Subscription to Kiyokazu

Subscription to Kiyokazu

Baron Abo Kiyokazu ( Japanese 安 保 清 種 ; * Meiji 3/10/15 ^lunisolar / November 8, 1870 ^greg. In what is now Saga Prefecture ; † June 8, 1948 ) was a Japanese admiral in the Imperial Navy , who was among others from 1930 until 1931 was Minister of the Navy .

Life

Military training and naval officer

Abo Kiyokazu was the son of Sawano Yasusaburō, who was the commander of a military academy, but was adopted by the deputy commander and later vice admiral Abo Kiyoyasu on the condition that he married his daughter. He began as a midshipman and participant in the 18th course his training at the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy (Kaigun Heigakkō) . After he had completed his training as the eleventh best of 61 participants, he was promoted to ensign at sea on July 17, 1891 and transferred to the training ship Hiei . This was followed by uses on board the paddle steamer Jingei , the training ship Kanju , the protected cruiser Matsushima and the unprotected cruiser Takao , on which he became deputy section officer after being promoted to lieutenant at sea (Shōi) on March 1, 1894. After he had attended a course at the shooting training center from April 4 to June 27, 1894, he became deputy section officer on the protected cruiser Itsukushima and then on July 29, 1895, deputy section officer and deputy navigation officer on the gunboat Banjō . After he had completed another course at the shooting training center between December 20, 1895 and March 31, 1896, he returned as a deputy section officer on the protected cruiser Matsushima and was then acting section officer of the Sailor Corps from June 1 to August 25, 1897 in Sasebo. On August 25, 1897 he was transferred to the protected cruiser Izumi , where he was first promoted to First Lieutenant at Sea (Chui) on December 1, 1897 . After he had been promoted to lieutenant captain ( Daii ) just four weeks later , he was first a section officer and then on March 19, 1898, chief navigation officer of the Izumi .

Subsequently, Abo was on May 19, 1898 section officer on the gunboat Tsukushi and was then from July 30, 1898 to May 4, 1899 equipment officer in the Yokosuka Marine District . At the same time, he acted from January 8, 1898, initially as an equipment officer and from December 9, 1898 as the chief gun officer on the gun cruiser Akashi . After a waiting position from October 13 to December 25, 1899 he became an instructor at the shooting training center and was then an officer on board the armored cruiser Izumo from March 14 to December 8, 1900 , with him on a trip to the United Kingdom . After his return he was adjutant in the general staff of the Imperial Japanese Navy between December 8, 1900 and July 8, 1902, and then a section officer on the unit line ship Asahi , before he became chief gun officer on the protected cruiser Suma on February 20, 1903 .

Russo-Japanese War and World War I

As the commander of the protected cruiser Akitsushima , frigate captain Abo Kiyokazu took over his first own ship command in 1910

After his promotion to Korvettenkapitän (Shōsa) he was on September 26, 1903 chief gun officer of the armored cruiser Yakumo . With this he took part during the Russo-Japanese War on February 9, 1904 in the attack on Port Arthur , in the siege of Vladivostok and on August 10, 1904 in the naval battle in the Yellow Sea . Thereupon he was on February 13, 1905 chief gun officer on the unit line ship Mikasa and took part as such from May 27 to 28, 1905 in the naval battle at Tsushima . After serving as an officer in the staff of the Sasebo Naval District from September 29 to December 12, 1912 , he was a member of the Naval Attaché at the Embassy in the United Kingdom until February 12, 1912 and was promoted to frigate captain as such on September 28, 1906 ( Chūsa) .

After his return, Abo Kiyokazu was between April 20, 1908 and December 1, 1910 instructor at the Naval College (Kaigun Daigakkō) . After the death of his adoptive father Abo Kiyoyasu on October 27, 1909, he inherited the title of baron (Danshaku) within the hereditary nobility (Kazoku) on November 22, 1909 . On December 1, 1910, he briefly took over his first own ship command as the commander of the protected cruiser Akitsushima and was then an officer in the staff of the 2nd Fleet from January 16, 1911 to December 1, 1911. After his subsequent promotion to captain at sea (Daisa) he was Chief of Staff of the 2nd Fleet from December 1, 1911 to December 1, 1912 and then an officer in the General Staff of the Imperial Japanese Navy , before he was between March 6, 1913 and on April 22, 1915 himself was now a naval attaché at the legation in the United Kingdom. After returning to Japan, he was first again an officer in the General Staff of the Imperial Navy and by 13 December 1915 then until December 1, 1916 commander of the Satsuma class belonging battleship Aki .

Promotion to Admiral and Minister of the Navy

After Abo Kiyokazu had been promoted to Rear Admiral (Shōshō) on December 1, 1916 , he served until December 1, 1920 as head of Department 1 in the General Staff of the Imperial Navy. During this time he also taught as an instructor at the Naval College. On September 13, 1920 he took over from Vice Admiral Takeshita Isamu as Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Navy and was promoted as such on December 1, 1920 to Vice Admiral (Chūjō) . He held the post of Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Navy until he was replaced by his fellow trainee Vice Admiral Katō Hiroharu on May 1, 1922. He was also a member of the Admiralty Committee from December 1, 1920 to May 10, 1922, and then a naval attaché at the Representation at the League of Nations . He then acted from May 25, 1923 to June 11, 1924 as director of the Naval Shipbuilding Command and between June 11, 1924 and April 15, 1925 as Vice Minister of the Navy. At the same time he was from May 25, 1923 to April 15, 1925 again a member of the Admiralty Committee. On April 15, 1925, he took over the post of commander-in-chief of the Kure Marine District and remained in this position until December 10, 1926.

Subsequently, Abo was between December 10, 1926 and April 20, 1927 a member of the Marinerate and received his promotion to Admiral (Taisho) on April 1, 1927 . After he was from April 20, 1927 to May 16, 1928 commander-in-chief of the Yokosuka Marine District and again a member of the Admiralty Committee, he was again a member of the Navy Council. As such, he was from November 12, 1929 to October 3, 1930 as a member and adviser of the delegation led by Admiral Takarabe Takeshi at the London Naval Conference .

On October 3, 1930 Abo Kiyokazu was appointed by Prime Minister Hamaguchi Osachi to succeed Takarabe Takeshi as Minister of the Navy in his cabinet . He held the office of Minister of the Navy from April 14 to December 13, 1931 in the subsequently formed second cabinet of Prime Minister Wakatsuki Reijirō . As a minister, he belonged to the so-called "treaty faction" within the Imperial Navy, which recognized the treaties of the naval conferences , and who hoped to revive the Anglo-Japanese alliance through diplomatic negotiations. During his tenure as minister, there was an official controversy, in which it was argued about whether the Imperial Japanese Army and the Imperial Navy had to report to the elected parliament ( Kokkai ) and the Prime Minister or had to report only to the Tennō .

After leaving the ministerial office, he was again a member of the Naval Council between December 13, 1931 and June 1, 1933, before joining the first on January 15, 1934 and then on October 15, 1935 second reserve was moved. He was later from October 15, 1937 until his resignation on October 22, 1941, with the exception of a two-day break between March 8 and 10, 1940, Vice Cabinet Minister. He was retired on October 15, 1940.

Background literature

• Denis Warner, Peggy Warner: The Tide at Sunrise: A History of the Russo-Japanese War, 1904-1905 , Charterhouse, 1974
• Trevor N. Dupuy : Encyclopedia of Military Biography , IB Tauris & Co Ltd., 1992, ISBN 1-85043-569-3 .
• Erik Goldstein: The Washington Conference, 1921-22: Naval Rivalry, East Asian Stability and the Road to Pearl Harbor , Routledge, 1994, ISBN 0-7146-4136-7 .
• J. Charles Schencking: Making Waves: Politics, Propaganda, And The Emergence Of The Imperial Japanese Navy, 1868-1922 , Stanford University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-8047-4977-9 .

Web links

• Entry on Imperial Japanese Navy

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Abo Kiyoyasu was among other things between 1890 and 1891 director of the naval college (Kaigun Daigakkō) , from 1891 to 1892 commander in chief of the marine district Sasebo and most recently between 1895 and 1896 commander in chief of the marine district Kure. On June 5, 1896 he was raised as a baron (Danshaku) to the hereditary nobility (Kazoku) . (See: Abo Kiyoyasu on Imperial Japanese Navy )

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Abo is the family name, Kiyokazu the first name.