Prince Asaka Yasuhiko

Infobox Military Person
name=HIH Prince Asaka Yasuhiko
lived= 2 October 1887 – 12 April 1981
placeofbirth=Kyoto, Japan
placeofdeath=Atami, Japan


caption= His Imperial Highness Prince Asaka Yasuhiko
nickname=
allegiance=Empire of Japan
branch=
serviceyears=1908–1945
rank=General
commands=
unit=
battles= Second Sino-Japanese War
awards=Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum.
family=
laterwork=

nihongo|Prince Asaka Yasuhiko|朝香宮鳩彦王|Asaka-no-miya Yasuhiko-ō| 2 October 1887 – 12 April 1981 of Japan, was a the founder of a collateral branch of the Japanese imperial family and a career officer in the Imperial Japanese Army. A son-in-law of Emperor Meiji and an uncle-in-law of Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito), Prince Asaka was commander of Japanese forces in the final assault on Nanjing, then the capital city of Nationalist China in December 1937. He was implicated in the Nanjing massacre, but never charged.

Biography

Early years

Prince Yasuhiko was born in Kyoto, the eighth son of Prince Kuni Asahiko (Kuni no miya Asahiko Shinnō) and the court lady Tsunoda Sugako. His father, Prince Kuni, was former Buddhist priest and minor prince descended from the Fushimi-no-miya, one the four branch houses of the imperial dynasty "(shinnōke)" entitled to provide a successor to the throne. In 1872, the Emperor Meiji granted him the title Kuni-no-miya and authorization to begin a new branch of the imperial family. Prince Yasuhiko was a half-brother of Prince Higashikuni Naruhiko, Prince Nashimoto Morimasa, Prince Kuni Kuniyoshi, and Prince Kaya Kuninori, the father of the future Empress Kōjun, the consort of Emperor Shōwa.

Marriage and family

On 10 March 1906, the Emperor Meiji granted Prince Yasuhiko the title Asaka-no-miya and authorization to begin a new branch of the imperial family. On 6 May 1909, Prince Asaka married Princess Fami-no-miya Nobuko (7 August 1891 – 3 November 1933), the eighth daughter of Emperor Meiji. Prince and Princess Asaka had four children:

* HIH Princess Asaka Kikuko 12 September 1911 – 12 February 1989; married 1931 Nabeshima Naoyasu, heir of Marquis Nabeshima.
* HIH Prince Asaka Takahiko (8 October 1913 – 6 May 1994); married 16 December 1935 Todo Chikako (5 May 1921 – ), the fifth daughter of Count Todo Takatsugu. They had 2 daughters, Fukuko and Minoko and a son Tomohiko.
* HIH Prince Asaka Tadahito (4 January 1914 – January 1944, killed during the Battle of Kwajalein); renounced membership in the imperial family and created Marquis Otowa, 1936.
* HIH Princess Asaka Kiyoko (2 August 1919 – )

Military career

Like the other imperial princes of the Meiji period, it was expected that Prince Yasuhiko would pursue a career in the military. He received his early education at the Gakushuin and the Central Military Preparatory School, before graduating the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1908 as a second lieutenant.

Prince Asaka was promoted to captain in 1912, lieutenant colonel in 1917, and colonel in 1922.

Between 1920 and 1923, Prince Asaka studied military tactics at the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr in France, along with his half-brother Prince Higashikuni Naruhiko and his cousin Prince Kitashirakawa Naruhisa (1887–1923). However, on 1 April 1923, he was seriously injured in automobile accident in a Paris suburb that killed Prince Kitashirakawa and left Prince Asaka with a limp for the rest of his life.

Princess Asaka traveled to France to nurse her husband. Prince and Princess Asaka also visited the United States in 1925. During that period, Prince and Princess Asaka became enthralled with the Art Deco movement. Upon returning to Japan in 1925, Prince Asaka had a new mansion built in the Art Deco style in Tokyo's Shirokanedai neighborhood. The house was completed in May 1933, but Princess Asaka died a few months later.

Prince Asaka was promoted to the rank of brigadier general in 1926. He rose to the rank of major general and was appointed an instructor at the Army War College in 1930. In 1933, he was promoted to lieutenant general and assumed command of the First Imperial Guards Division. In December 1935, he was appointed a member of the Supreme War Council, which gave him a very influential position with Emperor Hirohito. [Ammenthorp, The Generals of World War II]

However, during the abortive February 26 Incident Prince Asaka pressed the Emperor to appoint a new government that would be acceptable to the rebels, especially by replacing Prime Minister Okada Keisuke with Hirota Koki. The Prince's pro-Imperial Way Faction political sentiments, as well as his connections to other right-wing army cliques, caused a rift between himself and the Emperor. It was perhaps due to this rift that Prince Asaka was transferred to the Japanese Central China Area Army (under elderly General Matsui Iwane) in China in 1937.

Role in the Nanking Massacre

In November 1937, Prince Asaka became temporary deputy commander for Japanese forces outside Nanjing, then capital of China. As deputy for the ill General Matsui, he was nominally commander of the final assault on Nanjing between December 2 and 6, 1937. The Prince allegedly issued an order to "kill all captives," thus providing official sanction for what became known as the "Nanjing Massacre" or the "Rape of Nanking" (10 December 1937 – 10 February 1938). [Chen, World War II Database]

Some authors record that Asaka signed the order for Japanese soldiers in Nanjing to "kill all captives" [David Bergamini, "Japan's imperial Conspiracy", 1971, p. 24] Others claim that lieutenant colonel Isamu Cho, a member of the staff of the Central China Area Army with known radical ultranationalist politics, sent this order under the Prince's sign manual with the Prince's knowledge or assent [Iris Chang, "The Rape of Nanking", 1997, p. 40] . However, even if Cho took the initiative of his own, Asaka, who was the nominally the officer in charge, gave no orders to stop the carnage. As for Matsui, he did not arrive in the city until well after the killing had begun.

While Prince Asaka's responsibility for the Nanking Massacre remains a matter of debate, the most rational interpretation for the massacre and the crimes committed during the invasion of China might be found in the ratification, made on 5 August 1937 by Emperor Hirohito, of the proposition of the army to remove the constraints of international law on the treatment of Chinese prisoners. [Akira Fujiwara, "Nitchû Sensô ni Okeru Horyo Gyakusatsu", Kikan Sensô Sekinin Kenkyû 9, 1995, p. 22]

In February 1938, with Nanking destroyed, both Prince Asaka and General Matsui were recalled to Japan. Matsui went into virtual retirement, but Prince Asaka remained on the Supreme War Council until the end of the war in August 1945. He was promoted to the rank of general in August 1939 but held no further military commands. In 1944, he colluded with Prince Higashikuni, his nephew Prince Takamatsu, and former Prime Minister Konoe Fumimaro (1895–1945) to oust the Hideki Tojo cabinet. [Chen, World War II Database]

SCAP officials interrogated Prince Asaka about his involvement in the Nanjing Massacre on 1 May, 1946, but did not bring him before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East for prosecution. General Douglas MacArthur decided to grant immunity to all members of the Imperial family.

Postwar life as a commoner

On 14 October 1947, Prince Asaka and his children lost their imperial status and privileges and became ordinary citizens, as part of the American Occupation's abolishment of the collateral branches of the Japanese Imperial family. He and his son were purged from holding any political or public office because they had been officers in the Imperial Japanese Army. His very palatial Art Deco mansion in Shirokanedai was seized by the government, and now houses the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum. The former prince moved to Atami, on the Izu Peninsula south of Tokyo.

The former Prince Asaka became a Roman Catholic on 18 December 1951, and was the first member of the Imperial Family to do so.

The former prince spent most of his time playing golf. He also took an active interest in golf course development, and in the 1950s was the architect of the Plateau Golf Course at the Dai-Hakone Country Club.

Former Prince Asaka Yasuhiko died of natural causes on 13 April 1981 at his home in Atami, Shizuoka prefecture. He was 93 years old.

Gallery

References

Books

*cite book
last = Brendon
first = Piers
year = 2002
title = The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the 1930s
publisher = Vintage; Reprint edition
location =
id = ISBN 0375708081
*cite book
last = Fujitani
first = T
year = 1998
title = Splendid Monarchy: Power and Pageantry in Modern Japan
publisher = University of California Press
location =
id = ISBN 05202137181
*cite book
last = Chang
first = Iris
year = 1998
title = The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II
publisher = Penguin
location =
id = ISBN 0-14-027744-7
*cite book
last = Bergamini
first = David
year = 1971
title = Japan's Imperial Conspiracy
publisher = William Morrow
location =
id = ISBN 0-14-027744-7

External links

* [http://www.moreorless.au.com/killers/asaka.htm Profile of Asaka]
* [http://www.teien-art-museum.ne.jp/museum/e_asaka.html About this museum — Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum]
*cite web
last = Ammentorp
first = Steep
url = http://www.generals.dk/general/Asaka/Yasuhiko_Prince/Japan.html
title = Asuka, Prince
work = The Generals of World War II
*cite web
last = Chen
first = Peter
url = http://ww2db.com/person_bio.php?person_id=380&list=Ground
title = Yasuhiko
work = WW2 Database

Notes