Teijirō Toyoda

Teijirō Toyoda (豊田 貞次郎, Toyoda Teijirō, August 7, 1885 – November 21, 1961) was a career naval officer who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs in 1941 and as admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.

Biography

Early life

Toyoda was born in

In December 1917, after the safety of Australia was secured, Toyoda returned to Japan and re-entered the Naval Staff College where he studied for two years as a first-class student. Again, he graduated the top of his class. After graduating with the rank of commander in 1920, he was appointed as a central member of staff for Naval Affairs at the Naval Department. He served for three years between 1920 and 1923.

Interwar years

After serving as executive officer for six months on Kongō, Toyoda returned to London in 1923 as a naval attaché. He lived in London for four years, during which time he was promoted to captain, and handled intelligence collected by paid-spy William Forbes-Sempill, Master of Sempill. He was then assigned as a member of the Japanese delegation to the League of Nations-sponsored Geneva Naval Conference. He returned to Japan at the end of 1927. Due to his extensive period abroad, Toyoda had become an expert on foreign affairs but knew little of the domestic situation within Japan and therefore often had conflicting views with the other members of his delegation at the disarmament talks.

After his return to Japan, Toyoda was assigned as captain of the cruiser Abukuma,^[2] followed by the battleship Yamashiro.

Toyoda was called upon again for the London Naval Disarmament Talks and returned to England again as a member of the Japanese delegation. After the treaty was signed he returned to Japan and was promoted to rear admiral.

In 1931, Toyoda was appointed as commander of the Yokosuka Naval District. However, after only six months, he was relieved from the position. It is supposed that the dismissal was caused by something Toyoda said to Prince Fushimi Hiroyasu, who had been newly appointed as head of the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff.

Although his military specialty was in naval artillery, Toyoda was reassigned to flight navigation headquarters. In November 1932, at the time of periodic personnel transfer, he was placed in charge of a military aircraft factory at Hiroshima. Both assignments were considered demotions; however, Toyoda renewed his efforts and waited for an opportunity with a positive outlook. As Toyoda’s grasp of aircraft technology slowly increased, he became dissatisfied with factory operations, as it was difficult to obtain the necessary tools and parts. Toyoda took steps to improve productivity.

In November 1935, Toyoda was promoted to vice admiral, and by February 1936, he had become director of the Kure Naval Arsenal. In December 1937, he was reassigned as commander of the Sasebo Naval District.

In November 1938, Toyoda became commander of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service, and during three months in the summer of 1939, he jointly managed the Naval Shipbuilding Command.

Political career

In 1940, Navy Minister

In April 1941, the cabinet was reorganized and Toyoda was requested by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe to become Minister of Commerce and Industry. After careful consideration, Toyoda decided to leave the Imperial Japanese Navy; however, his letter of resignation was not accepted and he was promoted to full admiral and transferred to reserve duty instead. Admiral Mineichi Koga, who had switched to the world of politics as well, was critical of Toyoda's attempted resignation, accusing him of using the navy as a stepping stone to a political career.

After only three months, a cabinet reshuffle became necessary due to the forced resignation of the increasingly strident pro-Axis

After his resignation from the cabinet, Toyoda accepted the post of director of the nationalized Japan Iron and Steel Works. He was finally able to pursue his interest in improving steel production, a topic in which he had shown much interest since his days as director of the Kure Naval Arsenal. Between the last half of 1941 and the first half of 1942, Japanese steel production decreased for lack of workers. Toyoda improved work methods and initiated welfare programs for children who had graduated from junior high school and for Korean workers as well as for those who had lost their jobs. By ensuring that there was always a steady work force, work conditions improved, which allowed steel production to keep up with war-created worsening conditions that created problems in maintaining the necessary amount of resources.

Toyoda remained distant from politics but in March 1943 he was called to be a special adviser to the Cabinet. There was intense confrontation between the army and navy over how war materials should be allocated between them. While Toyoda provided a formula to resolve this problem, it did not go according to plan.

Toyoda once again became a cabinet minister during the

After the

In 1958, Toyoda was appointed Chairman of the Japan–Usiminas joint venture steel development in Brazil. On November 21, 1961, he died of kidney cancer at the age of 76.

Notes

Bibliography

• Taliaferro, Jeffrey W. (2004). Balancing Risks: Great Power Intervention in the Periphery. Cornell University Press.
  ISBN 0-8014-4221-4
  .

• Nishida, Hiroshi. "Imperial Japanese Navy". Archived from the original on 2014-03-14.
• Newspaper clippings about Teijirō Toyoda in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW