page_title: Hajime Sugiyama
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Hajime Sugiyama / Biography / World War II
caption_attribution_description: 日本語: 小磯内閣発足にあたって恒例の記念撮影。前列左から三人目が小磯国昭総理、その右に副総理の米内光政海相。このときの組閣の大命は小磯と米内の両名に下り共同して組閣するよう命じた極めて稀な形式のもので、このことから当時この内閣は「小磯米内連立内閣」と呼ばれていた。 English: Japanese Prime Minister Kuniaki Koiso (1880–1950, in office 1944–45, third from the left, front row) and the members of his cabinet, including Naval Minister Mitsumasa Yonai (to the right of Koiso) who was ranked with the prime minister, on the inaugural day of his administration.
context_page_description: Hajime Sugiyama was a Japanese field marshal and one of the leaders of Japan's military throughout most of World War II. As Army Minister in 1937, Sugiyama was a driving force behind the launch of hostilities against China in retaliation for the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. After being named the Army’s Chief of Staff in 1940, he became a leading advocate for expansion into Southeast Asia and preventive war against the United States. Upon the outbreak of hostilities in the Pacific, Sugiyama served as the army’s commander-in-chief until his removal by Prime Minister Hideki Tojo in February 1944. Following Tojo's ouster in July 1944, he once again held the post of Army Minister in Kuniaki Koiso's cabinet until its dissolution in April 1945. Ten days after Japan's surrender on 2 September 1945, he committed suicide.
context_section_description: On September 3, 1940, he succeeded elderly Prince Kan'in Kotohito as Chief of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff. He was one of the leading Army officers lobbying for war with the West. However, on September 5, 1941, on the verge of the war against the United States and Great Britain, he was severely berated by Emperor Hirohito for having earlier predicted in 1937 that Japanese invasion of China would be completed within three months, and challenged over his confidence in a quick victory over the Western powers.
  Sugiyama was awarded the honorary rank of field marshal in 1943. As the war fronts collapsed on all sides, Sugiyama was relieved of his post as Chief of the General Staff on February 21, 1944, by General Hideki Tōjō (who continued to serve concurrently as Prime Minister). 
  Sugiyama was appointed to the Inspector-general of Military Training, which was still one of the most prestigious positions in the Army.  After Tōjō's ouster in 1944, Sugiyama again became Army Minister. In July 1945, he was asked to take command of the First General Army, which directed defenses of eastern half Japanese mainland against the anticipated Allied invasion.
  Ten days after the surrender of Japan, after finishing preparations for the final dissolution of the Imperial Japanese Army as dictated by the victorious Allied Powers, Sugiyama committed suicide by shooting himself four times in the chest with his revolver while seated at his desk in his office. At home, his wife also killed herself. His grave is at the Tama Cemetery, in Fuchū, Tokyo.
caption: Sugiyama (left on first row), as minister of War in Kuniaki Koiso's (third from left on front row) cabinet, with Mitsumasa Yonai (right on front row), July 1944
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