FACTBOX: Five facts on Japan's ex-defense minister

(Reuters) - Japanese Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma resigned on Tuesday after sparking controversy by saying that the 1945 U.S. atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki had been inevitable.

Kyuma apologized for the remarks made on Saturday when he said: "I understand that the bombings brought the war to its end. I think it was something that couldn't be helped."

Here are five facts on Kyuma.

* Born in Nagasaki in 1940, the University of Tokyo law graduate won election in 1971 to the Nagasaki Prefectural Assembly where he served for nine years. He was elected to the lower house of the national parliament in 1980.

* Kyuma first served as Japanese defense chief under Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto from 1996 to 1998.

* Incoming Prime Minister Shinzo Abe brought him back as Minister of State for Defense in September 2006. In January, his title was upgraded to Defense Minister when the Defense Agency, established in 1945, was given full-fledged ministry status.

* Kyuma's plain-talking style quickly gained him a reputation for political gaffes in conformist Japan.

* In January, he said the U.S. invasion of Iraq had been a mistake. While the Japanese public shares that view, their government has staunchly backed the U.S. mission in Iraq, sending 600 ground troops there on a non-combat mission.

Sources: Reuters, Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet Website,

(www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/abedaijin/060926/14kyuma_e.html)