--- title: Kantarō Suzuki url: https://propagandaarchive.org/quotes/kantaro-suzuki/ description: 5 verified quotes from Kantarō Suzuki, Prime Minister of Japan, with sources. section: FRAME --- ![Illustration: a Second World War naval-intelligence collage of a Pacific theatre map, aerial reconnaissance photographs and radar plots.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/detail/hero-wwii-pacific.jpg) [Quotes](https://propagandaarchive.org/quotes/) · Japan # Kantarō Suzuki ![Kantarō Suzuki in civilian dress before 1946](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/images/showa-japan/kantaro-suzuki.jpg) [Photo](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kantaro_Suzuki_suit.jpg): Unknown, Public domain (PD-Japan-oldphoto) Prime Minister of Japan · Japan On the regime page: [Empire of Japan, 1937 to 1945](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/showa-japan/#kantaro-suzuki) 5 quotes, oldest first. [Filter with other speakers](https://propagandaarchive.org/quotes/#speaker=kantaro-suzuki). 1. > “From the very beginning the Greater East Asia war has clearly been a holy war. This has clearly been stated in the imperial rescript. The tyrannical attitude adopted by the United States and Britain at that time, as well as their evil designs, jeopardized the existence and safety of our empire.” — English: English translation as printed in the New York Times, via ibiblio.org. Original-language text not found. — June 9, 1945 · Speech · Tokyo, Imperial Diet — Policy speech by the Prime Minister at an extraordinary Diet session held during the Battle of Okinawa and after the air raids on Tokyo. — Address to the Imperial Diet, Tokyo, 9 June 1945, English translation as printed in the New York Times, via ibiblio.org (Hyperwar) [Source](https://www.ibiblio.org/pha/policy/1945/450609c.html) 2. > “In this present war, various participating nations have cleverly declared their reasons for becoming involved in the conflict, but in the final analysis the war was brought about by jealousy, which is the lowest of human emotions.” — English: English translation as printed in the New York Times, via ibiblio.org. Original-language text not found. — June 9, 1945 · Speech · Tokyo, Imperial Diet — From the same speech, on the causes of the war. — Address to the Imperial Diet, Tokyo, 9 June 1945, English translation as printed in the New York Times, via ibiblio.org (Hyperwar) [Source](https://www.ibiblio.org/pha/policy/1945/450609c.html) 3. > “I hear that the enemy is boasting of his demand for unconditional surrender of Japan. Unconditional surrender means that our national structure and our people will be destroyed. Against such boastful talk there is only one measure we must take, to fight to the last.” — English: English translation as printed in the New York Times, via ibiblio.org. Original-language text not found. — June 9, 1945 · Speech · Tokyo, Imperial Diet — From the same speech, on the Allied demand for unconditional surrender, seven weeks before the Potsdam Declaration. — Address to the Imperial Diet, Tokyo, 9 June 1945, English translation as printed in the New York Times, via ibiblio.org (Hyperwar) [Source](https://www.ibiblio.org/pha/policy/1945/450609c.html) 4. > “As bold as it may seem, I firmly believe there is no one in the entire world, who is more deeply concerned with world peace and the welfare of mankind than His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor.” — English: English translation as printed in the New York Times, via ibiblio.org. Original-language text not found. — June 9, 1945 · Speech · Tokyo, Imperial Diet — From the same speech, as the Prime Minister described his long service to the Emperor. — Address to the Imperial Diet, Tokyo, 9 June 1945, English translation as printed in the New York Times, via ibiblio.org (Hyperwar) [Source](https://www.ibiblio.org/pha/policy/1945/450609c.html) 5. > “I believe the Joint Proclamation by the three countries is nothing but a rehash of the Cairo Declaration. As for the Government, it does not find any important value in it, and there is no other recourse but to ignore it entirely and resolutely fight for the successful conclusion of this war.” — English: Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service, Federal Communications Commission, Daily Report, 30 July 1945, from a Domei romaji transmission, as printed in FRUS. Original-language text not found. — July 28, 1945 · Interview · Tokyo, Prime Minister's official residence Disputed — Answer to a reporter's question at a press conference two days after the Potsdam Declaration was issued. The Japanese word translated here as "ignore it entirely" is mokusatsu. — Press conference statement by Prime Minister Suzuki, Tokyo, 28 July 1945, in Foreign Relations of the United States: The Conference of Berlin (The Potsdam Conference), 1945, vol. 2 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1960), doc. 1258 [Source](https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1945Berlinv02/d1258) — The words are those of the FBIS translation; what is disputed is how mokusatsu should be rendered and what Suzuki intended. The FRUS editors note (fn. 2) that historians have debated whether he meant to reject the Proclamation, citing Coughlin, Harper's Magazine, March 1953, p. 31, and Butow, Japan's Decision to Surrender (Stanford, 1954), pp. 145-147, and note that Stimson and Bundy had seen a different English version containing "unworthy of public notice". A Japanese-language scholarly chapter (Hanada Tomoyuki, National Institute for Defense Studies) gives the sentence in its own wording: 政府としては何ら重大な価値があるとは考えない。ただ黙殺するだけである. The footnote number "2" printed after "entirely" in FRUS is removed. ## Often attributed, not verified These words circulate under Kantarō Suzuki’s name but could not be traced to a source. They are listed so readers can check them, not as Kantarō Suzuki’s words. - > “No comment.” — Paraphrase Usually said to come from: Suzuki's reply on the Potsdam Declaration, 28 July 1945, as glossed in accounts that say he meant "no comment" — The FBIS translation of the Domei text in FRUS (vol. 2, doc. 1258) renders his answer as ignoring the Proclamation entirely; "no comment" is a later gloss on the word mokusatsu. The debate over what he meant is noted on the included quote.