Osami Nagano

Osami Nagano (永野修身 Nagano Osami, June 15, 1880 – January 5, 1947) was a prominent leader of the Imperial Japanese Navy before and during World War II.

Nagano was born in Kochi in 1880. A graduate of Japan’s Naval Academy, Nagano studied at Harvard Law School in 1913 while serving as a language officer in the United States. Nagano became a naval attache to the United States in the early 1920s, in which capacity he attended the Washington Naval Conference. Nagano later achieved the rank of admiral and was appointed to the naval general staff. As a representative of that body, he attended the London Naval Conference of 1930. Nagano subsequently served as the chief naval delgate to the 1935 London Naval Conference. Japan withdrew in protest from the 1935 conference after it was denied naval parity with the United States and Britain. Nagano and other navy hardliners used this as an excuse to implement plans to expand the size and power of the navy in 1936. Nagano was appointed Minister of the Navy under Koki Hirota in 1936, and was appointed Commander in Chief of the Fleet in 1937.

In 1941, Nagano became Chief of the Naval General Staff. In this capacity, Nagano adopted Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto’s plan of attack against the United States Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor in case Japan and the U.S. eventually went to war. Nagano subsequently ordered the attack on Pearl Harbor to take place when diplomatic negotiations between Japan and the U.S. failed. Nagano was promoted to fleet admiral in 1943 and kept his position as Chief of the Naval General Staff throughout the majority of World War II. By 1944, however, Japan had suffered serious military setbacks and Nagano had lost the confidence of Emperor Hirohito. With the emperor’s approval, Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and Naval Minister Shigetaro Shimada removed Nagano from his post and replaced him with Shimada. Nagano spent the remainder of the war as an advisor to the government. Captured by the Allies in 1945, Nagano, while standing before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, assumed responsibility for the Pearl Harbor attack. Nagano died of a heart attack in Tokyo while standing trial in 1947.