Teijirō Toyoda

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Teijiro Toyoda (豊田貞次郎; August 7, 1885 - November 21, 1961) was a naval commander of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.

In the early part of the conflict he served as Deputy Minister in the Marine, Commerce & Industry, and Foreign Affairs Ministries; he was also connected with the Mitsui industrial group, a Japanese zaibatsu.

Toyoda was considered a popular member in the Japanese official community in London. In addition to his connections with the Mitsui Group, he was considered a moderate. He was a supporter of Kiichiro Hiranuma's right-wing policies, and was an Imperial Japanese Navy representative in his group. Under Prime Minister Konoe Toyoda served as Minister for Foreign Affairs in 1941. Before the attack of Pearl Harbor he attempted to arrange direct US-Japan negotiations between Prime Minister Konoe and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but the negotiations failed to occur. In October 1941, the entire Konoe Cabinet resigned, with Toyoda resigning his role as Minister of Foreign Affairs.^[1]

-The following was translated from the Japanese Wikipedia.

豊田貞次郎

Teijiro Toyoda (August 7, 1885 to November 21, 1961) was a naval officer during the Taisho period until the Showa period, a politician, a businessman, and finally a naval commander of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. He was born in Wakayama prefecture.

Life History

Under the old system, he studied at Tennoji junior high school before entering the Tokyo foreign languages school where he studied English and graduated as the top student in the 33rd term. During the same period Admiral Fukubu Toyoda who lived in Oita prefecture graduated in 26th place but the two remained strangers until they finally met when they entered military academy. The world-wise Fukubu and highly intelligent Tejiro were completely opposite characters but during their advancement to Admiral they were known as the “two Toyodas” and a great deal was expected of them in the days to come. The Russo-Japanese war ended on November 1905 during the time of Toyoda’s graduation and he departed for the deep seas of south eastern Asia. He served on the ships Katori, Yayoi and Chitose during his time as a Sub-lieutenant and Lieutenant and improved his ability as a crewman on the Shikishima and Satsuma while training with artillery and torpedoes.

While advancing to Admiral in 1910, he studied an advanced artillery course at the naval academy as a second grade students for a year and during that year went to live in England. At his new post, he studied at Oxford University and then in 1914 was ordered to return to Japan after studying for two and a half years.

After his return to Japan, he was appointed as squad leader of the 4th squadron on the Hiei. During the later period of the First World War, Germany declared unrestricted submarine operations and attacked transport ships indiscriminately. This resulted in England requesting Japan to send ships to guard transport ships. The 4th squadron that Toyoda was serving with was sent to Sydney in 1917 as the main force of the special naval fleet. There they patrolled between Australia and New Zealand and Toyoda remained at his post to command operations from Sydney. He was promoted to Lieutenant Commander immediately before being sent to Australia. In the three years between 1920 and 1923, he completed a leader development course and was promoted to Commander.

In December 1917, after the safety of Australia was secured, the 3rd special naval fleet left. Toyoda returned to Japan and re-entered the naval academy where he studied for two years as a first-class student. Again, he graduated the top of his class as he had done since junior high school. Toyoda was generally regarded as an elite naval officer. After graduating, he was appointed as a central member of staff for naval affairs at the Naval Department. He served there for three years between 1920 and 1923.

After serving as an executive officer for six months on the Kongo, he headed for London in 1923 after being appointed military officer to the British embassy, a prestigious position. He lived in London for four years and was promoted to Captain. However, he was not ordered to return to Japan and moved on to a position as a member of the naval disarmament talks taking place in Geneva for the League of Nations. Eventually, he returned to Japan at the end of 1927. Due to his extensive period abroad, Toyoda was an expert on foreign affairs but knew little of the domestic situation within Japan and therefore often did not cooperate fully with the members of the disarmament talks. After returning to Japan, he held successive jobs as the Captain of the Abakuma and the Yamashiro and went to England again as a member of the London naval disarmament talks. Since the voiced opinions of the Fleet Admiral held more sway over the Navy, Toyoda, himself gave no opinion on the rights and wrongs of the treaty and therefore did not interfere. After the treaty was formed he returned to Japan and was promoted to Rear Admiral. In 1931 he was appointed as Admiral at Yokosuka naval base.

After six months of office at the base, Toyoda was dismissed from the position. Any documents detailing this dismissal do not remain today. However, it is supposed that the dismissal was caused by something Toyoda said to the Prince Hiroyasu Fushimi who had been newly appointed to lead the naval command. This was the first setback that the elite Toyoda had experienced, a man who would often say “I want to be a political Minister”.

Since his time at University, Toyoda who had barely studied military affairs was sent to flight navigation headquarters despite the fact that his expertise was in artillery. In November 1932, at the time of periodic personnel transfer, he was placed in charge of a weapon factory. Everyone thought that this was the end of Toyoda. However, Toyoda was dissatisfied with this role and renewed his efforts and waited for an opportunity with a positive outlook on the future. The weapon factory system was different from any ship building factory, in that it was a special military factory that mainly overhauled aircraft. Toyoda’s grasp of aircraft technology slowly increased but there was dissatisfaction within the factory because it was difficult to obtain the necessary tools and parts to improve the aircraft. Toyoda who had fallen into this position, clearly felt the distress in the factory and realized that he had to improve the productivity within the factory. This was the starting point of Toyoda’s service as a politician and businessman to the consistently advancing steel industry. In May 1934, he was chief of general affairs at the marine headquarters, February 1936, he was in charge of armaments, November 1938, he was chief of the aviation head quarters, and during 3 months in the summer of 1939, he joint managed the warship headquarters. In the 12th year he continued his duty at the forefront of military technology as chief at Sasebo naval base.

During his period at Sasebo, Toyoda was nominated to be the next Vice Admiral by the current Vice Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. Toyoda sent a reply to Yamamoto saying “I am placed in a superior position so there is no way that I am going to be the Vice Admiral” which greatly upset Yamamoto. The personnel department persuaded Yamamoto not to resign and the position of Vice Admiral that Toyoda was to be appointed to was disbanded. Instead a post very similar to it was created at the aviation and marine headquarters for Yamamoto. In 1940, Toyoda’s time in obscurity came to an end. Cabinet Minister Zengo Yoshida resigned due to illness and Tokutaro Sumiyama retired which brought about an opening for Toyoda to fulfill his dream. A conclusion to the pending problem of the Tripartite Pact with Japan, Germany and Italy was disregarded by the Fleet Admiral Furushiro Oikawa. Toyoda did not agree with the Tripartite Pact but the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Imperial Party and the army all agreed to the alliance and so the navy was alarmed it would be isolated if it did not agree. After the alliance was completed, the entire navy was against the alliance but they inevitably conceded to the political decision made by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe and to prioritize the stability of the country, they accepted the agreement. The idea of whether it was advantageous to fight against the US and England was a different issue and the responsibility of negotiating with the US was left to the Foreign Office. At the time, Toyoda did not even think that it would be him sitting in the Foreign Ministers chair and being held accountable for the decision.

Navy Minister Oikawa was over his head with this situation and enforced many government policies and craved the limelight by creating malicious gossip about himself and Toyoda. He would display portraits and name plates of past Naval Ministers in his room along with his own. Shibayoshi Inoue spoke of this jokingly saying that it was like the Nazi 5th column. When Isoroku Yamamoto declared his intentions to resign as Chief of the allied fleet, his successors were Mineichi Koga and Shigetaro Shimada. Nods of approval for the youthful Fukubu Toyoda and Teijiro Toyoda were also given in a letter written by Oikawa. Of course, Oikawa presented the first two names as the real successors and the two Toyoda’s as simply a joke.

In April 1941, the Prime Minister’s cabinet was reorganized and Toyoda was requested to become the Minister of Commerce and Industry. Under the present conditions only a naval officer could take up this post and so Toyoda who was the Navy Minister took the post. After careful consideration, Toyoda decided to leave the navy. Four days later he handed in his letter of resignation to the surprise of everyone around him. The letter of resignation was not accepted and it was finalized that he should be transferred to reserve duty the same day as his promotion to Admiral. Mineichi Koga who had switched to the world of politics spoke against Toyoda by saying “Mr Toyoda has simply used the navy as a stepping stone.” However, Toyoda expressed his point of view to his successor Yorio Sawamoto by saying “I came to the Naval Department despite having no fond memories of it.”

Toyoda who had risen to the position of Minister of Commerce and Industry was not allowed time to display his true role because after only a mere 3 months, he was replaced during a cabinet reshuffle. The main purpose of the reshuffle was to replace the reckless Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka. Matsuoka became disheartened and resigned due to problems with Germany and the Tripartite Pact. However, later Toyoda was recommended as successor for Minister of Foreign Affairs. At the time of the outcome of the alliance, he was assigned to a more conspicuous position which he firmly declined. Kichizaburo Nomura, who was Toyoda’s senior and also born at the same place, expected good results by cooperating with an ambassador stationed in the US and was pushed by the Cabinet into negotiations with the US. Toyoda became the Cabinets ambassador to the US and advanced his plans to hold a face to face meeting with President Franklin Roosevelt. However, the political measures of the US were heavy against Japan and ever increasing and the Cabinet and ministers abandoned the idea. This resulted in Toyoda resigning as Minister for Foreign Affairs. In the meantime, Japan discovered the large scale war plans by the Kwantung army and adopted diplomatic negotiations with the Soviet Union which was successful in preventing the Kwantung army with their plans.

After his resignation, Toyoda was employed as the director of Japan Steel. He was finally able to pursue his interest in improving iron and steel, a subject which he had shown much interest in since his navy days. Between the last half of 1941 and the first half of 1942, steel production decreased due to the lack of workers. A board of controllers for the steel industry was formed to overcome this problem and Toyoda assumed the role as head of the board. Work methods were improved for children who had graduated junior high school and Korean workers, as well as for those who had lost their job. A welfare program was also implemented for the workers. These improved work methods allowed steel production to keep up with the worsening conditions due to the war that created problems in maintaining the necessary amount of resources by ensuring that there was always a steady work force.

Toyoda remained distant from politics but on March 1943 he was called upon as a special adviser to the Cabinet. There was intense confrontation between the military and navy over the allocation percentage of war materials to each section and so Toyoda provided a formula to resolve this problem but it did not go according to plan. Toyoda once again became a minister during the Suzuki administration and was appointed as Minister for Transportation and Telecommunications as well as being responsible for military stores. However, Japan’s resources had been destroyed and Toyoda was unable to devote himself to this role.

After the war, members of the Cabinet were arrested for their participation in class A war crimes. However, Toyoda was not prosecuted at the Tokyo trials during the purge of public officials due to his efforts for peace by such methods as the US-Japan meeting plans with Roosevelt. After the war trials ended in 1958, Toyoda was appointed as the Japan-Usiminas Chairman of the Brazil steel joint venture development. After submerging himself into the steel industry, he spent the remainder of his life there. On November 21, 1961, he died of Kidney cancer at the age of 76.