World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseHachiro Arita was born in Mano-cho (now a part of Sado city) on Sado island, Niigata Prefecture, Japan in 1884. His father was Katsura Yamamoto, a doctor of Chinese medicine. Arita took on the surname of Arita after his adoptive parents. He attended the Waseda Junior High School in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan and then the First Higher School in Bunkyo, Tokyo. He graduated from Tokyo Imperial University Law School in 1909, and following his older adoptive brother Teijiro Arita's footsteps, he entered government service by joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (his brother had been with the Ministry of Agriculture and later a member of the Diet of Japan). In 1919, he served as a member of the Japanese delegation to the Versailles Peace Treaty. During the 1920s and 1930s, he served abroad in various capacities in China (as member of Mukden consulate) Hawaii, Austria (as ambassador), Belgium (as ambassador), and China (as ambassador) interrupted by a period in Japan as the Vice Foreign Minister between 1932 and 1933. In 1936, he was made the Foreign Minister under Prime Minister Koki Hirota, and would remain in this role under later Prime Ministers Fumimaro Konoe, Kiichiro Hiranuma, and Mitsumasa Yonai. From 1938, he was a member of the House of Peers and the Diet of Japan. He was considered to be a member of the "Euro-American Cooperation" and the "Asia" cliques. Although some considered him to be the father of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere concept, he was viewed by his peers as a pacificist who advocated an anti-Communist stance alongside of Chiang Kaishek of China and voiced disapproval with the Tripartite Pact. He had little to no influence in Japanese foreign policy decisions during the remainder of WW2. After the war, he won a seat in the House of Representatives in 1953. In 1955 and again in 1959, he ran for the office of the Governor of Tokyo, losing both times. He passed away in 1965 and was buried at the Tama Cemetery in Tokyo, Japan.

Photographs

Hachiro Arita Timeline