Ministry of Army (Japan)
The Japanese Army Ministry ( Japanese 陸軍 省 Rikugun-shō ) was responsible for the administration of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1872 to 1945 .
history
The Army Ministry was founded in April 1872 together with the Navy Ministry as a replacement for the former Ministry of Military Affairs ( 兵部 省 , Hyōbu-shō ) of the early Meiji period . The Minister of the Army was called Rikugun-kyō ( 陸軍卿 ) at that time .
Originally the ministry was responsible for both the administration and the military high command of the army. However, when a general staff was created in 1878 based on the Prussian model , the main task was limited to securing the army budget, procuring weapons and personnel, and working with the government and, from 1890, the Reichstag .
The Minister of the Army was already a member of the government after the establishment of the cabinet in 1885 and the associated renaming of the office to Rikugun daijin ( 陸軍 大臣 ). Usually a general on active duty became Minister of the Army, and an admiral on active duty became Minister of the Navy. Under a system established by a change in the law under Prime Minister Yamagata Aritomo in 1900 ( 軍部 大臣 現役 武官 Gesetzes , Gumbu daijin gen'eki bukan sei ), Army and Navy Ministers had to be officers on active duty to ensure the independence of the military from civilian control, especially the civil parties to ensure. Army and Navy nominated the minister himself and the formation could therefore de facto prevent a cabinet or by resignation bring a cabinet to case, by refusing new minister to appoint - as particularly 1912, the Cabinet Saionji II at the beginning of the Taisho straining , as its As a result, the system was revised in 1913 under the government of Yamamoto Gonnohyōe and reserve officers could also be appointed. In 1936 it was fully reactivated after pressure from the General Staff under Hirota Kōki . This was one of the key factors that weakened Japanese representative democracy and boosted Japanese militarism.
On December 1, 1945, during the American occupation after the end of the Second World War, the Ministry was first converted into the Dai-ichi Fukuin-shō ( 第一 復員 省 , German: "First Ministry of Demobilization"), and in 1946 with the former Ministry of the Navy ( "Second Ministry of Demobilization") merged into the "Demobilization Authority" ( Fukuin-chō ) and thus dissolved as a ministry.
organization
- Ministerial Secretariat ( 大臣 官 房 , daijin kanbō )
- Cavalry ( 軍馬 局 , gunba-kyoku ), disbanded in 1886
- Military affairs ( 軍務 局 , gunmu-kyoku )
- Staff ( 人事局 , jinji-kyoku )
- Weapons ( 兵器 局 , heiki-kyoku )
- Supply ( 整 備 局 , seibi-kyoku )
- Soldier affairs ( 兵 務 局 , heimu-kyoku )
- Accounting ( 経 理 局 , keiri-kyoku )
- Medicine ( 医務 局 , imu-kyoku )
- Law ( 法 務 局 , hōmu-kyoku )
The Army Ministry and the Imperial Headquarters were in Ichigaya , today's Shinjuku District .
Minister ( 陸軍 大臣 , rikugun daijin )
| # | Surname | Taking office |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ōyama Iwao | Dec 22, 1885 |
| 2 | Takashima Tomonosuke | May 17, 1891 |
| 3 | Ōyama Iwao | Aug 8, 1892 |
| 4th | Saigō Tsugumichi | Aug 31, 1896 |
| 5 | Ōyama Iwao | Sep 18 1896 |
| 6th | Takashima Tomonosuke | Sep 20 1896 |
| 7th | Katsura Taro | Jan. 12, 1898 |
| 8th | Kodama Gentaro | 23 Dec 1900 |
| 9 | Terauchi Masatake | March 27, 1902 |
| 10 | Ishimoto Shinroku († April 2, 1912) | Aug 30, 1911 |
| 11 | Uehara Yūsaku | Apr 5, 1912 |
| 12 | Kigoshi Yasutsuna | Dec 21, 1912 |
| 13 | Kusunose Yukihiko | June 24, 1913 |
| 14th | Oka Ichinosuke | April 16, 1914 |
| 15th | Ōshima Ken'ichi | March 30, 1916 |
| 16 | Tanaka Giichi | 29 Sep 1918 |
| 17th | Yamanashi Hanzo | June 9, 1921 |
| 18th | Tanaka Giichi | Aug 24, 1923 |
| 19th | Ugaki Kazushige | Sep 2 1923 |
| 20th | Shirakawa Yoshinori | Apr 20, 1927 |
| 21st | Ugaki Kazushige | July 2, 1929 |
| 22nd | Minami Jirō | Apr 14, 1931 |
| 23 | Araki Sadao | Dec 13, 1931 |
| 24 | Hayashi Senjūrō | Jan. 23, 1934 |
| 25th | Kawashima Yoshiyuki | 5th Sep 1935 |
| 26th | Terauchi Hisaichi | March 9, 1936 |
| 27 | Nakamura Kōtaro | Feb. 2, 1937 |
| 28 | Sugiyama Hajime | Feb 9, 1937 |
| 29 | Itagaki Seishirō | June 3, 1938 |
| 30th | Hata Shunroku | Aug 30, 1939 |
| 31 | Tōjō Hideki | July 22, 1940 |
| 32 | Sugiyama Hajime | July 22, 1944 |
| 33 | Anami Korechika († August 15, 1945) | Apr 7, 1945 |
| 34 | Higashikuni Naruhiko | Aug 17, 1945 |
| 35 | Shimomura Sadamu | 23 Aug 1945 |
literature
- Sven Saaler: Japan in International Militarism Research . (PDF; 171 kB) In: Japanstudien (Yearbook of the German Institute for Japanese Studies), 14, 2002, pp. 103-138
- Robert B. Edgerton: Warriors of the Rising Sun. A History of the Japanese Military . Westview Press, 1999, ISBN 0-8133-3600-7
- Meirion Harries: Soldiers of the Sun. The Rise and Fall of the Imperial Japanese Army . Random House, 1994, ISBN 0-679-75303-6
Individual evidence
- ^ Foreign Office Files for Japan and the Far East. Embassy & Consular Archives - Japan (1905–1940) ( Memento of the original dated August 29, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
