The rapid rise of Japan’s first modern army was a remarkable accomplishment that succeeded against long odds. Army leaders faced difficult options whose outcomes were never certain. Their choices set the army on a course whose direction was buffeted by foreign threats, altered by personalities, and changed by domestic developments. What continues to define the army, however, is its fall, a descent into ruthlessness and barbarity during the 1930s whose repercussions are still felt today through much of Asia. That legacy will forever haunt the old army.
Appendix 1
War Ministers and Army Chiefs of Staff
Army Ministers under the Council of State
Military Department
Ōmura Masujirō
July 1869–September 1869
Maebara Issei
December 1869–September 1870
Vacant
Lt. Gen. Yamagata Aritomo
July 1871–February 1873
Army Ministry
Vacant
Lt. Gen. Yamagata Aritomo June
1873–February 1874
Vacant
Maj. Gen. Tsuda Izuru
April 1874–June 1874 (acting)
Lt. Gen. Yamagata Aritomo
June 1874–December 1878
Lt. Gen. Saigō Tsugumichi
February 1877–November 1877 (acting)
Lt. Gen. Saigō Tsugumichi
September 1878–November 1878 (acting)
Lt. Gen. Saigō Tsugumichi
December 1878–February 1880
Lt. Gen. Ōyama Iwao
February 1880–December 1885
Installation Dates of Prime Ministers, War Ministers, and Army Chiefs of Staff under the Cabinet System, 1885–1945
Prime Minister
War Minister
Army Chief of Staff
Itō Hirobumi
December 1885
Lt. Gen. Ōyama Iwao
December 1885
Prince Arisugawa Taruhito
March 1886
Kuroda Kiyotaka
April 1888
Lt. Gen. Ozawa Takeo
May 1889
Yamagata Aritomo
December 1889
Prince Arisugawa Taruhito
March 1890
Matsukata Masayoshi
May 1891
Lt. Gen. Takashima Tomonosuke
May 1891
Prince Komatsu Akihito
January 1895
Itō Hirobumi
August 1892
Gen. Ōyama Iwao
August 1892
Matsukata Masayoshi
September 1896
Gen. Saigō Tsugumichi (acting)
October 1894
Yamagata Aritomo
March 1895
Adm. Saigō Tsugumichi (acting)
April 1895
Gen. Ōyama Iwao
May 1895
Lt. Gen. Takashima Tomonosuke
September 1896
Itō Hirobumi
January 1898
Gen. Katsura Tarō
January 1898
Lt. Gen. Kawakami Sōroku
January 1898
Ōkuma Shigenobu
June 1898
Yamagata Aritomo
November 1898
Lt. Gen. Kodama Gentarō
December 1900
Gen. Ōyama Iwao
May 1899
Itō HirobumiOctber 1900
Katsura TarōJune 1901
Gen. Terauchi Masatake
March 1902
Yamagata AritomoJune 1904
Saionji Kinmochi
January 1906
Gen. Kodama Gentarō
April 1906
Katsura Tarō
July 1908
Gen. Oku Yasukata
July 1906
Saionji Kinmochi
August 1911
Lt. Gen. Ishimoto Shinroku
August 1911
Gen. Hasegawa Yoshimichi
January 1912
Katsura Tarō
December 1912
Lt. Gen. Uehara Yūsaku
April 1912
Yamamoto Gonbei
February 1913
Lt. Gen. Kigoshi Yasutsuna
January 1912
Lt. Gen. Kusunose Sachihiko
June 1913
Ōkuma Shigenobu
April 1914
Lt. Gen. Oka Ichinotsuke
April 1914
Gen. Uehara Yūsaku
December 1915
Terauchi Masatake
October 1916
Lt. Gen. Ōshima Kenichi
August 1915
Hara Kei
September 1918
Lt. Gen. Tanaka Giichi
September 1918
Takahashi Korekiyo
November 1921
Lt. Gen. Yamanashi Kenzō
June 1921
Katō Tomosaburō
Jun-22
Gen. Tanaka Giichi
September 1923
Gen. Kaai Misao
March 1924
Yamamoto Gonbei
September 1923
Lt. Gen. Ugaki Kazushige
January 1924
Kiyoura Keigo
January 1924
Katō Kōmei
Jun-25
Wakatsuki Reijirō
January 1926
Gen. Shirakawa Yoshinori
April 1927
Gen. Suzuki Sōroku
March 1926
Tanaka Giichi
April 1927
Hamaguchi Osachi
July 1929
Gen. Ugaki Kazushige
July 1929
Gen. Kanaya Kenzō
February 1930
Watatsuki Reijirō
April 1931
Lt. Gen. Abe Nobuyuki
June 1930 (acting)
Gen. Minami Jirō
April 1931
Inukai Tsuyoshi
December 1931
Lt. Gen. Araki Sadao
December 1931
Prince Kan’in Kotohito
December 1931
Saitō Makoto
May 1932
Gen. Hayashi Senjurō
September 1934
Okada Keisuke
July 1934
Gen. KawashimaYoshiyuki
September 1935
Hirota Kōki
March 1936
Gen. Terauchi Hisaichi
March 1936
Hayashi Senjurō
February 1937
Lt. Gen. Nakamura Kōtarō
February 1937
Konoe Fumimaro
June 1937
Gen. Sugiyama Hajime
February 1937
Hiranuma Kiichirō
January 1939
Gen. Itagaki Seishirō
June 1938
Abe Nobuyuki
August 1939
Gen. Hata Shunroku
August 1939
Yonai Mitsumasa
January 1940
Konoe Fumimaro
July 1940
Gen. Tōjō Hideki
July 1940
Gen. Sugiyama Hajime
October 1940
Konoe Fumimaro
July 1941
Gen. Tōjō Hideki
October 1941
Gen. Tōjō Hideki
February 1944
Gen. Umezu Yoshijirō
July 1944
Koiso Kuniaki
July 1944
Gen. Sugiyama Hajime
July 1944
Suzuki Kantarō
April 1945
Gen. Anami Korechika
April 1945
Prince Higashikuni
Naruhiko
August 1945
Prince Higashikuni Naruhiko
August 1945 (acting)
Shidehara Kijurō
October 1945
Gen. Shimomura Sadamu
August 1945
&
nbsp; Appendix 2
Japanese Field Army Headquarters in China, 1937–1939
Date
Headquarters
August 26, 1937
China Garrison Army inactivated; North China Area Army activated
August 15, 1937
Shanghai Expeditionary Army activated (inactivated March 14, 1938)
August 26, 1937
North China Area Army activated
November 7, 1937
IGHQ organized Central China Area Army (Provisional) with Shanghai Expeditionary Army and 10th Army as main force; this becomes Central China Expeditionary Army (officially activated on December 1, 1937)
September 19, 1938
IGHQ activated 21st Army for south China operations
December 15, 1938
Organic units of 2d Army assigned to 11th Army; 2d Army inactivated upon return to Japan
September 23, 1939
Central China Expeditionary Army inactivated and same day China Expeditionary Army (September 12, 1939) activated along with 13th Army
September 23, 1939
North China Army activated
November 1939
China Expeditionary Army
North China Area Army (all garrison units)
First Army
Twelfth Army
Mongolia Garrison Army
3 divisions attached directly to Area Army
Directly attached to China Expeditionary Army
Eleventh Army
Thirteenth Army
Twenty-First Army
3d Air Group
Notes
Chapter 1. Prelude to Imperial Restoration
1. I have omitted macrons in the case of major Japanese cities. Unless otherwise noted, all Japanese-language secondary sources were published in Tokyo.
2. Fujiwara Akira, Nihon gendaishi taikei [An outline of contemporary Japanese history], Gunjishi [Military history] (Tōyō keizai shinpōsha, 1961), 6–8.
3. Hōya Tōru, Sensō no Nishonshi [Warfare in Japanese history] 18, Boshin sensō [The Boshin war] (Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 2007), 44; Kaneko Tsunenori,Heiki to senjutsu no Nihonshi [A history of weapons and tactics in Japan] (Hara shobō, 1982), 142–143.
4. Japan adopted the Julian calendar in 1873. I have converted earlier dates from the Japanese lunar calendar to the Julian calendar according to the table in appendix 3 of Rekishigaku kenkyūkai, ed., Nihonshi nenpyō [A chronological table of Japanese history] (Iwanami shinsho, 1966).
5. Konishi Shirō, Nihon no rekishi [A history of Japan] 19, Kaikoku to jōi [Open the country and expel the barbarians] (Chūō kōron, 1966), 274–276, 283–286.
6. Kaneko, Heiki to senjutsu, 142.
7. See Noguchi Takehiko, Chōshū sensō [The Chōshū wars] (Chūkō shinsho, 2006), 44; Sun Tzu, The Art of War, translated by Samuel B. Griffith (London: Oxford University Press, 1963), 91 and n1.
8. Noguchi, Chōshū sensō, 74–76.
9. Fujiwara, Gunjishi, 12.
10. Ibid., 10; Roger F. Hackett, Yamagata Aritomo in the Rise of Modern Japan, 1838–1922 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1971), 38, 40–41.
11. Noguchi, Chōshū sensō, 187.
12. Ibid., 204–215.
13. Ibid., 167–168; Konishi, Kaikoku to jōi, 414.
14. Kaneko, Heiki to senjutsu, 144–145.
15. Hata Ikuhiko, Tōsuiken to teikoku rikukaigun no jidai [Supreme command in the age of the imperial army and navy] (Heibonsha shinsho, 2006), 101; Takemoto Tomoyuki, “Ōmura Masujirō ni okeru Yōshiki heihōron no keisei” [Western-style warfare in Ōmura Masujirō’s formulations], Gunji shigaku 38:2 (September 2002), 22–23, 31–32.
16. Hōya, Boshin sensō, 46–47. Rumors persisted that Kōmei was poisoned to make way for the more pliable boy-emperor Meiji. In 1990, however, definitive evidence appeared that Kōmei suffered from purpura and died from hemorrhaging associated with the disease.
17. Inoue Kiyoshi, Nihon no rekishi [A history of Japan] 20, Meiji ishin [The Meiji restoration] (Chūō kōronsha, 1966), 54; Hoshikawa Takeo, gen. ed., Rekishi gunzō shirizū tōkubetsu genshū [Illustrated historical series special edition], Kettai han, zusetsu bakumatsu Boshin Seinan sensō [The definitive volume, the illustrated account of the bakumatsu, Boshin, and Satsuma wars] (Gakken kenkyūsha, 2006), 98–103; Fujioka Kenjirō, ed., Nihon rekishi chimei jiten [Geographical dictionary of Japanese history] (Tokyoto shuppan, 1981), 357.
18. Hirao Michio, Boshin sensōshi [A history of the Boshin war] (Misaki shobō, 1971), 11; Charles D. Sheldon, “The Politics of the Civil War of 1868,” in W. G. Beasley, ed., Modern Japan: Aspects of History, Literature, and Society (Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle, 1976), 35; Sasaki Suguru, Boshin sensō [The Boshin war] (Chūkō shinsho, 1977), 24.
19. Hoshikawa, Kettai han, zusetsu bakumatsu Boshin Seinan sensō, 102–103; Hirao, Boshin sensōshi, 11; Sheldon, “Civil War,” 35.
20. Hōya, Boshin sensō, 62, 67; Inoue, Meiji Ishin, 58; Sheldon, “Civil War,” 35. On possession of the emperor’s person, see John Whitney Hall, “A Monarch for Modern Japan,” in Robert E. Ward, ed., Political Development in Modern Japan (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1968), 44.
21. Hōya, Boshin sensō, 68. Ninnaji was born as Prince Yoshiaki but entered the Buddhist priesthood at age 12, taking the title Ninnaji no miya. He returned to secular life in 1867 as a junior councilor at the court. He was the nephew of Prince Arisugawa.
22. Sasaki, Boshin sensō, 28; Inoue, Meiji ishin, 54–59; Sheldon, “Civil War,” 37–39; Hirao, Boshin sensōshi, 20; Fujiwara, Gunjishi, 17; Hoshikawa, Kettai han, zusetsu bakumatsu Boshin Seinan sensō, 102–103; Hōya, Boshin sensō, 80, 287.
Chapter 2. Civil War and the New Army
1. Kumagai Tadasu [Kumagai Mikahisa], Teikoku rikukaigun no kisō chishiki [A basic knowledge of the imperial army and navy] (Kōjinsha NF bunko, 2007), 156; Hackett, Yamagata, 56.
2. Ikuda Makoto, Nihon rikugunshi [A history of Japan’s army] (Kyōikusha, 1980), 20–21.
3. One koku equaled about five U.S. bushels. Fujiwara, Gunjishi, 24–25; Kumagai Mikahisa, Nihongun to jinteki seidō to mondai ten no kenkyū [Research about the personnel system of the Japanese military and problem areas] (Kokusho kyōin, 1995), 24; IchisakaTarō, Chōshū kiheitai [The Chōshū kiheitai] (Chūkō shinsho, 2002), 195–197.
4. Bōeicho bōei senshishitsu, ed. [Japan, defense agency, military history department], Senshi sōsho [Official military history] 8, Daihon’ei rikugunbu [Imperial general headquarters, army department] (Asagumo shimbunsha, 1967), part 1, 4; Fujiwara, Gunjishi, 19.
5. Hōya, Boshin sensō, 127, 171. One ryō was the equivalent of one U.S. dollar. In June 1871 the Japanese government announced the New Currency Ordinance that created the yen, which was equivalent to US$1. Toshiki Tomita, “Government Bonds in the Meiji Restoration Period,” Nōmura Research Institute, NHI Papers No. 87, March 1, 2005, 5. The yen steadily depreciated to $0.50 by 1894 and stabilized there until 1932, when it sunk to $0.28; by 1941 it was worth $0.23. Kyoto daigaku bungakubu, kokushi kenkyūshitsu, ed., Nihon kindaishi jiten [Dictionary of modern Japanese history] (Tōyō keizai shinpōsha, 1976 ed.), table 49, 899.
6. Hōya, Boshin sensō, 46–47; Sheldon, “Civil War,” 47.
7. Hōya, Boshin sensō, 235, 257; Sasaki, Boshin sensō, 147.
8. See Ivan Morris, The Nobility of Failure: Tragic Heroes in the History of Japan(NewYork: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1975), 229–230.
9. Sasaki Suguru, Boshin sensō, 60; Hōya, Boshin sensō, 164–166; M. William Steele, “The Rise and Fall of the Shōgitai: A Social Drama,” in Tetsuo Najita and J. Victor Koschmann, eds., Conflict in Modern Japanese History: The Neglected Tradition (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982), 133, 137.
10. Sasaki, Boshin sensō, 62.
11. Fujiwara, Gunjishi, 20; Hirao, Boshin sensōshi, 57–58; Hoshikawa, gen. ed., Zusetsu bakumatsu Boshin Seinan sensō, 112–115.
12. Sasaki, Boshin sensō, 63; Hirao, Boshin sensōshi, 6
0, 62.
13. Inoue, Meiji ishin, 110–111; Steele, “Rise and Fall of the Shōgitai,” 141, 144; Sheldon, “Civil War,” 44.
14. Sasaki, Boshin sensō, 108. The league was later joined by six other domains and allied itself with Aizu.
15. Harold Bolitho, “The Eichigo War, 1868,” Monumentica Nipponica 34:3 (Autumn 1979), 262, 265; Kaneko, Heiki to senjutsu, 149–152.
16. Bolitho, “Eichigo War,” 264.
17. Hirao, Boshin sensōshi, 129.
18. Hata, Tōsuiken to teikoku, 101; Hirao, Boshin sensōshi, 123; Hoshikawa, Zusetsu bakumatsu Boshin Seinan sensō, 126–127.
19. Bolitho, “Eichigo War,” 265; Hirao, Boshin sensōshi, 159.
20. Inoue, Meiji ishin, 112–113; Hirao, Boshin sensōshi, 167.
21. Hōya, Boshin sensō, 226–230.
22. Suzuki Akira, Shiba Ryōtarō to mitsu no sensō [Shiba Ryōtarō and three wars] (Asahi shimbunsha, 2004), 22–23; Ōe Shinobu, Yasukuni jinja [The Yasukuni shrine] (Iwanami shoten, 1984), 118–119; Hōya, Boshin sensō, 226; Ichisaka, Chōshū kiheitai, 180.
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