Osami Nagano
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Nagano Osami | |
|---|---|
| 15 June 1880 – 5 January 1947 | |
 Japanese Admiral Nagano Osami |
|
| Place of birth | Kochi, Kochi Prefecture |
| Place of death | Tokyo, Japan |
| Allegiance | Empire of Japan |
| Years of service | 1900–1947 |
| Rank | Fleet Admiral |
| Commands | Imperial Japanese Navy |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
Osami Nagano (永野修身 Nagano Osami?) (15 June 1880 – 5 January 1947) was a prominent leader of the Imperial Japanese Navy before and during World War II.
Nagano was born in Kochi to an ex-samurai family. A graduate of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy, Nagano studied at Harvard Law School in 1913 while serving as a language officer in the United States. Nagano became a military attaché to the United States in the early 1920s, in which capacity he attended the Washington Naval Conference.
Nagano later achieved the rank of admiral and was appointed to the Navy General Staff. As a representative of that body, he attended the London Naval Conference of 1930. Nagano subsequently served as the chief naval delegate to the London Naval Conference of 1935. Japan withdrew in protest from the 1935 conference after it was denied naval parity with the United States and Great Britain. Nagano and other navy hardliners used this as an excuse to implement plans to expand the size and power of the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1936. Nagano was appointed Minister of the Navy under Prime Minister Koki Hirota in 1936, and was appointed Commander in Chief of Combined Fleet in 1937.
In 1941, Nagano became Chief of the Naval General Staff. In this capacity, Nagano adopted Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's plan of attack against the United States Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor in case diplomatic negotiations failed and Japan and the United States eventually went to war. He supported the decision to wage war against the United States, Great Britain and the Netherlands. Nagano subsequently ordered the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Nagano was promoted to fleet admiral in 1943 and kept his position as Chief of the Naval General Staff throughout the majority of World War II. By 1944, however, Japan had suffered serious military setbacks and Nagano had lost the confidence of Emperor Hirohito. With the emperor's approval, Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and Navy Minister Shigetaro Shimada removed Nagano from his post and replaced him with Shimada. Nagano spent the remainder of the war as an advisor to the government.
Arrested by the American Occupation forces in 1945, Nagano, while standing before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East on “Class A” war criminal charges, assumed responsibility for the Pearl Harbor attack. Nagano died of a heart attack due to complications arising from pneumonia in Sugamo Prison in Tokyo before the conclusion of the trial in 1947.
