Nagano Osami (1880-1947)

Naval Historical Center Photo #63422

Nagano Osami was a consummate bureaucrat who only held one ship command in his entire career. A former Japanese naval attaché to the United States and part of the Navy’s Treaty Faction, he initially opposed war with the western powers. He had spent five years in the United States, spoke of New York as a second home and had many Western friends, and was probably the Japanese Navy’s foremost expert on the United States. He nevertheless was a staunch Japanese nationalist and helped build support in the Navy for a Pacific war. He pulled Japan out of the London Conference in 1936 after failing to get parity with the United States and Britain. After serving as Navy minister and commander of Combined Fleet during the 1930s, he was was pulled out of semiretirement to become chief of the Naval General Staff in 1941. He served here until February 1944, when he was sacked by Tojo. He was tried as a war criminal but died of pneumonia before the verdict was announced.

We must build bases in French Indochina and Thailand in order to launch military operations. We must resolutely attack anyone who tries to stop us. We must resort to force....

— Nagano Osami, Imperial Liaison Conference of 11 June 1941 (Evans and Peattie 1997)

Nagano’s change in attitude during the last years of peace was quite striking. His shift from dove to hawk coincided with a marked decrease in his personal drive, suggesting he had become a tired old man (he was 62 and the oldest officer on the active duty list, and had acquired the nickname "The Elephant"). Critics called him the "Dozing Admiral" and joked that he needed to conserve his energy to keep up with his young fourth wife. Yamamoto snarked that Nagano was "the kind of man who thinks he's a genius, even though he's not" and regarded him as "a dead loss" (Symonds 2012). On the other hand, Nagano put many members of the Treaty Faction, such as Yamamoto and Inoue, into responsible positions as war approached. It is possible that his change of heart reflected a view that, if war was truly unavoidable, it was vital that it not be put off until Japan had run out of oil and the Americans had completed their massive fleet expansion. Or it is possible that Nagano was playing the role he felt obligated to play in a culture that puts enormous importance on consensus.

Service record

References

Evans and Peattie (1997)
Fuller (1992)

Hotta (2013)

Materials of IJN (accessed 2008-1-30)

Prados (1995)
Prange (1981)

Symonds (2011)

The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007-2009, 2012-2014 by Kent G. Budge.  Index

What's new

Comment on this article