When one studies Japanese foreign policy of the 1930s, it is impossible to avoid Hirota Kôki, who twice served as foreign minister (1933–36, 1937–38) and once as prime minister (1936) during the decade. Hirota's forty-two month tenure as foreign minister far surpasses any other official of this period, and thus puts his personal stamp on Japanese diplomacy during the 1930s. Hirota's name conjures an image of a staunch pan-Asianist within the Foreign Ministry, but what most sets Hirota apart from other prewar Japanese statesmen was the fact that he was the only civilian to be sentenced to death as a Class A war criminal at the Tokyo War Crimes tribunal.
Many in Japan still view Hirota as the scapegoat demanded by the Chinese for the Nanjing Massacre. In this view, Hirota's only fault was his misfortune to be the foreign minister at the time, hence his tragic fate. This image...
