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was a Japanese diplomat and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Empire of Japan during the early stages of World War II. He is best known for his defiant speech at the League of Nations in 1933, ending Japan's participation in that organization. He was also one of the architects of the Tripartite Pact and the Japanese–Soviet Non-aggression Pact in the years immediately prior to the outbreak of war. ==Early years in Japan and America== Matsuoka was born as the fourth son to a shipping magnate in Kumage District, Yamaguchi prefecture (now part of the city of Hikari). At the age of 11, his father’s business went bankrupt, and Matsuoka was sent to the United States with a cousin in 1893 under the sponsorship of Methodist missionaries to study English. He settled in Portland, Oregon, living initially at the Methodist Mission, and was subsequently taken into the household of the widower William Dunbar, which included Dunbar's son Lambert, and Dunbar's sister, Mrs. Isabelle Dunbar Beveridge. Mrs. Beveridge served as a foster mother to Matsuoka and helped him adjust to American society. Matsuoka's affection for her lasted well after he returned to Japan. She died in 1906.〔"Matsuoka Honors Woman Kind to Him," ''Nevada State Journal'', April 10, 1933, p2. - "In 1933, after Japan's withdrawal from the League of Nations in Geneva, Matsuoka stopped in Portland on his way back to Japan, and placed a marker at Mrs. Beveridge's gravesite, with an inscription that read, "Raised by the loving hands of Yosuke Matsuoka, in token of the lasting gratitude for the sympathy and gentle kindness of a woman who, next to his mother, shaped his mind and character."〕〔David Jon Lu, ''Agony of Choice: Matsuoka Yosuke and the Rise and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1880-1946'' (Lexington Books, 2002), pp. 6-7〕 While living at Mrs. Beveridge, Matsuoka became a Presbyterian Christian, being baptized by a Rev. Kawabe.〔〔 His biographer Lu comments however that "Still, the requirement of unquestioned submission to one God remained alien to him. Religion to him was a mere cultural milieu. While in America, he was happy to be a Christian and become part of its culture. Back in Japan, he was equally conformable playing homage to the Buddha statues in a Shin temple in Murozumi, much to the delight of his mother. As a foreign minister he was remembered for his obsessive desire to worship at Ise and other Shinto shrines. Viewing religion as he did, Matusokoa found no contradiction in these actions." Matsuoka enrolled at Portland's Atkinson Grammar School (which still exists as Atkinson Elementary School), and due to the influence of the Dunbar family, converted to Christianity.〔''Current Biography 1941'', p563-65〕 taking the name of “Frank Matsuoka”. He later moved to Oakland, California, with his older brother Kensuke and attended Oakland High School for 18 months. He then returned to Portland and studied law, paying his way by various odd jobs, including busboy, door-to-door salesman (of coffee) and interpreter for a Japanese contractor.〔Id. at 564〕 Matsuoka graduated from the University of Oregon law school in 1900. Although the University of Oregon had strong connections with Waseda University in Japan, Matsuoka considered going on to an Ivy League school for post-graduate studies. However, the deteriorating health of his mother influenced his return to Japan in 1902. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Yōsuke Matsuoka」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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