Korechika Anami (阿南 惟幾 Anami Korechika, 1887-1945) was a Japanese general in World War II.
In April of 1945 he was made the War Minister of Japan, giving him great power in Japan as a member of the Japanese Cabinet and the Supreme Council for the Direction of the War. He was known as the leader who detested the idea of surrender, and even ordered the arrests of those who talked of it. Some speak of him today as "the very model of a modern samurai." After many losses in battle, and the US bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the other leaders began to consider a new approach to the war; surrender was one of the options. Anami opposed this, and proposed instead that a large-scale battle be fought on the Japanese mainland that would cause many Allied casualties and allow Japan to elude surrender and perhaps even keep what it had conquered.
Eventually, his arguments were overcome when Hirohito requested an end to the war himself; Anami's supporters suggested that he either vote against surrender or resign from the Cabinet. Either of these moves would have stopped any Japanese surrender. Instead, he ordered his officers to concede, later saying to his brother-in-law, "As a Japanese soldier, I must obey my Emperor." On August 14th, 1945, he signed the surrender document with the rest of the Cabinet, then committed seppuku early the next morning.
External Links