Keisuke Okada

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Okada Keisuke
Keisuke Okada

Prime Minister of Japan


In office
8 July 1934 – 9 March 1936
Preceded by Saito Makoto
Succeeded by Hirota Koki

Born 20 January 1868
Kochi, Kochi Prefecture, Japan
Died 17 October 1952

Keisuke Okada (岡田 啓介 Okada Keisuke ?), (20 January 186817 October 1952) was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy, politician and the 31st Prime Minister of Japan from 8 July 1934 to 9 March 1936.

Okada was born in what is now Fukui Prefecture to an ex-samurai family. He attended the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy and Naval War College, subsequently serving in the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War. He was promoted to admiral and commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet in 1924. In 1927, he became Navy Minister in the administration of Tanaka Giichi, but resigned in 1929 to assume the post of military councillor.

Okada was one of the few supporters of the arms reduction treaty resulting London Naval Conference of 1930, of which he helped negotiate, and worked hard for its ratification. He again served as Navy Minister in the Saito Makoto cabinet of 1932,

In July 1934, he was named Prime Minister of Japan. He was one of the democratic and moderate voices against the increasing strength of the militarists, and was therefore a major target for extremist forces pushing for a more totalitarian Japan. He narrowly escaped assassination in the February 26 Incident of 1936. Thinking that he had been killed, his cabinet resigned en masse in protest on 27 February 1936. Okada himself emerged from hiding, and resigned on 28 February 1936.

During World War II, Okuda played a leading role in the overthrow of the Hideki Tojo cabinet in 1944

[edit] References

  • Bix, Herbert B. Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. Harper Perennial (2001). ISBN 0-06-093130-2
  • Brendon, Piers. The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the 1930s. Vintage; Reprint edition (2002). ISBN 0-375-70808-1

[edit] External links

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