Background
Iwao Yamazaki was born on September 16, 1894 in Okawa, Saga, Japan.
巌 山崎
Iwao Yamazaki was born on September 16, 1894 in Okawa, Saga, Japan.
After his graduation in 1918 from the law school of Tokyo Imperial University, Iwao Yamazaki entered the Home Ministry. He subsequently transferred to the Ministry of Health, rising to the post of Director of Social Services. In 1938, he was appointed governor of Shizuoka Prefecture. He subsequently returned to the Home Ministry, and was Director of Public Works, followed by Director of Public Safety.
In 1940, succeeded Genki Abe as Superintendent-General of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, the highest ranking office in the police administration. From 1942-1943, he served as Deputy Home Minister under the Tojo administration, and also from 1944-1945 under the Suzuki Kantaro administration. In mid-1944, he was assigned as civilian administrator of Japanese-occupied Borneo, where he encouraged a policy of Japanization of the local inhabitants through education to bolster support for Imperial Japan’s war efforts.
Iwao Yamazaki resigned together with the rest of the cabinet in protest of the repeal of the Peace Preservation Laws on 9 October 1945 and was immediately placed on the purged list of those banned from holding government office.
Following the end of the occupation, Iwao Yamazaki was elected to a seat lower house of the Diet of Japan in the 1952 General Election under the Liberal Party. During the debate over the adoption of the post-war Constitution of Japan, he publicly speculated that it might be better for Japan to become a protectorate of the United States.
He served as chairman of the budgetary committee in 1957. In 1960, he was appointed to the cabinet of Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda as Minister of Home Affairs. Yamazaki also served as Chairman of the National Public Safety Commission. He was forced to resign in the aftermath of the assassination of Inejiro Asanuma, president of the Japan Socialist Party during a televised speech. Yamazaki retired thereafter from public life, and died in 1968 at the age of 73.
Yamazaki was associated with the politically conservative wing of the party after it became the Liberal Democratic Party and was a leading member of the faction led by Mitsujiro Ishii.
Heihachiro Yamazaki was a prominent member of the post-war Liberal-Democratic Party.
