Ishimoto Shinroku

Baron Ishimoto Shinroku

Baron Ishimoto Shinroku ( Japanese 石 本 新 六 ; born February 17, 1854 ( traditionally Kaei 7/1/20) in Himeji , Japan ; † April 2, 1912 in Tokyo ) was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army and Japanese Minister of the Army .

Early life

Ishimoto Shinroku was born into a samurai family in Himeji in 1854 . Shortly after his birth, the family home was destroyed by an earthquake. During the Meiji Restoration , his father lost his warrior employment and status, which put the family in great financial trouble. Despite the difficult financial situation, he sent his son to a military school, which he completed and then enrolled in the emerging Imperial Japanese Army.

Military career

In February 1875, Ishimoto was accepted at the new Imperial Japanese Army Academy , where he took courses in engineering. During the Satsuma rebellion he fought on the side of the emperor. From 1879 to 1882 he served as a military attaché in France , where he was able to complete his pioneering training and training in artillery at the Saint-Cyr military school . After returning to Japan for a year, he was sent back to Europe from 1883 to 1887, where he became a military attaché in Italy . After his final return to Japan, he was able to quickly climb the corporate ladder. In 1895 he was promoted to colonel and in 1897 to major general and appointed trainer for pioneering at the Imperial Japanese Army Academy and then at the Imperial Japanese Army University. He then worked as a department head in the Japanese Army Department of Pioneers, where he caught the attention of General Terauchi Masatake , who made him his chief of staff in the Russo-Japanese War . Ishimoto was promoted to lieutenant general in 1904 during the war .

After the war, Ishimoto was appointed a Danshaku ( baron ) in the Kazoku nobility system .

In 1911, Ishimoto served as Minister of the Army in the second cabinet of Prime Minister Saionji Kinmochi . During his tenure there was a dispute in the government over the expansion of the army. Proponents wanted to set up two additional divisions while opponents argued that there were insufficient funds to finance this expansion. In 1912, Ishimoto died while in office of unknown causes at the age of only 59. He was buried in the Tenno-ji Temple in Tokyo.

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literature

• Leslie Conners: The Emperor's Adviser: Saionji Kinmochi and Pre-War Japanese Politics. Routledge Kegan & Paul, 1992, ISBN 0-709-93449-1 .
• Yoshitake Oka: Five Political Leaders of Modern Japan: Ito Hirobumi, Okuma Shigenobu, Hara Takashi, Inukai Tsuyoshi and Saionji Kinmochi. University of Tokyo Press, 1984, ISBN 0-860-08379-9 .
• Trevor N. Dupuy : Encyclopedia of Military Biography. IB Tauris & Co Ltd., 1992, ISBN 1-850-43569-3 .
• J. Charles Schencking: Making Waves: Politics, Propaganda and the Emergence of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1868-1922. Stanford University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-804-74977-9 .
• Richard Sims: Japanese Political History Since the Meiji Renovation 1868-2000. Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, ISBN 0-312-23915-7 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Dupuy, Encyclopedia of Military Biography
2. ^ Wendel, Axis History Factbook

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