyukai prior to its dissolution in 1940. During the Pacific War he opposed the cabinet of Hideki Tōjō.
After the war Hatoyama founded and led the Liberal Party which became the largest party in the first post-war election. He was expected to become prime minister, but was purged by the American occupation authorities on the eve of taking office and handed over the leadership to Shigeru Yoshida. After being released from the purge in 1951 he was in conflict with Yoshida who declined to cede the leadership back. He finally became prime minister after ousting Yoshida in 1954.
In 1955, the Democratic Party led by Hatoyama and the Liberal Party formerly led by Yoshida merged to form the Liberal Democratic Party, which has dominated Japanese politics ever since. Hatoyama pursued negotiations that led to the Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956, ending the formal state of war ongoing since the Soviet declaration of war on Japan in 1945, and restoring diplomatic relations between the two countries. Hatoyama resigned after this achievement, having long been of declining health.
A member of the Hatoyama family, he was the grandfather of Yukio Hatoyama, who served as prime minister from 2009 to 2010.
Early life[edit]
Ichirō Hatoyama was born in Tokyo, on New Year's Day of 1883, the eldest son of Kazuo Hatoyama and Haruko Hatoyama. His name indicated his status as the first born son in Japanese. Ichirō had an elder half-sister, Kazuko, and a younger brother Hideo, who became a noted jurist.[1]
Their family been samurai sworn to the Miura clan before the Meiji Restoration. Kazuo Hatoyama was among a group of students selected by the government to study in America in 1875. He graduated from Columbia University and Yale Law School. After returning to Japan, he became a lawyer, educator and politician. Haruko was an educator who helped found Kyoritsu Women's Vocational School in 1886.[2]
Ichirō Hatoyama received much of his early education from his mother. From early on Hatoyama was encouraged to pursue a political career and he readily accepted this ambition. His father was elected to the House of Representatives in 1894 and was its Speaker from 1896 to 1897.[2]
Hatoyama attended First Higher School and afterwards studied law at Tokyo Imperial University. After graduating in 1907 he began working in his father's law office. The following year he married Kaoru, the daughter of Sakae Terada, a judge who later became a politician and an executive of the Gen'yōsha. Her mother was a niece of Haruko Hatoyama.[2]
Wartime period[edit]
Hatoyama opposed the trend towards military government. He led his faction to absent itself in protest against the expulsion of Takao Saitō for an anti-militarist speech. He resisted the dissolution of political parties and the formation of the Imperial Rule Assistance Association (IRAA) in 1940. [5]
Hatoyama ran in the 1942 general election as a "non-endorsed" candidate, meaning he was not endorsed by the IRAA, but won his election anyway. Shared opposition to the Tojo cabinet brought him together with his old rival Bukichi Miki, who also ran and won as a non-endorsed candidate. Like most non-endorsed candidates elected, they were compelled to join the Imperial Rule Assistance Political Association when all other parliamentary caucuses were suppressed shortly after the election, but continued to resist from within. In November 1942, Hatoyama's son Iichirō married Yasuko Ishibashi, the daughter of Bridgestone founder Shojiro Ishibashi. Ishibashi became an important financial backer for Hatoyama.[2]
As time went on, the prospects for resisting the cabinet seemed more and more futile. When fellow Diet member Bin Akao was expelled from the Imperial Rule Assistance Political Association for publicly rebuking Tojo in June 1943, Hatoyama and others decided to leave in solidarity. This practically made further political activities impossible, so Hatoyama decided to retire to his summer house in Karuizawa. Before leaving Tokyo he made a pledge with Miki that they would cooperate to rebuild Japan after the war. In Karuizawa he devoted himself to farming and study, but he also took part in plans surrounding Shigeru Yoshida and Fumimaro Konoe for an early peace with Britain and the United States.[2][9][10]
From the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia