World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseYosuke Matsuoka was born in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. In 1893, he traveled to the United States with a cousin and settled in Portland, Oregon. He initially lived at the Methodist Mission, then was taken in by widower William Dunbar and his family. Dunbar's sister, Mrs. Isabelle Beveridge, helped Matsuoka adjust to American society, and Matsuoka would speak fondly of her long after her death in 1906. He was raised a Christian by Mrs. Beveridge and remained religious for his stay in the United States. He attended the Atkinson Grammar School in Portland, taking on the English nickname Frank. He briefly lived in Oakland, California, United States and went to Oakland High School with his brother Kensuke Matsuoka. He returned to Portland to study law, working odd jobs to pay for his tuition. He graduated from the University Oregon law school in 1900.

ww2dbaseMatsuoka returned to Japan in 1902. He passed the foreign service examinations and entered foreign service. In 1904, he became the vice consul to the Japanese consulate in Shanghai, China. Through the following about 30 years, he rose through the ranks of foreign service. In 1933, he announced Japan's departure from the League of Nations after Japan was criticized for violating Chinese sovereignty in Manchuria, leading the Japanese delegation out of the assembly hall. He retired from foreign service in the 1930s and became the President of the South Manchurian Railroad. In 1940, he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe. In that role, he was among the primary supporters of Japan joining the Tripartite Pact, and pushed for a vision of a four-power partnership (Germany, Italy, Japan, and Russia) to counter the potential future British-American alliance. After realizing the relationship between Germany and Russia was irreconcilable, he orchestrated the Russo-Japanese non-aggression treaty in Apr 1941 without participation from Germany. In Jun 1941, Adolf Hitler persuaded Matsuoka in the idea of a Japanese front in the war against Russia. From that point on, Matsuoka lobbied heavily for the start of a Russo-Japanese war. Around this time, he also began to provoke the United States diplomatically, which alarmed Konoe, who wished to avoid any confrontation with the United States. In Jul 1941, Konoe's entire government resigned, and Konoe was immediately reappointed to the Prime Minister position; Konoe chose not to reappoint Matsuoka back to his position, choosing Admiral Teijiro Toyoda instead.

ww2dbaseMatsuoka was captured by the Allies in 1945 and was tried for war crimes. He died in 1946 before the trial was completed.

ww2dbase Matsuoka is now enshrined at the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, Japan. A memo written by Emperor Showa declassified in 2006 revealed that the former Emperor stopped visiting the shrine because the enshrinement of war criminals; "they even enshrined Matsuoka and [Toshio] Shiratori", he wrote.

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