Fumio Gotō Explained

Fumio Gotō
Native Name:後藤 文夫
Native Name Lang:ja
Office:Member of the House of Councillors
Term Start:24 April 1953
Term End:2 June 1959
Predecessor:Jinzo Iwao
Successor:Haruzo Murakami
Birth Date:7 March 1884
Birth Place:Ōita, Japan
Death Place:Tokyo, Japan
Party:Imperial Rule Assistance Association (1940–1945)
Otherparty:Independent (Before 1940)
Alma Mater:Tokyo Imperial University
Office1:Prime Minister of Japan
Acting
Monarch1:Shōwa
Predecessor1:Keisuke Okada
Successor2:Keisuke Okada
Termstart1:26 February 1936
Termend1:29 February 1936
Constituency:Oita

was a Japanese politician and bureaucrat, and briefly served as interim Prime Minister of Japan in 1936.

Biography

Born in Ōita Prefecture, Gotō was a graduate of the Law School of Tokyo Imperial University in 1909. During his early career in the 1920s, he worked in the Home Ministry, and was Director of Administration within the office of the Governor-General of Taiwan.

In the 1930s, Gotō was appointed to a seat in the House of Peers in the Diet of Japan. He served as Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries between 1932 and 1934 in the cabinet of Prime Minister Makoto Saitō, and was later Home Minister in the cabinet of Keisuke Okada.

Immediately after the 26 February Incident, Gotō served as acting Prime Minister while Prime Minister Okada was in hiding from his attempted assassins. He was chairman of the Taisei Yokusankai from 1941–1943, and under the administration of Hideki Tōjō, he served as a Minister of State.

Arrested by the American occupation authorities after the surrender of Japan, he was held in Sugamo Prison in Tokyo awaiting prosecution for war crimes, but was released in 1948 without trial. From April 1953 to June 1959, he served as a member of House of Councillors in the post-war Diet of Japan. He was appointed a Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun in November 1971.

Honours

From the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia

References