Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog

Unlucky Jobs: Japanese Prime Ministers, 1900-1950 March 7, 2015

Beach recently added to his tag on the worst careers in the world, noting how being an English or, God forbid, a Scottish king was really very dangerous in the Middle Ages. He has now decided to bring these observations up to date with presidents and prime ministers. Instead of covering periods of 500 years, he is limiting himself to fifty and the question is: in what country was it most dangerous to be a national leader in the last couple of centuries? Just to give some kind of baseline Beach is comparing Britain and Japan 1900 to 1950.

In that period there were ten British Prime Ministers (not including second and third terms of the same man): not a single one died in office. There were, instead, thirty three Japanese Prime Ministers. Of these thirty three four died in office.

Katō Tomosaburō (obit 1923): colon cancer
Inukai Tsuyoshi (obit 1932): assassinated for annoying the military
Kōki Hirota (obit 1948): executed by Allies
Hideki Tojo (obit 1948): executed by Allies after messing up a suicide attempt (see picture above)

However, to give a sense of the violence of Japanese politics in those years let’s widen the parameters. How many were killed by violence in or out of office? In Britain the number remains zero. In Japan we lose Tomosaburō – colon cancer just does not cut it… – but add four others.

Fumimaro Konoe (obit 1945): committed suicide to avoid American detention
Inukai Tsuyoshi (obit 1932): assassinated for annoying the military
Itō Hirobumi (obit 1909): assassinated by Korean patriot in Korea
Kōki Hirota (obit 1948): executed by Allies
Hideki Tojo (obit 1948): executed by Allies after messing up a suicide attempt (see picture above)
Saitō Makoto (obit 1936): : assassinated for annoying the military
Takahashi Korekiyo (obit 1936): assassinated for annoying the military

So Prime Ministers who died in office, 1900-1950

Britain 0%
Japan 12%

Prime Ministers who died by violence in or out of office, 1900-1950
Britain 0%
Japan 21%

Again just to put this in perspective 23% of English monarchs died by violence, being or having been a Japanese Prime Minister in the first half of the twentieth-century was almost as dangerous. Japanese Prime Ministers who suffered deaths by violence in or out of office, 1930-1945 were above 30%, in other words we are coming close to the numbers for being a medieval Scottish king.

There must be a post-colonial and chaotic instance of a country where as many presidents were killed: drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com Can anyone help? Beach spent a few wistful minutes looking at the constitutional history of the Congo this afternoon, but the chaos is such that even a line of succession is difficult.