page_title: Fumimaro Konoe
section_title: Post premiership, final years of the war and suicide
hierarchical_section_title: Fumimaro Konoe / Post premiership, final years of the war and suicide
caption_attribution_description: A SCAP coroner performing a postmortem on former prime minister Fumimaro Konoe (1891&#8211;1945), who committed suicide by taking potassium cyanide.
context_page_description: Prince Fumimaro Konoe was a Japanese politician and Prime Minister who presided over Japan's invasion of China in 1937 and the deterioration in relations with the United States and its allies. He also played a central role in Japan's transformation into a totalitarian state by passing the National Mobilization Law and founding the Imperial Rule Assistance Association.
  Despite Konoe's attempts to resolve tensions with the United States, the rigid timetable imposed on negotiations by the military and his government's inflexibility regarding potential resolution terms set Japan on the path to war. After failing to reach a peace agreement, Konoe resigned as Prime Minister on 18 October 1941 prior to the outbreak of hostilities. However, he remained a close advisor to the Emperor until the end of World War II. Following the end of the war, he committed suicide on 16 December 1945.
context_section_description: On 29 November 1941, at a luncheon with the emperor with all living former prime ministers in attendance, Konoe voiced his objection to war. Upon hearing of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Konoe said regarding Japan's military success, "What on earth? I really feel a miserable defeat coming, this will only last 2 or 3 months."
  Konoe played a role in the fall of the Tōjō government in 1944. In February 1945, during the first private audience he had been allowed in three years, he advised the Emperor to begin negotiations to end World War II. According to Grand Chamberlain Hisanori Fujita, Hirohito, still looking for a tennozan (a great victory), firmly rejected Konoe's recommendation.
  After the beginning of the American occupation, Konoe served in the cabinet of Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni, the first post-war government. Having refused to collaborate with U.S. Army officer Bonner Fellers in "Operation Blacklist" to exonerate Hirohito and the imperial family of criminal responsibility, he came under suspicion of war crimes. In December 1945, during the last call by the Americans for alleged war criminals to report to the Americans, he took potassium cyanide poison and committed suicide. His grave is at the Konoe clan cemetery at the temple of Daitoku-ji in Kyoto.
  
  His grandson, Morihiro Hosokawa, became prime minister fifty years later.
caption: A SCAP coroner performing a postmortem on Konoe (17 December 1945)
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