Korechika Anami (21 February 1887 – 15 August 1945) was the Minister of War of Japan from April to August 1945, succeeding Hajime Sugiyama and preceding Naruhiko Higashikuni. He committed seppuku after a failed coup d'état at the end of World War II.
Biography[]
Korechika Anami was born on 21 February 1887 in Taketa, Oita Prefecture, Japan. In 1905 he graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy as a lieutenant and from 1923 to 1925 led the Sakhalin Expeditionary Army during the Siberian Intervention of the Russian Civil War, occupying Sakhalin, then a part of the Russian Empire. In 1925, he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel, and in 1935 he was a Major-General; he was given the Japanese 109th Infantry Division during the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1938, and he supported militarism. In 1941, Anami supported Hideki Tojo's rise to power as the new Prime Minister of Japan, and in April 1945 he was made Minister of War under Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki. In August 1945, he did not support the failed coup against Emperor Hirohito, leading to the downfall of the coup plotters and the Japanese surrender. On 15 August 1945, Anami signed the surrender document before committing seppuku.