Yonai from European neutrality to Japan's surrender

Yonai adopted a policy of non-involvement in the European war without issuing a formal declaration of neutrality. His government also reached an understanding with the European Allies by refusing passage to returning German men of military age aboard Japanese ships. In June 1945, Yonai wanted to resign as navy minister but remained because his departure would automatically bring down a cabinet moving toward peace. After surrender, he enforced naval compliance with the Allied terms despite opposition from senior and junior officers who wanted to continue fighting. The American occupation abolished the Navy Ministry and Yonai's post in October 1945, and his later testimony at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East extends the record beyond wartime command into the occupation's reckoning with Japanese policy.