Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni

Biography

Prince Naruhiko was born in Kyoto in 1887, the ninth son of Prince Kuni Asahiko, and in 1906 Emperor Meiji allowed him to found a new princely house, Higashikuni. In 1915 he married the emperor's ninth daughter, Princess Toshiko, which later made him an uncle by marriage of Emperor Hirohito. He graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1908 and the Army War College in 1914, and sat in the House of Peers by right of birth from 1907.

From 1920 to 1926 he studied military tactics in France, at Saint-Cyr and the École Polytechnique, where his high living scandalised the imperial court until a chamberlain was sent to bring him home. He then commanded the 5th Infantry Brigade and the 4th Division, led the army air service in 1937 and 1938 and the 2nd Army in China, and was promoted to full general in 1939. In October 1941 Fumimaro Konoe proposed him as prime minister, but the emperor preferred Hideki Tōjō. He commanded the General Defense Command from 1941 to 1944 and took part in the manoeuvres that brought Tōjō down in July 1944.

After Japan accepted the Potsdam Declaration, the emperor appointed him prime minister on 17 August 1945, the only member of the imperial family ever to head a cabinet. His government oversaw the signing of the surrender on 2 September and the demobilisation of the armed forces, and he briefly also held the army ministry. He resigned on 9 October 1945 rather than carry out the occupation authorities' order to repeal the Peace Preservation Law, after just 54 days in office.

He lost his princely status when the branch houses of the imperial family were abolished in October 1947. As a private citizen he ran several small businesses without success, founded a short-lived Buddhist sect and published his wartime diaries. He died in Tokyo in January 1990 at 102, the longest-lived Japanese prime minister.