Who was this person?
A politician of the Taishō and early Shōwa periods who served as prime minister. Born in Kōchi, he went from Finance Ministry official to politician and became the first president of the Rikken Minseitō. As prime minister he carried out the lifting of the gold embargo and austerity, and concluded the London Naval Treaty, but he was attacked at Tokyo Station in 1930 and died the next year from his wounds. He was called the "Lion Premier."
| Name | Hamaguchi Osachi (濱口雄幸) |
|---|---|
| Born–died | 1870 – 1931 |
| Period | Meiji–Shōwa |
| Birthplace | Tosa Province (Kōchi Prefecture) |
| Main achievements |
|
He was born in a mountain village in Nagaoka district, Tosa Province (Kōchi), the youngest of three brothers in the Minakuchi family, who worked in forestry. According to his elder brother, as a small child he was very timid, unable even to catch the fireflies that flew by on summer nights, and terribly afraid of thunder. It was a boyhood hard to imagine from his later dignified bearing.
He married Natsu, eldest daughter of Hamaguchi Gitatsu, a wealthy man of Tano village in Kōchi, and became heir to the Hamaguchi family. From middle school in Kōchi he went on to the Third Higher Middle School in Kyoto, where he was taught English by Dan Takuma, later a central figure of Mitsui. His classmates there included Shidehara Kijūrō, who would later work with him as foreign minister.
He studied political science in the law faculty of the Imperial University, graduated third in his class and joined the Ministry of Finance. Earnest with a strong sense of justice, he is said to have clashed fiercely with the minister's secretary over the budget when he was head of the accounts section. He disliked politics done through backroom dealings at restaurants and became known for principled work.
After serving as head of the Monopoly Bureau and vice minister of communications, he became vice minister of finance. Knowing the flow of the nation's money thoroughly as an official became the basis of his later efforts to restore public finances as finance minister and prime minister. Because of his honest work, he is said to have received offers to become an executive of large companies.
Leaving the civil service, he joined the Rikken Dōshikai party and won election to the House of Representatives, becoming a politician. When the Dōshikai was reborn as the Kenseikai, he supported party leader Katō Takaaki as one of its three senior figures, with Wakatsuki Reijirō and Adachi Kenzō. Aiming for politics in which parties held power, he devoted himself to work in the Diet.
He became finance minister in Katō Takaaki's cabinet. He pursued austerity, cutting state spending as far as possible and tightening the use of public money. Later he also served as home minister in Wakatsuki Reijirō's cabinet. Because of his powerful speeches and dignified face, he later came to be called the Lion Premier.
When the Kenseikai and the Seiyū Hontō merged to form the Rikken Minseitō, he was chosen as its first president. Competing with the other major party, the Rikken Seiyūkai, the Minseitō became one of the two great parties carrying party government. As the face of the party, Hamaguchi prepared to take power.
After Tanaka Giichi's cabinet resigned, he became prime minister. He was the first prime minister born in the Meiji era and one of the few to become prime minister from the House of Representatives. As the first Japanese prime minister to do so, he spoke directly to the people about his policies over the radio, then a new medium, and called for their cooperation.
Appointing former Bank of Japan governor Inoue Junnosuke as finance minister, he carried out the policy of lifting the gold embargo, removing the ban on gold exports, and pressed austerity. He told the people it was temporary pain needed to escape the slump and rebuild the economy, but hit by the wave of the Great Depression that had just begun, Japan instead fell into a severe depression.
Together with Foreign Minister Shidehara Kijūrō he pursued diplomacy cooperating with the United States and Britain and concluded the London Naval Treaty limiting warships. Part of the navy and the opposition fiercely attacked the government for infringing the supreme command, but Hamaguchi overrode the opposition and secured approval of the treaty.
On a platform at Tokyo Station he was shot by a young right-wing man opposed to his policies and badly wounded. Hamaguchi is said to have told those around him that he was all right, and after major surgery he survived. It is said that the public had not been kept off the platform because Hamaguchi himself did not want to inconvenience people.
Before his wound had healed, he forced himself to appear in the Diet at the opposition's demand, but his condition worsened and he resigned as prime minister and as president of the Minseitō. He continued to recuperate, but an illness arising from the wound worsened and he died in the summer. His principled stance and politics of international cooperation are still spoken of together with the name Lion Premier.
A. A politician of the Taishō and early Shōwa periods who served as prime minister. Born in Kōchi, he went from Finance Ministry official to politician and became the first president of the Rikken Minseitō. As prime minister he carried out the lifting of the gold embargo and austerity, and concluded the London Naval Treaty, but he was attacked at Tokyo Station in 1930 and died the next year from his wounds. He was called the "Lion Premier."
A. Period: Meiji–Shōwa. Born in 1870, died in 1931.
A. Hamaguchi Osachi was born in Tosa Province (Kōchi Prefecture).
A. He was called the "Lion Premier" because of his lion-like appearance, with a sturdy build, thick eyebrows, and mane-like hair. His earnest character that never bent his convictions was also seen as fitting the nickname.
See also: Wikipedia (ja) / Wikipedia (en) / Wikipedia (fr) / Wikipedia (zh) / Wikidata
Follow this life (autoplay)Nagaoka HantarōMinakata KumagusuNishida KitarōHonda KōtarōShimamura HōgetsuSakai ToshihikoIzumi KyōkaMinobe Tatsukichi
People of the Taishō period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.