Kusunose Yukihiko

Kusunose Yukihiko, around 1913.

Kusunose Yukihiko ( Japanese 楠 瀬 幸 彦 ; born April 28, 1858 in Tosa-han , Japan ; † March 20, 1927 ) was a Lieutenant General of the Imperial Japanese Army and Minister of the Army .

Life

Kusunose Yukihiko was born in 1858 into a samurai family from Tosa-han, present-day Kōchi Prefecture. In 1880 he joined the artillery of the Japanese army and was sent to France and the German Empire for training from 1881 to 1885 as a military attaché . After his return to Japan in 1888 he served in an artillery battalion of the Imperial Guard and then in various administrative positions on the Army General Staff . From April 1891 to September 1893 he served as a military attaché in Saint Petersburg in the Russian Empire , where he earned the reputation of a leading expert in European politics.

From November 1894, Kusunose was a military attaché at the Japanese consulate in Seoul , Korea . Relations between the Japanese Empire and the Korean Joseon Dynasty deteriorated during his time in Korea . Kusunose stayed during the assassination of the Korean Empress Myeongseong in Seoul and was arrested in connection with this on his return to Japan along with some other civil and military employees of the consulate, including Miura Goro . He and Miura were brought before a military tribunal by the 5th Division , acquitted for lack of evidence.

He was then Chief of Staff of the Taiwan Army for a short time and in 1900 of the 12th Division . In June 1901 he was promoted to major general . He then served as the commander of the Tsushima Fortress and then of the Osaka Artillery Arsenal . During the Russo-Japanese War he was in command of the heavy artillery of the 2nd Army and later all artillery, first of the 4th Army and then all Japanese troops in Manchuria . He took part directly in the battle of Mukden . After the war he was in command of Yura Fortress and, from 1906, of the Japanese garrison in Karafuto Prefecture .

In 1907 Kusunose was promoted to lieutenant general. On June 24, 1913 he was appointed Minister of the Army in the first cabinet of Prime Minister Yamamoto Gonnohyōe . He held this post until the cabinet was dissolved on April 16, 1914. In April 1917, he was transferred to the Führerreserve. He died on March 20, 1927, his grave is in the Tama Cemetery in Fuchū , Tokyo .

literature

• Leo TS Ching: Becoming Japanese. Colonial Taiwan and the Politics of Identity Formation. University of California Press, Berkeley 2001, ISBN 0-520-22553-8 .
• Peter Duss: The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea, 1895-1910. University of California Press, Berkeley 1998, ISBN 0-520-21361-0 .
• Meirion Harries: Soldiers of the Sun. The Rise and Fall of the Imperial Japanese Army. Random House, 1994, ISBN 0-679-75303-6 .

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