Korea refused permission at first He relented in mid-January 1942, during the RzhevViazma strategic operation (January 8–April 20, 1942) KONOE, FUMIMARO (1891–1945) A Kantian philosopher by training and prince of the Imperial family, Konoe served as Japan’s prime minister during the early stages of the Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) He was popular within the Imperial Japanese Army because he headed a “New Order” movement—the Imperial Rule Assistance Association—which mimicked fascist party organizations in Italy and Nazi Germany Imperial General Headquarters saw Konoe’s movement as facilitating mobilization of the Japanese for total war Within a month of taking office in June 1937, the Marco Polo Bridge incident was provoked by the Guandong Army Konoe thereafter led Japan into war with China, a quagmire from which Tokyo did not come unstuck until the defeat of 1945 It was not the last time Konoe allowed the Army to set policy by acting unilaterally in the field His direct responsibility for the disaster of the Sino–Japanese War dates to January 16, 1938, when he issued an infamous “we will not meet” decree refusing to negotiate a settlement with Chinese authorities His subsequent political efforts focused on breaking China apart by working with hand-picked collaborators, notably Wang Jingwei Such men commanded no loyalty in China and could never make a real peace with Japan Konoe resigned as premier in January 1939 He returned to the premiership at a critical moment on July 22, 1940, just as the Army and Navy agreed to pursue new aggressions into Southeast Asia: the nanshin road Konoe thereafter presided over sharp deterioration in Japan’s relations with the United States He was replaced as premier by General Hideki To¯jo¯ in October 1941, just weeks before the attack on Pearl Harbor in the first week of December In July 1945, Konoe was appointed to lead a mission to Moscow to seek Soviet mediation of Japan’s surrender to the Western Allies, but Joseph Stalin refused to receive him Konoe committed suicide in prison in mid-December 1945, while waiting to be brought before the bar of justice at the Tokyo Tribunal KONRAD (JANUARY 1945) “Conrad.” Code name for the German counteroffensive in Hungary mounted on January 1, 1945, by 4th Panzer Corps It goal was to relieve a siege of four German and two Hungarian divisions fighting desperately in surrounded Budapest The transfer of an entire Panzer corps to Hungary from Army Group Center seriously weakened Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS forces defending against the Soviet Vistula-Oder operation launched 11 days later KONRAD failed, as did a belated breakout attempt by the garrison The last resistance in Buda ended on February 13 KONZENTRATIONSLAGER (KZ) See concentration camps; death camps; Holocaust KOREA Having cleared the way diplomatically with agreements with Russia, Britain, and the United States, in 1910 Tokyo ended the legal fiction of 641