{{Short description|Prime Minister of Japan from 1934 to 1936 (1868–1952)}} {{Family name hatnote|Okada|lang=Japanese}} {{More footnotes needed|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = Senior Second Rank | name = Okada Keisuke | native_name = {{No bold|岡田 啓介}} | native_name_lang = ja | image = Keisuke Okada 2 (cropped).jpg | caption = Okada in {{circa}} 1934–1935 | office = Prime Minister of Japan | monarch = Hirohito | term_start = 8 July 1934 | term_end = 9 March 1936{{efn|Briefly presumed dead during the February 26 incident. Gotō Fumio served as acting prime minister from 26 February 1936 to 29 February 1936}} | predecessor = Saitō Makoto | successor = Hirota Kōki | office1 = Ministry of Communications | prime_minister1 = ''Himself'' | term_start1 = 9 September 1935 | term_end1 = 12 September 1935 | predecessor1 = Tokonami Takejirō | successor1 = Mochizuki Keisuke | office2 = Minister of Colonial Affairs | prime_minister2 = ''Himself'' | term_start2 = 8 July 1934 | term_end2 = 25 October 1934 | predecessor2 = Nagai Ryūtarō | successor2 = Hideo Kodama | office3 = Minister of the Navy | prime_minister3 = Saitō Makoto | term_start3 = 26 May 1932 | term_end3 = 9 January 1933 | predecessor3 = Ōsumi Mineo | successor3 = Ōsumi Mineo | prime_minister4 = Tanaka Giichi | term_start4 = 20 April 1927 | term_end4 = 2 July 1929 | predecessor4 = Takarabe Takeshi | successor4 = Takarabe Takeshi | birth_date = {{birth date|1868|1|20|df=y}} | birth_place = Asuwa, Fukui, Japan | death_date = {{death date and age|1952|10|7|1868|1|20|df=y}} | death_place = Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan | resting_place = Tama Cemetery | relatives = Hisatsune Sakomizu (son-in-law) | signature = OkadaK kao.png | party = Independent | profession = Admiral | alma_mater = Imperial Japanese Naval Academy }}
'''Okada Keisuke''' ({{langx|ja|岡田 啓介}}; 20 January 1868 – 7 October 1952) was a Japanese admiral and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1934 to 1936.
Born to a samurai family in the Fukui Domain, Okada became an officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy and served during the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War. After reaching the rank of Admiral, he served as minister of the navy under Prime Minister Tanaka Giichi from 1927 to 1929 and under Prime Minister Saitō Makoto from 1932 to 1933.
Okada was appointed prime minister to succeed Saito in 1934. A moderate who attempted to restrain the rise of militarism, Okada was among those targeted by a group of rebel officers in the February 26 incident of 1936. Okada narrowly survived, but resigned in the aftermath of the incident.
As a senior statesman during the Pacific War, Okada was a central figure in efforts to oust Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and seek peace with the Allies.
==Early life and education== Okada was born on 20 January 1868, in Fukui Prefecture, the son of a samurai of the Fukui Domain.<ref>{{Cite web |title=岡田啓介｜近代日本人の肖像 |url=https://www.ndl.go.jp/portrait/datas/41/ |access-date=2022-03-03 |website=近代日本人の肖像 National Diet Library |language=ja}}</ref> He attended the 15th class of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy, graduating 7th out of a class of 80 cadets in 1889.
==Military career== Okada served as a midshipman on the ironclad warship ''Kongō'' and the cruiser {{ship|Japanese cruiser|Naniwa||2}}. He was commissioned an ensign on 9 July 1890. He later served as lieutenant on the {{ship|Japanese cruiser|Itsukushima||2}} and {{ship|Japanese cruiser|Takachiho||2}} as well as the corvette ''Hiei''.<ref>Nishida, Imperial Japanese Navy</ref>
In the First Sino-Japanese War, Okada served on the {{ship|Japanese battleship|Fuji||2}}. After his graduation from the Naval Staff College, he subsequently served on the {{ship|Japanese battleship|Shikishima||2}} and as executive officer on the {{ship|Japanese cruiser|Yaeyama||2}}. He was promoted to lieutenant on 9 December 1894, to lieutenant commander on 29 September 1899 and to commander on 13 July 1904.
During the Russo-Japanese War, Okada served as executive officer on a successor of vessels, including the {{ship|Japanese cruiser|Chitose||2}}, {{ship|Japanese cruiser|Kasuga||2}} and ''Asahi''. He was promoted to captain on 25 September 1908 and given his own command, the ''Kasuga'' on 25 July 1910. He later transferred to the {{ship|Japanese battleship|Kashima||2}} in 1912.
Promoted to rear admiral on 1 December 1913, Okada served in a number of desk jobs thereafter, including that of the Naval Shipbuilding Command. He was promoted to vice admiral on 1 December 1917 and to full admiral on 11 June 1924.
Okada assumed the post of commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet in 1924. In 1927, he became Minister of Navy in the administration of Tanaka Giichi, but resigned in 1929 to assume the post of military councillor on the Supreme War Council.
Okada was one of the few supporters (Treaty Faction) within the upper ranks of the Imperial Japanese Navy of the arms reduction treaty resulting from the London Naval Treaty of 1930, which he helped negotiate and worked hard for its ratification. He again served as Navy Minister in the Saitō Makoto cabinet of 1932.
Okada entered the reserves on 21 January 1933 and retired five years later.
[[File:Okada Matsuo.jpg|thumb|left|Okada (left) and Denzō Matsuo]]
==Premiership (1934–1936)== thumb|left|Okada with his family celebrating his inauguration as prime minister, 13 July 1934 {{see also|Okada Cabinet}} In July 1934, Okada was named Prime Minister of Japan holding simultaneously the portfolio of Minister of Colonial Affairs. In the month of September 1935, he also briefly held the portfolio of Minister of Post and Telecommunications. Okada was one of the democratic and moderate voices against the increasing strength of the militarists, and was therefore a major target for extremist forces pushing for a more totalitarian Japan. He narrowly escaped assassination in the February 26 Incident of 1936, largely because rebel troops killed Colonel Denzō Matsuo, brother-in-law as well as personal secretary of Okada's, by misidentifying him as the prime minister. Okada emerged from hiding on 29 February 1936. However, he left office a few days later.
==Later life== Okada was adamant in his opposition to the war with the United States. During World War II, Okada formed a group of like-minded politicians and military officers seeking an early end to the hostilities. After the defeat of Japanese forces at the Battle of Midway and Battle of Guadalcanal, Okada pushed for negotiations with the Allies, and played a leading role in the overthrow of the Tōjō Hideki cabinet in 1944.
Okada died in 1952, and his grave is at the Tama Cemetery, in Fuchū, Tokyo.
==Honors== [[File:Virtuti Militari to Japanese officers (1928).jpg|thumb|240px|Podpułkownik Wacław Jędrzejewicz awards Admiral Okada Keisuke with VMs in 1928]]
''From the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia''
*Order of the Golden Kite, (3rd class) (1915) *Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun (1920) *Grand Cordon of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers (1933) *Knight's Cross of the War Order of Virtuti Militari (No. 128) (Poland, 1928)<ref name="vm">[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GVmPdbIWAAAp_-m?format=jpg&name=4096x4096 ''Lista oficerów Armji Japońskiej Kawalerów Orderu "Virtuti Militari"'']</ref> *Golden Cross of the War Order of Virtuti Militari (No. 539) (Poland, 1928)<ref name="vm"/>
== See also == * Okada Cabinet
==Notes== {{notelist}} {{Reflist}}
==References== *{{cite book|last = Bix, Herbert P.|author-link = Herbert Bix|year = 2001|title = Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan|title-link = Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan|publisher = Harper Perennial }} {{ISBN|978-0-06-019314-0}}; {{OCLC|247018161}} *{{cite book|last = Brendon|first = Piers|year = 2002|title = The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the 1930s|publisher = Vintage; Reprint edition |isbn = 0-375-70808-1}} *{{cite book|last = Gordon|first = Andrew|author-link = Andrew Gordon (historian)|year = 2003|title = A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present |url = https://archive.org/details/modernhistoryofj0000gord|url-access = registration|publisher = Oxford University Press |isbn = 0-19-511061-7}} *{{cite book|last = Jansen|first = Marius B|author-link = Marius Jansen|year = 2002|title = The Making of Modern Japan|publisher = Harvard University Press }} {{ISBN|9780674003347}}; [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/44090600 OCLC 44090600]
==External links== *{{cite web|last = Nishida|first = Hiroshi|url = http://homepage2.nifty.com/nishidah/e/px15.htm#a001|title = Materials of IJN: Okada, Keisuke|work = Imperial Japanese Navy|access-date = 2007-08-03|archive-url = https://archive.today/20130104052307/http://homepage2.nifty.com/nishidah/e/px15.htm#a001|archive-date = 2013-01-04|url-status = dead}} * {{PM20|FID=pe/022772}}
{{Commons category|Keisuke Okada}} {{Navboxes |title=Career |list1= {{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{s-bef|before=Ide Kenji}} {{s-ttl|title=Vice-Minister of the Navy|years=25 May 1923 - 11 June 1924}} {{s-aft|after=Abo Kiyokazu}} {{s-mil}} {{s-bef|before=Kantarō Suzuki}} {{s-ttl|title=Combined Fleet & 1st Fleet<br/>Commander-in-chief|years=1 December 1924 – 10 December 1926}} {{s-aft|after=Katō Hiroharu}} {{s-bef|before=Katō Hiroharu}} {{s-ttl|title=Yokosuka Naval District<br/>Commander-in-chief|years=10 December 1926 – 20 April 1927}} {{s-aft|after=Abo Kiyokazu}} {{s-off}} {{s-bef|before=Takarabe Takeshi}} {{s-ttl|title=Minister of the Navy|years=20 April 1927 – 2 July 1929}} {{s-aft|after={{nowrap|Takarabe Takeshi}}}} {{s-bef|before=Ōsumi Mineo}} {{s-ttl|title=Minister of the Navy|years=26 May 1932 – 9 January 1933}} {{s-aft|after=Ōsumi Mineo}} {{s-bef|before=Ryūtarō Nagai}} {{s-ttl|title=Minister of Colonial Affairs|years=July 1934 – October 1934}} {{s-aft|after=Hideo Kodama}} {{s-bef|before=Takejirō Tokonami}} {{s-ttl|title=Minister of Communications|years=September 1935 – September 1935}} {{s-aft|after=Keisuke Mochizuki}} {{s-bef|before=Saitō Makoto}} {{s-ttl|title=Prime Minister|years= 8 July 1934 – 9 March 1936}} {{s-aft|after=Fumio Gotō<br><small>Acting</small>}} {{s-bef|before=Fumio Gotō<br><small>Acting</small>}} {{s-ttl|title=Prime Minister|years=1936}} {{s-aft|after=Kōki Hirota}} {{s-end}} }} {{IJN}} {{Prime Ministers of Japan}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Okada, Keisuke}} Category:1868 births Category:1952 deaths Category:20th-century prime ministers of Japan Category:Government ministers of Japan Category:Ministers of the Imperial Japanese Navy Category:Military personnel from Fukui Prefecture Category:Imperial Japanese Navy admirals Category:People of the First Sino-Japanese War Category:Japanese military personnel of the Russo-Japanese War Category:People of the Meiji era Category:Japanese military personnel of World War I Category:Imperial Japanese Navy personnel of World War II Category:Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun Category:Recipients of the Order of the Golden Kite Category:Knights of the Virtuti Militari Category:Recipients of the Gold Cross of the Virtuti Militari Category:Burials at Tama Cemetery Category:Government of the Empire of Japan