Mitsumasa Yonai
After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, Tada attempted to contact Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek to defuse tensions between Japan and China in an effort at mediation sponsored by the German Ambassador to China, Oskar Trautmann. Tada argued that both countries faced the same external threat from the Soviet Union and internal threat from communism, and should not waste precious resources fighting one another; however, Tada's efforts were overruled by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe, Army Minister Hajime Sugiyama, Navy Minister Mitsumasa Yonai and Foreign Minister Kōki Hirota, all of whom berated Tada for attempting to effect private diplomacy.