Takeso Shimoda

Takeso Shimoda was an international law specialist whose career extended from the Foreign Ministry to Japan's Supreme Court. After graduating in law from Tokyo Imperial University, he entered the ministry in 1931. He headed the Treaties Bureau, served in Washington and as ambassador to Belgium and the Soviet Union, and became administrative vice minister in 1965. He returned to Washington as ambassador in 1967. ¹

Soon after arriving, Shimoda began sounding out American officials about returning Okinawa and the Bonin Islands to Japanese administration. In July 1967 he warned Assistant Secretary William Bundy that continued military rule could damage the wider alliance. He acknowledged the bases' strategic importance but stressed that Tokyo needed a concrete proposal that reconciled military requirements with Japanese and Okinawan political demands. ²

After retiring from diplomacy in 1970, Shimoda joined the Supreme Court on January 12, 1971, and served until April 2, 1977. He also became a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. His later public roles included president of the Honda Foundation and commissioner of Japanese professional baseball from 1979 to 1984. He died in 1995. ^{1, 3}