Masayuki Tani
Masayuki Tani (谷正之) (2 September 1889 – 16 October 1962)[1] was a Japanese diplomat and politician who was briefly foreign minister of Japan from September 1942 to 21 April 1943 during World War II. CareerTani was a career diplomat before assuming ministerial roles.[2] More specifically, he served at the embassy in France (1918–1923), United States (1927–1930) and Manchukuo (1933–1936).[1] In 1930, he was chief of Asian Bureau in the ministry of foreign affairs.[3] He also worked as counsellor to the Japanese embassy in Xinjing and as ambassador-at-large in China.[4] He served as vice minister of foreign affairs in the cabinet of Mitsumasa Yonai[5] when appointed under then foreign minister Kichisaburō Nomura on 24 September 1939.[6] Then Tani served as information chief and also, foreign minister in the cabinet of Hideki Tōjō.[7] He was appointed foreign minister on 17 September 1942.[8][9] During his tenure, Japan continued to encourage a separate peace between Germany and the Soviet Union.[8] However, his term was short. Since bureaucrats in the ministry of foreign affairs resented Tani,[2] on 21 April 1943, he was replaced by Mamoru Shigemitsu.[10] After that, he received Shigemitsu's former post of Japanese ambassador in Nanjing to the Reorganized National Government of China.[11] After World War II, Tani was detained as a suspect of war crimes until December 1948.[7] However, he was not convicted.[7] Then he served again as Japan's ambassador to the United States from March 1956 to April 1957,[12] becoming the third post-war ambassador of Japan to the US.[7] Personal lifeTani was married and had three children, a daughter and two sons.[7] References
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