Tsuneo Matsudaira

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Tsuneo Matsudaira
President of the House of Peers)
Succeeded byNaotake Satō
Personal details
Born(1877-04-17)April 17, 1877
Tokyo Imperial University

Tsuneo Matsudaira (松平 恒雄, Matsudaira Tsuneo, April 17, 1877 – November 14, 1949) was a Japanese diplomat and politician who served as the first President of the House of Councillors from 1947 to 1949. He previously served as Ambassador to the United States from 1924 to 1928, to Britain from 1929 to 1936, and Minister of the Imperial Household from 1936 to 1945.

Early life and career

Tsuneo Matsudaira was born on April 17, 1877, as the sixth son of

Katamori Matsudaira, former daimyo of Aizu. Katamori was a prominent Tokugawa loyalist in the Boshin War, but had been shown clemency and later became a priest. The eldest son Kataharu took over the family headship and became a viscount when the nobility was reorganised in 1884.[1]

After attending

Prince Nashimoto. Rising quickly in the Ministry, Matsudaira became director general of the European and American Affairs Bureau in 1920. He was promoted to Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs in 1923, before being appointed Ambassador to the United States the following year.[1]

Imperial marriage

The Prince and Princess Chichibu on their wedding day

After he was called back to Japan in 1928, the

Prince Chichibu. The wedding was celebrated in September.[1]

Matsudaira was then sent to

London Conference on Naval Armaments in 1930. During that conference, he was convinced to accept the ratio in ships which appeared humiliating to the Japanese government through the persuasion efforts of one of the US delegates, Senator David A. Reed, who in return agreed to grant the Japanese government better terms on non-combatant ships.[2][3]

He returned to Japan in 1935. In October his second daughter Masako married the heir of Marquis Yoshichika Tokugawa and in December his son Ichiro married the daughter of Prince Iemasa Tokugawa.[1]

After the

firebombing of Tokyo. During the last year of the war he was among the Japanese leaders who acknowledged that the war was lost and suggested searching for early surrender.[4]

Post-war political career

When the

purged on the verge on becoming prime minister following the 1946 general elcetion Matsudaira was considered as a candidate to replace him, but Shigeru Yoshida was chosen instead.[1][5]

In 1946 Matsudaira was appointed to the

Ryokufūkai with other independents and was elected as the first President of the House. He died of a heart attack on November 14, 1949, at the age of 72. His tomb is in Aoyama Cemetery.[1]

Honors

From the corresponding Japanese Wikipedia article

Japanese decorations

Works

  • Matsudaira, Tsuneo. "Sports and Physical Training in Modern Japan," Transactions and Proceedings of the Japan Society, London, 8 (1907/1909), 120

Ancestry

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 9004213457
    .
  2. ^ William Braisted (1991) "On the General Board of the Navy, Admiral Hilary Jones, and Naval Arms Limitation, 1921–1931" The Dwight D. Eisenhower Lectures in War & Peace, No. 4, Kansas State University "Eisenhower Lecture #5: William Braisted". Archived from the original on 2012-03-21. Retrieved 2010-03-23.
  3. ISBN 978-1-4617-2039-3
    .
  4. ^ United States Strategic Bombing Survey, Japan's Struggle to End the War, p. 3
  5. ^ Juha Saunavaara (2009). "Occupation Authorities, the Hatoyama Purge and the Making of Japan's Postwar Political Order". The Asia-Pacific Journal. 7 (39).
  6. ^ "Genealogy". Reichsarchiv (in Japanese). Retrieved 2 November 2017.

External links

House of Councillors
Preceded by
New post
 President of the House of Councillors
1947–1949 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Minister of the Imperial Household
1936–1945 		Succeeded by
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
Japanese Ambassador to the United Kingdom

1929–1935 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Japanese Ambassador to the United States

1924–1928 		Succeeded by
Katsuchi Debuchi
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