Yōsuke Matsuoka
| Yōsuke Matsuoka 松岡 洋右 |
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|---|---|
Plenipotentiary Yōsuke Matsuoka, circa 1933
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| Born |
March 3, 1880 Hikari, Yamaguchi, Japan |
| Died | June 26, 1946 (aged 66) Sugamo Prison, Tokyo, Japan |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Occupation | Diplomat, Cabinet Minister |
Yōsuke Matsuoka (松岡 洋右 Matsuoka Yōsuke?, March 3, 1880 – June 26, 1946) was a Japanese diplomat and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Empire of Japan during the early stages of World War II. He is best known for his defiant speech at the League of Nations in 1933, ending Japan's participation in the organization. He was also one of the architects of the Tripartite Pact and the Japanese–Soviet Non-aggression Pact in the years immediately prior to the outbreak of war.
Matsuoka was born as the fourth son to a shipping magnate in Kumage District, Yamaguchi Prefecture (now part of the city of Hikari). At the age of 11, his father’s business went bankrupt, and Matsuoka was sent to the United States with a cousin in 1893 under the sponsorship of Methodist missionaries to study English. He settled in Portland, Oregon, living initially at the Methodist Mission, and was subsequently taken into the household of the widower William Dunbar, which included Dunbar's son Lambert, and Dunbar's sister, Mrs. Isabelle Dunbar Beveridge. Mrs. Beveridge served as a foster mother to Matsuoka and helped him adjust to American society. Matsuoka's affection for her lasted well after he returned to Japan. She died in 1906.
While living at Mrs. Beveridge, Matsuoka became a Presbyterian Christian, being baptized by a Rev. Kawabe. His biographer Lu comments however that "Still, the requirement of unquestioned submission to one God remained alien to him. Religion to him was a mere cultural milieu. While in America, he was happy to be a Christian and become part of its culture. Back in Japan, he was equally conformable playing homage to the Buddha statues in a Shin temple in Murozumi, much to the delight of his mother. As a foreign minister he was remembered for his obsessive desire to worship at Ise and other Shinto shrines. Viewing religion as he did, Matsuoka found no contradiction in these actions."
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