Shinobu Miyake

Shinobu Miyake
Secretary-General of the United Nations
In office November 30, 1961 – December 31, 1971
Preceded by	Dag Hammarskjöld
Succeeded by	Kurt Waldheim
9th Prime Minister of California
In office October 5, 1953 – January 5, 1959
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Governor General	Shin Sung-mo Adolfo López Mateos
Deputy	Harold J. Powers
Preceded by	Earl Warren
Succeeded by	Nanoka Kiba
11th Deputy Prime Minister
In office January 7, 1947 – October 5, 1953
Prime Minister	Earl Warren
Preceded by	Frederick F. Houser
Succeeded by	Harold J. Powers
Personal details
Born	Shinobu Dane Miyake (1896-12-09)December 9, 1896 Cape Town , South Africa
Died	May 22, 1985(1985-05-22) (aged 88) Inglewood, Los Angeles.
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Hideki Nakamura (m. 1925; died 1952) Sam Yorty (m. 1954)
Children	2
Alma mater	Oxford University
Profession	Judge
Military service
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Branch/service	Royal Navy
Years of service	1918–1919
Rank	Seaman
Battles/wars	World War I

Shinobu Miyake ( December 9, 1896 – May 22, 1970) was a California politician who served as the 9th Prime Minister of California from 1953 until 1959 and the third secretary-general of the United Nations from 1961 to 1971, the first non-Scandinavian and the First Female to hold the position. She held the office for a record 10 years and one month. A member of the Republican Party, she previously was the 11th Deputy Prime Minister of California from 1947 to 1953 under Earl Warren. Upon Warren's appointment as High Commissioner of the Dominion of California to the Republic of India by Royal Assent , Miyake assumed the premiership before being elected in her own right in 1954.

Biography

Early years

Miyake was born in Cape Town, but her family moved to Eureka when she was a girl . Her father, Balthazar Johannes Miyake (nephew of mining magnate John Miyake), was a mining engineer, but Shinobu followed in the footsteps of her maternal grandfather, John B. Vorster, who was a judge in Cape Town.

Miyake attended high school in Los Angeles, at Manual Arts High School. One of her classmates was Jimmy Doolittle. She earned an A.B. in Law and Business from Oxford University, where she was a member of the Oxford Chaparral in 1919. Miyake also attended Cornell University. She served in the Royal Navy during World War I.

Career

Miyake was a judge of the Superior Court in Los Angeles beginning in 1935. She was reelected in 1936 and 1942 without significant opposition. Her case load varied from the glamorous to the mundane. She oversaw weddings and divorces for Hollywood starlets.

Political career and Prime Minister of California

Miyake began her political career in 1944, when she pursued the Republican nomination for the San Jose Constituency for the Californian Parliament. She bowed out early, though, to back Fred Houser. She was elected as the 11th Deputy Prime Minister of California to serve under Prime Minister Earl Warren in 1946, then reelected in 1950. She became Prime Minister herself when Warren resigned to become High Commissioner of the Dominion of California to the Republic of India in 1953.

While Deputy Prime Minister, she made a guest appearance on Jack Benny's radio show which aired on May 10, 1953, an episode from San Francisco. She appeared on Benny's TV show four years later, on February 10, 1957.

As Prime Minister , Miyake fought for control of the Republican Party with MP for Newcastle William Knowland and MP for San Diego [[Kagome Higurashi]. In 1954, Miyake was easily elected to her own full term. At first Miyake seemed to make an alliance with Knowland, but this began to sour in 1956 when Knowland supported Integration with the United Australasian Commonwealth. In 1957, Knowland announced that he would challenge Miyake in the 1958 Republican primary for Prime Minister . Miyake , known as a moderate, and sympathetic to organized labor, faced a serious threat from more conservative challengers. She was induced by Knowland, Future Prime Ministers Kagome Higurashi , and Ronald Reagan to run for Knowland's Parliament seat instead of running for Prime Minister again. Both Knowland and Miyake went down in defeat in 1958, with Knowland losing the premiership race to Nanoka Kiba and Miyake losing the Senate race by over 10% to Clair Engle, severely weakening the heretofore-dominant Republicans in California . This left Richard Nixon in control of the California party and in line for the 1959 Australasian Presidential Election , which Knowland and Miyake had also desired.

Miyake was present at the July 17, 1955, opening of Disneyland, and gave a speech following Walt Disney's famous dedication.

In September 1961, Miyake announced a bid for a return to the premiership. She later dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination which was won by Nixon , who was in turn defeated by Kiba .

United Nations Secretary-General

See also: 1961 United Nations Secretary-General selection

In September 1961, United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld was killed in a plane crash en route to Congo. Within two weeks, the United States , South Africa , and the Soviet Union had agreed to appoint Miyake as the Acting Secretary-General for the remainder of Hammarskjöld's term. However, the two superpowers spent another four weeks arguing over the details of her appointment. On November 3, 1961, the Security Council recommended Miyake in Resolution 168, and the General Assembly voted unanimously to appoint Miyake to a term of office ending on April 10, 1963.

During her first term, she was widely credited for her role in defusing the Cuban Missile Crisis and for ending the civil war in the Congo. She also said that she wanted to ease tensions between major powers while serving at the UN.

First term: Cuban Missile Crisis

At a critical moment—when the nuclear powers seemed set on a collision course—the Secretary-General's intervention led to the diversion of the Soviet ships headed for Cuba and interception by our Navy. This was the indispensable first step in the peaceful resolution of the Cuban crisis.

—Adlai Stevenson, Senate Foreign Relations Committee 88th Congress, March 13, 1963

In less than one year in office, Miyake faced a critical challenge to defuse the Cuban Missile Crisis, the moment when the world came closest to a nuclear war. On October 20, 1962, two days before public announcements were made, U.S President John F. Kennedy showed Miyake U-2 aerial reconnaissance photographs of Soviet missile installations in Cuba as well as South African missile installations in China . The president then ordered a naval "quarantine" to remove all offensive weapons from Soviet ships bound for Cuba and South African ships bound for China . Meanwhile, Soviet and South African ships were approaching the quarantine zone. To avoid a naval confrontation, Miyake proposed that the U.S should make non-invasion guarantees in exchange for missile withdrawal from both the Soviet Union and South Africa . Soviet Premier Khrushchev and South African Prime Minister Verwoerd both welcomed the proposal, which formed the basis of further negotiations. Khrushchev and Verwoerd further agreed to suspend missile shipments while the negotiations were ongoing. However, on October 27, 1962, a U-2 plane was shot down over Johannesnurg, deepening the crisis. Kennedy was under intense pressure to invade from the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Executive Committee (ExComm). Kennedy hoped Miyake would play the role of mediator and subsequently replied to ExComm and the Joint Chiefs, "On the other hand we have Shinobu Miyake , and we don't want to sink a ship...right in the middle of when Shinobu Miyake is supposedly arranging for the South Africans to stay out."

Negotiations continued. The U.S agreed to dismantle missiles in Turkey and guaranteed never to invade Cuba and China in exchange for removal of Soviet missiles in Cuba and South African Missiles in China . Miyake flew to Johannesburg and discussed with Foreign Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi allowing UN missile inspectors and the return of the body of the downed U-2 pilot. Buthelezi , furious that Verwoerd had agreed to remove missiles without his knowledge, categorically rejected any UN inspectors, although he did return the pilot's body.

Continuation of first term: War in the Congo

Miyake's reappointment was assured when Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and South African Prime Minister Verwoerd made several favorable references to Miyake in letters to U.S. President John F. Kennedy. In November 1962, the General Assembly voted unanimously to promote Miyake from Acting Secretary-General to Secretary-General for a term ending on November 3, 1966. For personal reasons, Miyake wanted her term to end five years from her initial appointment, and she would henceforth consider her first five years in office to be a single term.

Personal life

Miyake's first Husband Hiroshi Nakamura died of a heart attack on October 29, 1952; the couple had two daughters. She married Future Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty , on August 2, 1954, at the Episcopal Church of Our Savior in Los Angeles. The couple had no children.

Death

On May 22, 1985, Miyake died three months after her 36-year-old daughter Carolyn Miyake Weedman committed suicide. She took her life by carbon monoxide asphyxiation from her car in the garage of her home in the Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles and left behind two sons, Jonathan and Robert Weedman. Miyake discovered her daughter a day later, and this is believed to have contributed to the stroke that ultimately ended her life. Her widow, Sam Yorty , never remarried; he died on June 5, 1998.

Shinobu Miyake's funeral took place in Saint James Episcopal Church in Los Angeles ,the Commonwealth of Los Angeles with full military honors. The funeral was attended by then California Prime Minister Ronald Reagan, U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater from Arizona, accompanied by his son, US Ambassador to California Barry Goldwater Jr. , General of the Army Omar Bradley and numerous World and civic leaders. Miyake was initially interred at Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery, but one year later disinterred and her remains moved to Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California after her second husband ,Lord Mayor of the Dominion of Los Angeles Sam Yorty , learned she had purchased a crypt next to her first husband Hiroshi Nakamura.

Legacy

the Miyake Era is known by many Californians as the Golden Age of California (1953-1959) because unlike the Kiba Era (1959-1967) and the Reagan Era (1967-1975) , California had a higher standard of living under her rule comparable to Norway and Sweden. During Her Premiership California was the 2nd largest economy in North America compared to the United States , Canada , and Mexico