NEW JAPANESE CABINET

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 9 April 1945, Page 5

NEW JAPANESE CABINET

MILITARY LEADERS APPOINTED New York, April 7. Tokio radio announced that Admiral Suzuki has formed his new Cabinet. In addition to premiersnip, Suzuki will hold the portfolios of Foreign Minister and Minister for Greater East Asia. General Korechika Anami is the new War Minister and Admiral Mitsumasa Yonai the Navy Minister. Anami was formerly director-general of the army aviation headquarters, and was ViceMinister of War before Pearl Harbour. Yonai was Premier from January to July, 1940. Other Ministers are Toyosaku (Finance), Teijiro Toyoda (Munitions, Transport and Communications), Kozo Ita (Education), Genki Abe (Home Affairs), Takeshige Ishiguro (Agriculture and Commerce), Hiroshi Shimomura (Information), Tadahiko Okada (Welfare), Hiromasa Matzuzaka (Justice), and Seizo Sakonji and Hyogoro Sakurai (Ministers of State). The chief secretary to the Cabinet is Hisatsuna Sakomizu, and the chief of the Legislation Bureau is Chokkyo Murase. The radio says that Suzuki’s efforts to form the Cabinet were delayed by the air raid on Tokio yesterday. The Domei news agency states that Shinjiro Inouye, an official of the Department of Investigation, will go to Germany as Minister Plenipotentiary. Tokio radio announced that FieldMaashal Sugiyama and Field Marshal Shjnroku Hata have been appointed over-all commanders of the Japanese Army. Suzuki, in a statement which was broadcast by Tokio radio, said: “The enemy have now firmly established themselves on our homeland. If the situation continues like this our nation’s existence might be threatened. I am firmly determined to lead the nation and am prepared to offer my life itself at the foremost front in this task. My sincere wish is that the nation will do its best to set the throne's august mind at rest in elevating the naI tion’s fighting power.” Tokio radio announced that American troops advancing on Okinawa’s capital, Naha, reached a line south of Oyama, Shinoushi and Arakaki, but the Japanese were counter-attacking fiercely. The present war outlook did not permit of any optimism whatsoever, the radio said.