Kantarō Suzuki was a Naval leader and statesman of the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa eras; he held the title of baron.
Background
Kantarō Suzuki was born on 18 January 1868. He was a son of a magistrate of the domain of Sekivado in present-day Chiba Prefecture and was born in the official residence in Izumi (present-day Osaka Prefecture) of the Kuze family, the lords of Sekiyado. His younger brother Suzuki Takao (1869-1964) became a general of the army.
Education
After attending Gumma Middle School for a time, he went to Tokyo, where he entered a school headed by Kondo Makoto, an expert on navigation and naval affairs. Later he attended the Naval Academy and graduated from the Naval Staff College.
Career
In 1889 he was commissioned an ensign in the navy. He was active in the Sino-Japanese War as commander of a torpedo boat and in 1895 played an important part in the attack on Wei-hai-wei. In 1898 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander; the following year, as a staff member of the Naval Ministry, he became an instructor in the Naval Staff College, at the same time teaching at the Military (Army) Staff College.
During the period from 1901 to 1904 he w'as a military officer in residence in Germany and later, as commander of the Kasvga, a warship purchased from England, he returned to Japan immediately after the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War. He was active during the war as commander of a destroyer flotilla. After the war he continued to serve as an instructor in the Naval Staff College and later headed a torpedo school and commanded various types of worships. In 1913 he was promoted to the rank of rear admiral and at the same time became commander of the torpedo force at Maizuru, becoming known in naval circles as an expert on torpedo warfare.
The same year he became head of the Personnel Section of the Naval Ministry and, in 1914, having attracted the notice of Yashiro Rokuro, minister of the navy in the Okuma cabinet, he was appointed vice-minister. In 1917 he advanced to the rank of vice-admiral and was made commander of the training fleet. Following this, he served as head of the Naval Academy, commander of the Second Fleet, of the Third Fleet, and of the Rure Naval Yard. In 1924 he became commander of the Combined Fleet and in 1925 assumed the important post of chief of the naval general staff. In 1929 he entered the reserve and was appointed to serve at court as grand chamberlain and advisor to the Privy Council. During the following seven years or more, he served close to the emperor. He was attacked and seriously wounded during the young army officers’ uprising on February 26, 1936, but managed to escape with his life. In 1940 he became vice-president of the Privy Council and in 1944, president.
In 1945, when Japan w'as suffering grave losses in the Pacific War, he was unanimously recommended by the high officials in the government and at court for the post of prime minister and replaced Koiso Kuniaki in that post, forming a new cabinet. Though outwardly advocating that Japan continue its struggle even on home soil, he secretly held hopes that peace could be arranged through the intervention of the Soviet Union and worked toward that end. In July of the same year, he announced that Japan w'ould ignore the Potsdam Declaration issued by Britain, America, and China calling for Japan’s unconditional surrender. August brought the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet Union’s entry into the war. On August 14, Suzuki, following the decision of the emperor, agreed to accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, and on August 15, after the emperor had announced the conclusion of the war over the radio, he and his cabinet resigned. For half a year in 1946 he once more served as president of the Privy Council.