Anami Korechika

Anami Korechika (1887–1945) Japanese general, vice minister of war, and militarist Anami was an important Japanese general, who, as vice minister of war in the cabinet of Prince Konoye Fumimaro, led the faction that elevated General Tojo Hideki to power as Japan's generalissimo in October 1941. In the field, Anami commanded the Eleventh Army in China and the Second Area Army in Manchukuo. When portions of the Second Area Army were transferred to New Guinea in November 1943, Anami took command there. He was appointed inspector general of the army in December 1944 as well as chief of the army's aviation department, then was made minister of war in the cabinet of Suzuki Kantaro in April 1945. Unlike many of his military colleagues, Anami was not an uncompromising fanatic. Well aware that Japan had lost the war militarily, he struggled with what he saw as irreconcilable alternatives: continued war and certain total destruction versus a logical, humane peace, which, however, entailed a dishonorable surrender. His emotional and moral dilemma prompted him, on the one hand, to express sympathy for those who vowed to defy Emperor Hirohito's decision to surrender, yet, on the other hand, to refuse to support any action against the decision. This lack of support ensured the failure of the attempted coup d'état by a cabal of junior officers, who, on August 14, 1945, raided the royal palace to find and destroy the emperor's recorded surrender message, which was to be broadcast the next day. As soon as he had confirmed the failure of the coup, Anami committed seppaku, the ritual suicide of the traditional Japanese warrior. The note he left explained that his death had been offered in expiation of the army's sins and failures. In the absence of Anami's leadership, the army quietly acquiesced in Japan's surrender. Further reading: Edgerton, Robert B. Warriors of the Rising Sun: A History of the Japanese Military. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1999; Manning, Paul. Hirohito: The War Years. New York: Bantam, 1989; Toland, John. The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936–1945. New York: Modern Library, 2003.