Yet it was Nakasone who became prime minister during the delicate period when Japan was reasserting its ability to self-govern and the United States was re-thinking its involvement with Japan a reordering that continued into the late 1980s.
Early Entrance into Politics
Nakasone Yasuhiro was born on May 27, 1918, the second son of a lumber merchant in Takasaki, a city on the northwestern approach to Tokyo. He attended the prestigious Shizuoka High School, then went on to Tokyo University, where he studied political science in the law division. In 1941 he passed the higher civil service examination and became an official in the Ministry of the Interior. Later in the same year he joined the navy, from which he was discharged in 1945 as a lieutenant commander. In February 1945 he married Tsutako, the third daughter of Kobayashi Giichiro; in November, they had their first son, Hirofumi, who became a councillor in the Diet, the national assembly. In 1947 they had their first daughter, Michiko, and in 1949 they had their second daughter, Mieko.
After he was demobilized, Nakasone returned to the Interior Ministry. Under Japan's first constitution, the emperor assigned the right to rule to his appointed officials. In December 1946 Japan's new constitution proclaimed "that sovereign power resides with the people." In Nakasone's words, "This made me realize that I was wasting my time in Tokyo....
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