Ōsumi Mineo

Ōsumi Mineo (1933)

Baron Ōsumi Mineo ( Japanese 大角 岑 生 ; * May 1, 1876 in Kōchi Prefecture ; † February 5, 1941 in Guangzhou , Japanese-occupied territory of China ) was a Japanese admiral in the Imperial Navy , who served from 1931 to 1932 and again between 1933 and in 1936 was Minister of the Navy .

Life

Military training and naval officer

Ōsumi Mineo, who grew up in Aichi Prefecture , began his training as a midshipman and participant in the 24th course at the Imperial Japanese Navy Academy (Kaigun Heigakkō) . After he had completed his training as the third best of 18 participants, he was promoted to ensign at sea on October 8, 1897 and transferred to the training ship Hiei . This was followed by a brief assignment on board the protected cruiser Itsukushima from November 5 to December 26, 1897 and on the unit ship of the line Yashima between December 26, 1897 and October 1, 1898 , where he was also a lieutenant on April 1, 1898 See (Shōi) was promoted. After a subsequent employment on board the cruiser Chiyoda , he was an officer on the armored cruiser Azuma between May 1, 1899 and January 23, 1901 . With this he took part in a trip to France from May 1, 1899 to October 29, 1900 and was promoted to First Lieutenant at Sea (Chui) on September 29, 1899 .

Ōsumi was acting section officer on board the Corvette Tenryū from March 23 to September 4, 1901 and then acting section officer and then, after his promotion to lieutenant captain ( Daii ) on October 1, 1901, section officer in the sailor's corps at the Yokosuka base . After a use between October 4, 1901 and January 24, 1902 as a section officer on the armored cruiser Asama , he was from January 24, 1902 to May 8, 1904, chief navigation officer on the protected cruiser Saien .

Russo-Japanese War and World War I

Ōsumi Mineo was from 1912 to 1913 aide-de-camp of Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō , who had been promoted to Fleet Admiral ( Gensui ) on April 21, 1913

He then acted from May 8, 1904 to March 15, 1905 as chief navigation officer on the protected cruiser Matsushima , with which he participated in troop transports of the 2nd Army of the Imperial Army during the Russo-Japanese War and from August 1, 1904 participated in the siege of Port Arthur . Less than a week later, on August 10, 1904, he took part in the naval battle in the Yellow Sea . From March 15 to August 5, 1905, he was the chief navigation officer on the coastal defense ship Manshu-maru and subsequently navigation instructor and instructor at the Naval Academy.

While Ōsumi Mineo completed the A course at the Naval College (Kaigun Daigakkō) from August 5, 1906 to December 18, 1907 , he was promoted to Corvette Captain (Shōsa) on September 28, 1906 . Subsequently, from December 18, 1907 to January 27, 1909, he was employed as a staff officer in the Department of Naval Affairs in the Navy Ministry and, from October 10, 1908, as an instructor at the Naval College. In the following period he was from January 27, 1909 to July 12, 1912 staff officer at the naval attaché at the embassy in the German Empire and as such was promoted to frigate captain (Chūsa) on December 1, 1911 . After his return to Japan he acted between July 12, 1912 and May 24, 1913 as aide-de-camp of Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō , who was a member of the Navy Council and on April 21, 1913 had been promoted to Fleet Admiral ( Gensui ) .

Subsequently, between May 24, 1913 and April 21, 1914, he was employed as deputy commander of the armored cruiser Tsukuba , whereupon he moved to the Ministry of Navy as a staff officer on April 21, 1914. Subsequently, between May 27 and December 1, 1914, he was an officer in the General Staff of the Imperial Japanese Navy , a staff officer in the Department of Naval Affairs and a staff officer in the naval training command . On 11 December 1914 he was Secretary of Navy Minister Admiral Yashiro Rokuro and after his promotion to Captain (Daisa) on December 13, 1915 Adjutant at the Marine Ministry, before he as commander of the 1 December 1917 Unit battleship Asahi took his first ship command .

Promotion to Admiral and Minister of the Navy

Sea captain Ōsumi Mineo took over in 1917 as the commander of the standard ship Asahi, his first own ship command

On December 1, 1918, he first became a member of the staff of the naval attaché at the legation in France, before he was himself a naval attaché at the legation in France from March 1, 1919 to July 1, 1921. As such, he was between March 10, 1919 and January 21, 1920 also a member of the delegation at the Versailles Peace Conference and was promoted to Rear Admiral (Shōshō) on December 1, 1920 . After his return he was from October 1, 1921 to January 10, 1922 both an officer in the General Staff of the Imperial Navy and a staff officer in the Ministry of the Navy, and then an officer in the staff of the Yokosuka Naval District, before he was between May 1, 1922 and December 1 1923 Head of the Department of Naval Affairs in the Ministry of Navy and at the same time a member of the Admiralty Committee.

After a year’s use as commander of the 3rd Squadron, Ōsumi Mineo was promoted to Vice Admiral (Chūjō) on December 1, 1924 and an officer in the General Staff of the Navy. He then acted from April 15, 1925 to December 10, 1928 as Vice Minister of the Navy and was thus deputy to the then Minister of Navy Takarabe Takeshi and, most recently, Okada Keisuke . During this time he was again a member of the Admiralty Committee and then took over from October 10, 1928 to November 11, 1929 the post of commander in chief of the 2nd Fleet.

On November 11, 1929 Ōsumi was commander-in-chief of the Yokosuka Marine District and again a member of the Admiralty Committee and held this post until December 1, 1931. During this time, on April 1, 1931, he was promoted to Admiral (Taisho) . As such, he was a member of the Navy Council for the first time from December 1 to December 13, 1931. On December 13, 1931, Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi appointed him as Minister of the Navy in his cabinet , which he belonged to after Inukai's murder during the incident on May 15, 1932 until the end of the provisional administration of Finance Minister Takahashi Korekiyo on May 26, 1932.

After he was subsequently again a member of the Navy Council, Ōsumi Mineo was appointed on January 9, 1933 by Prime Minister Saitō Makoto as the successor to Admiral Okada Keisuke as Minister of the Navy in his cabinet . From July 8, 1934 to March 9, 1936, he also held the post of Minister of the Navy in the cabinet subsequently formed by Prime Minister Okada Keisuke . During this time he was raised on December 26, 1935 as a baron (Danshaku) in the hereditary nobility ( Kazoku ) and on January 31, 1936 also a member of the Privy Privy Council ( Sūmitsu-in ) , a body to advise the Tennō.

After leaving the ministerial office, Ōsumi was again a member of the Naval Council on March 9, 1936 and served from March 28, 1936 until his death on February 5, 1941 as chairman of the high-tech committee of the Naval Council. On February 5, 1941, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, he was killed when his plane was shot down by Chinese guerrilla forces on a flight to Hainan over Guangzhou .

Background literature

• Herbert P. Bix: Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan , Harper Perennial, 2001, ISBN 0-06-093130-2 .
• Lisle A. Rose: Power at Sea: The Breaking Storm 1919-1945 , University of Missouri Press, 2006 ISBN 0-8262-1702-8 .
• Ronald Spector: Eagle Against the Sun: The American War With Japan , Vintage, 1985, ISBN 0-394-74101-3 .

Web links

• Entry on Imperial Japanese Navy
• Foreign News: End of Osumi . In: Time of February 17, 1941

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Osumi is the family name, Mineo the first name.