Kodama Gentarō

Infobox Military Person
name= Count Kodama Gentarō
lived=16 March 1852 - 23 July 1906
placeofbirth=Tokuyama, Sūo province Japan
placeofdeath=Tokyo, Japan


caption= Japanese General Count Kodama Gentarō
nickname=
allegiance=Empire of Japan
branch=
serviceyears=1881 - 1907
rank=General
commands=
unit=
battles= Boshin War
Satsuma Rebellion
First Sino-Japanese War
Russo-Japanese War
awards=Order of the Golden Kite (first class)
family=
laterwork=Cabinet Minister

Count nihongo|Kodama Gentarō|兒玉源太郎|Kodama Gentarō|extra= 16 March 1852 – 23 July 1906 was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, and government minister during Meiji period Japan. He was instrumental in establishing the modern Imperial Japanese military.

Biography

Early life

Born in Tokuyama, Sūo province (modern Yamaguchi prefecture), from a "samurai" class family loyal to the Chōshū domain, Kodama began his military career fighting in the Boshin War for the Meiji Restoration against the forces of the Tokugawa bakufu. As a soldier in the fledgling Imperial Japanese Army, he saw combat during the suppression of the Satsuma Rebellion. He later enrolled in the "Osaka Heigakuryo" (大阪兵学寮）(military training school). He was commissioned in 1881. [ Encyclopedia of Military Biography]

Military career

Kodama was appointed head of the Army Staff College, where he worked with German Major Jakob Meckel to reorganize the modern Japanese military after the Prussian system. [ Harries, Soldiers of the Sun]

Kodama went on to study military science as a military attache to Germany. After his return to Japan, he was appointed Vice-minister of War in 1892.

After his service in the Sino-Japanese War (1894-5), Kodama became Governor-General of Taiwan. During his tenure, he did much to improve on the infrastructure of Taiwan and to alleviate the living conditions of the inhabitants. [Ching, Becoming Japanese ] Having proved himself an excellent administrator, Kodama spent the following decade serving as Minister of the Army under Prime Minister Itō Hirobumi, retaining the post and taking on the concurrent roles of Minister of Home Affairs and Education under the following Prime Minister Katsura Taro.

In 1904, Kodama was promoted to full general. However, he was asked by Marshal Oyama Iwao to be Chief of General Staff of the Manchurian Army during the Russo-Japanese War. This was a step down for him in terms of rank, but he nevertheless chose to take the position; it was a sacrifice which elicited much public applause. Throughout the Russo-Japanese War he guided the strategy of the whole campaign, as General Kawakami Soroku had done in the First Sino-Japanese War ten years previously. [ Connaughton, Rising Sun and Tumblin Bear ] Following the war, he was named Chief of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff, but he died soon afterwards.

Kodama was raised in rapid succession to the ranks of "danshaku" (baron), "shishaku" (viscount) and "hakushaku" (count) under the "kazoku" peerage system, and his death in 1907 of a cerebral hemorrhage was regarded as a national calamity. [ Encyclopedia of Military Biography ] After his death Emperor Meiji posthumously awarded him with the first-ever 1st degree of the Order of the Golden Kite; he later received the ultimate honor of being raised to the ranks of Shinto "kami;" shrines to his honor still exist at his home town in Shunan, Yamaguchi prefecture, and on the site of his summer home on Enoshima, Fujisawa, Kanagawa prefecture.

References

Books

*cite book
last = Connaughton
first = Richard
year = 2003
title = Rising Sun and Tumbling Bear
publisher = Cassell
location =
id = ISBN 0-304-36657-9
*cite book
last = Ching
first = Leo T.S.
year = 2001
title =Becoming Japanese: Colonial Taiwan and the Politics of Identity Formation
publisher = University of California Press
location =
id = ISBN 0520225538
*cite book
last = Dupuy
first = Trevor N.
year = 1992
title = Encyclopedia of Military Biography
publisher = I B Tauris & Co Ltd
location =
id = ISBN 1-85043-569-3
*cite book
last = Kowner
first = Rotem
year = 2006
title = Historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War
publisher = Scarecrow
location =
id = ISBN 0-8108-4927-5
*cite book
last = Harries
first = Meirion
year = 1994
title = Soldiers of the Sun: The Rise and Fall of the Imperial Japanese Army
publisher = Random House
location =
id = ISBN 0-679-75303-6
*Mutsu, Gorō (1985). "Kodama Gentarō." Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan. Tokyo: Kodansha Ltd.

External links

*cite web
last = National Diet Library
first =
url = http://www.ndl.go.jp/portrait/e/datas/77.html?c=7
title = Kodama, Gentaro
work = Portraits of Modern Japanese Historical Figures

Notes