Editing Mitsumasa Yonai (section)

==Premiership (1940)==
{{See also|Yonai Cabinet}}
[[File:Mitsumasa Yonai smiling.jpg|thumb|right|175px|Yonai after [[Imperial Investiture]], January 1940]]
[[File:Yonai reading a memo at the House cainber during the assembry cropped.jpg|thumb|right|175px|Yonai reading a memo during the [[House of Representatives of Japan|lower house]] plenary session in February 1940.]]
[[File:Yonai comforting kids 29 March 1940.jpg|thumb|right|175px|Yonai invites and encourages his hometown, [[Iwate Prefecture]]'s children who lost their fathers in the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]], [[Prime Minister's Official Residence (Japan)|Prime Minister's Official Residence]] in March 1940]]

Yonai was appointed the [[Prime Minister of Japan]] and formed [[Yonai Cabinet|his cabinet]] from January 6, 1940, largely with the backing of Emperor [[Hirohito]]. As the Prime Minister, he continued the strong pro-British, pro-American stance he held as Navy Minister and continued his strong opposition to the [[Tripartite Pact]] with [[Nazi Germany]] and [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|Fascist Italy]].

Following the [[Western Front (World War II)|German occupation of the Low Countries and France]] in May–June 1940, the Imperial Japanese Army began to show dissatisfaction with Yonai's anti-German and anti-Italian policy. The disagreement became apparent in early July 1940, as Army Minister [[Shunroku Hata]] began to criticize the Prime Minister openly.<ref>The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State, July 17, 1940, ''Foreign Relations of the United States, 1940'', vol. IV, p. 964</ref> When Hata resigned, Yonai was subsequently forced to resign on July 21, 1940. The Japanese Constitution required the Army Minister to be an active-duty general and no other general would accept the position, due to the pro-[[Axis powers|Axis]] stance of the Imperial Japanese Army.<ref>"Japanese Destroyer Captain, Tameichi Hara, Naval Institute Press, Chapter 12</ref> The Tripartite Pact was signed on September 27, 1940.