Ōyama Iwao

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Field Marshal General Ōyama

Ōyama Iwao ( Japanese 大 山 巌 ; born November 12, 1842 in Kagoshima , Satsuma Province (today: Kagoshima Prefecture ); † December 10, 1916 in Tokyo ) was a Japanese General Field Marshal ( Gensui ) and commander in chief in the Russo-Japanese War .

Life

Start of career

Ōyama Iwao at a young age

Ōyama was born into a samurai family in Satsuma - han and joined the military at the beginning of the Meiji Restoration . During this time, the British military musician John William Fenton visited , who inspired the young officers to write a national anthem. Ōyama, who was very talented lyrically and musically, was well versed in Japanese and Chinese literature and suggested an old Japanese poem ( Kimigayo ) as the text of the national anthem .

Ōyama during the Russo-Japanese War
Ōyama with his wife Sutematsu

In 1870 he was sent to Europe to study at the renowned French military school Saint-Cyr . During this time he was the first Louis Vuitton customer to manufacture the luggage for his stay in Europe. He also spent some time in Geneva studying foreign languages. During this stay abroad, for example, he learned the Russian language perfectly.

As a commander

In the First Sino-Japanese War he was appointed commander of the 2nd Army and captured the strategically important city of Port Arthur and the fortresses of Weihai . He was then appointed by Tennō Meiji to Kōshaku ( margrave ) and in 1898 to Gensui (field marshal general).

During the Boxer Rebellion , he became chief of staff in the Japanese army . During the uprising he had close and friendly contacts with the commander-in-chief of the multinational force, the German field marshal Alfred Graf von Waldersee . Waldersee visited Japan after the fighting in China and of course Ōyama too. Both talked about the coming problems with the Russian Empire. Waldersee prepared a plan of deployment of the Japanese army for himself privately in Hanover , which was almost identical to unabhängigyama independently of Ōyama.

In the Russo-Japanese War he led the troops of the Japanese army and was victorious in his campaign against the Russian Empire in Manchuria . He then received the highest assignable nobility Kōshaku (prince) from Tenno Meiji and a pompous sword as a gift.

With this title of nobility, Ōyama automatically got a seat in the manor house of the Japanese parliament.

politics

Ōyama has been Minister of Defense in various Japanese cabinets several times and has always been a clear opponent of liberal democratization in Japan, so that he can be classified as a conservative hardliner . Due to his political stance as a successful general, he was an important role model for the coming generations of the Japanese political military.

In 1912 he was appointed Genrō (member of the council of senior statesmen).

Private

He was a very well-read and educated man who was fluent in several foreign languages. This tendency towards the foreign was also reflected in his house in Tokyo, which he had built in the style of a German palace. His wife didn't like the house very much and insisted that some rooms be furnished in a purely Japanese way. There has been much controversy among the Japanese elite over the style of the house. The house was completely destroyed in American bomber raids during World War II.

death

Ōyama was very tall compared to the Japanese average and loved good food. He was overweight and developed diabetes in later years , which was associated with the known secondary diseases and from which he finally died at the age of 75.

Individual evidence

  1. The Oyama pomp sword finds its way. Retrieved June 3, 2020 .

Web links

Commons : Ōyama Iwao  - collection of images, videos and audio files