Munemori Akagi
was a Japanese politician and historian who served three times as Minister of Agriculture and once as Director of the Japan Defense Agency (now the Ministry of Defense). Life and career Akagi was born in Ueno Village, Makabe District, Ibaraki Prefecture on December 2, 1904. After graduating from Tokyo Imperial University's Faculty of Law, he was elected mayor of his home village. In 1937, he ran for and was successfully elected to the House of Representatives of the National Diet. Following Japan's defeat in World War II, he was purged from the government by the U.S. Occupation of Japan for having supported Japanese militarism during the war, but won his old Diet seat back after the Occupation ended in 1952. In 1957, Akagi joined the cabinet of Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi as Minister of Agriculture, the first of three stints in this role. In 1959, he transitioned to a role as Director of the Defense Agency. At the height of the massive 1960 Anpo protests against the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, in his role as Defense Agency Chief, Akagi strenuously opposed Kishi's proposal to deploy the Japan Self Defense Forces to forcibly suppress the protestors, arguing from a conservative perspective that