{"record":{"aliases":[],"appointmentIds":["japan-119ff0ea3ea011"],"appointmentsDataset":"https://chanceries.org/diplomats.json","archivalSources":[],"canonicalUrl":"https://chanceries.org/diplopedia/people/yakichiro-suma-f702b45935/","countrySlug":"japan","entityId":"https://chanceries.org/diplopedia/people/yakichiro-suma-f702b45935/#person","eventIds":[],"expandedParagraphs":["Yakichirō Suma (1892–1970) entered the Foreign Ministry after graduating in law from Chuo University in 1919. As consul general in Nanjing from 1933, he dealt with the Nationalist government before serving in the Washington embassy. He later headed the ministry’s Information Department and became minister to Spain.","In Washington, Suma defended Japan’s expanding war in China. On 13 October 1938, he told the State Department’s Maxwell Hamilton that the recent landing in southern China aimed to interrupt Chinese munitions routes, denying that Japan intended to attack Hong Kong or prepare further southward expansion. Suma expressly said he was speaking without instructions. Hamilton challenged the assurances, pointing to the repeated damage to American lives, property, and treaty rights.","After the war, Suma was detained as a suspected Class A war criminal and excluded from public office. He was released in 1948, the exclusion ended in 1951, and he won election to the House of Representatives in 1953, eventually serving two terms. His career also left substantial museum collections: he bought contemporary Chinese painting, including works by Qi Baishi, and supported Japanese artists working in China. Paintings collected during his Spanish posting went to Nagasaki, while material from his Chinese collection entered the Kyoto National Museum."],"id":"japan:yakichiro suma","identifiers":{},"legacyPersonIds":[],"legacyUrl":"https://chanceries.org/diplomat-f702b45935d89d453148.html","name":"Yakichirō Suma","notes":[],"paragraphSources":[["suma-ndl"],["suma-hamilton"],["suma-ndl","suma-art"]],"profileUrl":"diplomat-f702b45935d89d453148.html","relatedEvents":[],"relatedPeople":[],"relationships":[],"researchStatus":"reviewed","reviewedOn":"2026-10-28","revision":"2cfb473ba7d4fa75","sources":[{"accessedOn":"2026-10-28","date":null,"id":"suma-ndl","locator":"Biographical explanation","publisher":"National Diet Library","title":"須磨弥吉郎 — 近代日本人の肖像","type":"official-biography","url":"https://www.ndl.go.jp/portrait/datas/415"},{"accessedOn":"2026-10-28","date":"1938-10-13","id":"suma-hamilton","locator":"FRUS Japan 1931–1941, volume I, document 328","publisher":"U.S. Department of State","title":"Memorandum of conversation with Counselor Suma, 13 October 1938","type":"primary-record","url":"https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1931-41v01/d328"},{"accessedOn":"2026-10-28","date":"2011-01-01","id":"suma-art","locator":"Museum newsletter 169, article 69, paragraphs 2–5","publisher":"Kyoto National Museum","title":"須磨コレクションの日本人画家たち","type":"institutional-history","url":"https://www.kyohaku.go.jp/jp/learn/home/yomimono_data/0069/"},{"accessedOn":"","date":"","id":"mission-31c46b65d66dade27a83","locator":"","publisher":"","title":"Yakichirō Suma — mission record (1937)","type":"Mission record","url":"https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1931-41v01/d245"},{"accessedOn":"","date":"","id":"mission-a3549099143d651d3a98","locator":"","publisher":"","title":"Yakichirō Suma — mission record (1937)","type":"Mission record","url":"https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1931-41v02/d13"}],"topics":["Second Sino-Japanese War","art collecting","Spain","postwar politics"]},"schemaVersion":1}