Ku Klux Klan ill-advised sideshows were the French’s badly bungled operations on the western front, with each defeat contributing to the erosion of Kitchener’s once immense reputation Though they were hardly his fault, he was held responsible as the supreme warlord when things went wrong An influential section of the cabinet came to see his methods as the principal cause of the defeats, rather than the outcome of their own interference, and gradually stripped him of much of his authority Late in May 1916, Kitchener accepted an invitation to visit Russia in the hope that he could use his influence to bolster the waning enthusiasm of the Russian armies On June the cruiser HMS Hampshire, carrying Kitchener to Archangel, hit a mine and sank, and practically everyone aboard, including Kitchener, were lost Recent scholarship has refuted many myths about Kitchener that his detractors circulated after his death That he made mistakes is undeniable; he refused to admit his cabinet colleagues into his confidence, was unable or unwilling to delegate authority, and tended to ignore the Imperial General Staff That said, his accomplishments greatly overshadowed his errors He not only singlehandedly kept Britain in the war when the French wanted to cut and run, but also built a formidable army, which sustained the Allies in the war, stepping into the breach left by the collapse of Russia and the exhaustion of France When everything is said and done, it can be fairly claimed that Kitchener contributed more to the victory of the Allies than any other single individual See also Afrikaners, South Africa; World War I Further reading: Cassar, George H Kitchener’s War Washington, DC: Brassey’s, 2005; Magnus, Philip Kitchener, Portrait of an Imperialist New York: Dutton, 1959; Pollard, John Kitchener London: Constable, 1998 George H Cassar Konoe Fumimaro (1891–1945) Japanese politician Prince Fumimaro Konoe was born into the aristocratic Fujiwara clan and studied at Tokyo Imperial University and Kyoto Imperial University, graduating from the law faculty of the latter institution in 1917 In his political career he was a protégé of Saionji Kinmochi, a member of the court aristocracy who served two terms as prime minister Early in his political career Konoe attended the Paris Peace Conference and later criticized the 191 conference as an attempt by Western nations to preserve their already considerable spheres of influence Konoe’s status as a prince allowed him membership in the upper house of the Japanese Diet (house of peers), where he served as vice president and then president He first became prime minister of Japan in June 1937 and would serve three times in that post Konoe was a moderate like his mentor Saionji and was particularly concerned with tempering the power of the military However, after the Marco Polo Bridge incident led to the outbreak of an undeclared war between China and Japan, Konoe’s unsuccessful attempts to end that conflict contributed to the downfall of his cabinet in 1939 Konoe was reappointed prime minister in July 1940 and was involved in intense negotiations with the United States, hoping it could act as a mediator in the conflict between Japan and China on terms favorable to Japan He also negotiated a nonaggression pact between Japan and the Soviet Union in 1941 Konoe resigned as prime minister in October 1941 in favor of the war minister, General Hideki Tojo, and was not centrally involved in the Japanese government again until the conclusion of World War II After Japan’s surrender in August 1945, Konoe served in the government of Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni Konoe took his own life with potassium cyanide after it was announced by the American general Douglas MacArthur, supreme commander of the Allied Forces and supervisor of the postwar occupation of Japan, that Konoe would be tried as a war criminal It allowed him to evade the disgrace of conviction and execution by hanging Konoe’s grandson, Morihiro Hosokawa, served as prime minister of Japan from August 1993 to April 1994 See also World War I Further reading: Oka Yoshitake Konoe Fumimaro: A Political Biography Shumpei Okamoto and Patricia Murray, trans Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1983; Tarling, Nicholas A Sudden Rampage: The Japanese Occupation of Southeast Asia, 1941–1945 Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2001; Morley, James William The Final Confrontation: Japan’s Negotiations with the United States, 1941 Edited and translated by David Titus New York: Columbia Press, 1994 Sarah Boslaugh Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (KKK, or Klan) refers to two distinct organizations, separated in time by nearly half a