In November 1918, Anami graduated from the 30th class of the Army Staff College with the rank of captain. He was assigned to the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff from April 1919 and was promoted to major in February 1922. From August 1923 to May 1925, he was assigned to the staff of the Sakhalin Expeditionary Army, which was responsible for the occupation of northern Sakhalin island during the Japanese intervention in Siberia. Anami was promoted to lieutenant colonel in August 1925.
From August to December 1925, Anami was sent as a military attaché to France. On his return to Japan, he was assigned to the 45th Infantry Regiment, and became unit commander in August 1928.
From August 1933 to August 1934, Anami served as regimental commander of the 2nd Guard Regiment of the Imperial Guards.[1] He was subsequently Commandant of the Tokyo Military Preparatory School,[1] and promoted to major general in March 1935.[1]
Wartime military career
Anami as army infantry colonel when he was an aide-de-camp. He wears a silver aide-de-armor cord.
From August 1936, Anami served as Chief of the Military Administration Bureau of the War Ministry. He became Chief of the Personnel Bureau in March 1937 and was promoted to lieutenant general in March the following year.[1]
In May 1943, Anami was promoted to full general. As the war conditions in the Pacific deteriorated for the Japanese, the Second Area Army was reassigned to the Southern Theater from November 1943, where Anami directed operations in western New Guinea and Halmahera.
As War Minister, Anami was outspoken against the idea of surrender, despite his awareness that Japan's losses on the battlefield and the destruction of Japan's cities and industrial capability by American bombing meant that Japan had lost the war militarily.[4] Even after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Anami opposed acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration and instead called for a large-scale battle to be fought on the Japanese mainland that would cause such massive Allied casualties that Japan would somehow be able to avoid complete surrender and perhaps even keep some of what it had conquered.[5][page needed]
Eventually, his arguments against what he perceived to be the dishonor of surrender were overcome when Emperor Hirohito ordered an end to the war. Anami's supporters suggested that he should vote against surrender or resign from the Cabinet. Instead, he ordered his officers to concede and later said to his brother-in-law, "As a Japanese soldier, I must obey my Emperor."[6]
He informed the officers of the War Ministry of the decision and that as it was an imperial command, they must obey.[6] His refusal to support any action against the imperial decision was a key point in the failure of the Kyūjō incident, an attempted military coup d'état by junior officers to prevent the surrender announcement from being broadcast.[4]
On 14 August, Anami signed the surrender document with the rest of the cabinet and committed seppuku early the next morning.[7] His suicide note read, "I—with my death—humbly apologize [to the Emperor] for the great crime" (一死以て大罪を謝し奉る).[8] The cryptic note is open to multiple interpretations.[7]
