Hotsumi Ozaki (尾崎 秀実 Ozaki Hotsumi, April 29, 1901 – November 7, 1944) was a Japanese journalist working for the Asahi Shinbun newspaper, communist, spy, and an advisor to Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe. The only Japanese person to be hanged for treason (under the guise of the Peace Preservation Law) by the Japanese government during World War II, Ozaki is well known as an informant of the spy Richard Sorge. He wrote letters published to his wife and daughter while imprisoned, Love is like a Shower of Stars.
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Ozaki was born in what is now the town of Shirakawa, Gifu Prefecture, and a descendant of a samurai family.[1] His family relocated to Taiwan when he was a youth, and he grew up in Taipei. He returned to Japan in 1922, and enrolled in the Legal department of Tokyo Imperial University. Appalled by the actions of the government in the aftermath of the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake he turned to Marxism.[1] He left school without graduating in 1925, after becoming involved in the activities of the Japan Communist Party. In 1926, he joined the Asahi Shimbun newspaper,[1] where he wrote articles on Soviet leaders Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin. He was transferred to the Osaka Mainichi Shimbun the following year.
From November 1928, Ozaki was dispatched to Shanghai in China, where he soon made contact with members of the Chinese Communist Party, including Agnes Smedley, and other members of the Comintern leadership based in Shanghai. Smedley introduced him to Richard Sorge in 1930.[1] After his return to Japan, he moved back to Tokyo in 1934 where he linked up with Sorge.
By writing books and articles Ozaki established himself as an expert in Sino-Japanese relations. Thus he was recruited by Ryūnosuke Gotō in 1937 to join the Shōwa Kenkyūkai, a think tank established by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe. From 1938, he was invited by Konoe to become a member of his inner circle, or “Breakfast Club”, of select members with whom he would confer on current events each week over breakfast. Ozaki, therefore, was in a position to participate in the making of decisions he was supposed to uncover.[1] Ozaki learned that Japan wanted to avoid a war with the Soviet Union, information that Sorge relayed to Moscow. On July 2, 1941 Ozaki as a member of the "Breakfast Club" supported a critical decision for Japanese expansion towards the Dutch East Indies and Singapore and against Hitler's request to invade Siberia.[1] He was outspoken in his opposition and concerns with regards to the decision reached at the Gozen Kaigi conference of September 6, 1941 that war with the United States was unavoidable.
On October 15, 1941, Ozaki was arrested in conjunction with the Sorge Incident. During his trial, it was revealed that Ozaki had been working with Sorge since his return to Japan, and that through his close contacts with Konoe and other senior Japanese politicians, was able to gather information and to copy secret documents. Ozaki was executed on November 7, 1944.