Mitsumasa Yonai (2 March 1880 – 20 April 1948) was Prime Minister of Japan from January to July 1940, succeeding Nobuyuki Abe and preceding Fumimaro Konoe. He also served as Minister of the Navy on numerous occasions.
Biography[]
Mitsumasa Yonai was born on 2 March 1880 in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture, Japan. He served in administrative positions in the Imperial Japanese Navy during the Russo-Japanese War, and Yonai rose in the ranks of the navy in the Interwar Years. From December 1936 to February 1937 he was commander of the Combined Fleet after Sankichi Takahashi and preceding Osami Nagano, while he served as Minister of the Navy several times. Yonai was made Prime Minister in January 1940, and he opposed the Tripartite Pact with Nazi Germany and Italy, and he had a pro-United Kingdom and pro-United States viewpoint. After World War II's end, he helped in the prosecution of war criminals and devoted the rest of his life to the reconstruction of Japan, dying in 1948 of pneumonia.