The second chapter is devoted to Hirota’s life prior to his entrance to the Japanese foreign ministry in 1906. He was born the son of a stonemason of relatively modest means but was able to secure entry to the Shūyūkan, a prominent local school, and then the First High School in Tokyo, the most competitive high school in the country. Central to Hirota’s upbringing and the development of his political beliefs was the Gen’yōsha, a nationalist organization headquartered near his childhood home in Fukuoka noted for its Pan-Asianist leanings. Hirota’s connections with the Gen’yōsha would provide him with financial assistance for his studies during this period as well as introductions to influential figures within the foreign ministry. Hirota would remain affiliated with the Gen’yōsha for the rest of his life, and this would be one factor behind his arrest following the Second World War.