Tsunei Kusunose

Tsunei Kusunose
楠瀬 常猪
Member of the House of Councillors
In office
20 December 1950 – 2 May 1953
Preceded byShikazo Sasaki
Succeeded byKiichi Miyazawa
ConstituencyHiroshima at-large
Governor of Hiroshima Prefecture
In office
16 April 1947 – 29 November 1950
MonarchHirohito
Preceded byTokiichiro Takewaka
Succeeded byHiroo Ōhara
In office
27 October 1945 – 14 March 1947
MonarchHirohito
Preceded byKodama Kyūichi
Succeeded byTokiichiro Takewaka
Personal details
Born(1899-02-10)10 February 1899
Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan
Died18 June 1988(1988-06-18) (aged 89)
Political partyLiberal
Alma materHitotsubashi University

Tsunei Kusunose (楠瀬 常猪, Kusunose Tsunei; February 10, 1899 – June 18, 1988) was the Governor of Hiroshima Prefecture from October 1945 to 1950.

Kusunose was appointed to his position as governor at a time when the city of Hiroshima was in destruction following the first use of the nuclear bomb in August 1945. He was appointed by the Japanese government to fill that position upon the expiration of the appointment of his predecessor Genshin Takano. In 1947 he was elected to the same position and thus became the first elected governor of Hiroshima Prefecture.

As part of his efforts to reconstruct the city, he held on February 22, 1946, a conference on the future of Hiroshima with the participation of historian Yoshirō Saeki, novelist Yoko Ota, deputy Mayor of Kure Tomiko Koura and others.[1]

As governor, he followed a policy of refraining from antagonizing the US military authorities in control of Hiroshima at the time, and supported the suppression by US and Australian troops of the workers' strike in June 1949 in protest of the dismissal of workers of Nihon Seiko company, an event known as the Nikko Incident.[2]

In 1950, he resigned his post as governor to run for a vacant seat in the House of Councillors. He was elected, and served until losing in the 1953 election. During his term in the House of Councillors, in 1952, was one of the initiators of a visit of sympathy by a group of survivors of the atomic attack on Hiroshima to the war criminals kept at Sugamo Prison.[3][4]

Died in 1988 of heart failure.

References

Yoshiteru Kosakai, Hiroshima Peace Reader (Hiroshima, 1980)

Notes

  1. ^ "Web Hosting Small Business | Design | Domain Name Registration | Ecommerce at Somtndesign.com" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 3 February 2024.
  2. ^ De Matos, Christine (1 January 2006). "The Case of Nikko jiken: Occupation, reform, power and conflict". Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive). Retrieved 3 February 2024.
  3. ^ "A-bomb survivor recalls meeting with Class-A war criminals". Retrieved 3 February 2024.
  4. ^ ""Hibakusha recounts meeting war criminals" Japan Times, April 25, 2010". Retrieved 3 February 2024.