Kōichi Kido

Marquis Koichi Kido (木戸幸一, Kido Kōichi)(July 18 1889 - April 6 1977), grandson of Kido Takayoshi, served as Lord Privy Seal from 1940 to 1945, and was Emperor Hirohito's closest advisor throughout World War II. He was also one of the more cautious advisors to the emperor at the beginning of the war, and one of the chief advocates of peace at the end. Throughout his time as official Imperial advisor, and for years afterwards, one of his chief motives was consistently to protect the honor of the emperor, and of the other top government officials. Even as he advocated surrender, he supported the notion that all had performed their duty in fighting, as well as in surrender, and that none should be declared war criminals by the Japanese government (or in the name of the emperor).

Cabinet Positions held by Kido Koichi:
Prime Minister	Position Held	From	Until
Prince Konoye	Minister of Education	Oct 22, 1937	May 26, 1938
Prince Konoye	Minister of Welfare	Jan 11, 1938	Jan 5, 1939
Kiichiro Hiranuma	Minister of Home Affairs	Jan 5, 1939	Aug 30, 1939

Among many other things, of course, Kido is known to have advised the emperor against attacking the Dutch East Indies in 1941, explaining that such an attack might provoke the US into war, and that any oil obtained by taking the East Indies would still have to be transported, and would be subject to blockades and attacks by plane and submarine. Kido also claimed after the war that the emperor was never aware of the plans to attack Pearl Harbor until after the attack occurred. Four years later, at the end of the war, Kido was one of the chief proponents of the surrender, and of the idea that the emperor needed to deliver a speech himself in order to ensure that all civilians and military would cease fighting. Kido was in many ways not only the chief advisor to the emperor, he was also a liaison between the emperor and the government, and a representative of the Japanese government to the Allied Occupation Forces. He advised General MacArthur on many aspects of the logistics surrounding the surrender, the end of the war, and the Occupation of Japan.

After the war, Marquis Kido was tried as a Class A War Criminal. He tried to take all the responsibility for imperial decisions advocating war unto himself, protecting the emperor, but was convinced to abandon this tactic soon afterwards. His personal diary, kept in detail since 1930, was voluntarily turned over to the prosecution, and became a famous and important document in determining what occurred within the Japanese government during the war. None of the lengthy interrogations of Kido were ever entered into direct evidence, however, and in his testimony as well as the parts of the diary released to the public, he never quoted the Emperor's exact words.

He was succeeded as Lord Privy Seal by Hisanori Fujita, and was, as a result of the international tribunal, sentenced to life imprisonment. Kido was then called upon, from prison, to participate in the continuing Tokyo War Crimes Trials in 1947-8, advising the defendants, and acting as a witness.

In 1951, as the Occupation was ending, Kido sent a message to the emperor, advising him as he had advised him three years earlier, to accepting responsibility for the defeat and abdicate, at the end of the occupation. In addition, further seeking to protect the honor of the emperor, Kido is said to have opposed the idea of punishing war criminals under Japanese law, that is, in the name of the emperor. According to his diary, "those called war criminals by the enemy's standards, especially those in responsble positions, were all performing loyal duties, and to punish them in the name of the emperor would be unbearable" (Dower 477).

In 1953, due to health problems, Kido was released from prison, and returned to Japan, where he lived until 1977, when he died at age 88.

References

Dower, John W. (1999). "Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II." New York: W.W. Norton & Company
Spackman, Chris (2002-4). Encyclopedia of Japanese History. Accessed 24 Dec 2004.