Tanaka Giichi

From Vero - Wikipedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Template:Short description Template:More footnotes needed Template:Use dmy dates Template:Expand Japanese Template:Family name hatnote Template:Infobox officeholder

Baron Tanaka Giichi (Template:Langx; Template:IPA; 22 June 1864 – 29 September 1929) was a Japanese general and politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1927 to 1929.

Born to a samurai family in the Chōshū Domain, Tanaka became an officer in the Imperial Japanese Army and rose through the ranks. He served as Minister of the Army under Prime Ministers Hara Takashi and Yamamoto Gonnohyōe. After retiring from active duty he accepted the presidency of the Rikken Seiyūkai, a major conservative party. Following the resignation of the Wakatsuki Cabinet in 1927, Tanaka was appointed Prime Minister. In foreign affairs, he pursued a hawkish policy; in domestic affairs, he sought to suppress communist and socialist movements. Criticised for his handling of the unauthorised assassination of Zhang Zuolin by a Kwangtung Army officer, he resigned in 1929 and died soon afterwards.

Early life and military career

Tanaka was born as the third son of a low-ranking samurai family in the service of Chōshū Domain in Hagi, Nagato Province (modern day Yamaguchi Prefecture), Japan. At the age of 13, he participated in the Hagi Rebellion. He had an interest in politics from an early age, serving on a village council and as an elementary school teacher. He only joined the Imperial Japanese Army at the age of 20.

He graduated from the former 8th class of Imperial Japanese Army Academy and the 8th class of the Army War College in 1892, and served as a junior officer during the First Sino-Japanese War. After the end of the war, he was sent as a military attaché to Moscow and Petrograd, and was in Russia at the same time as Takeo Hirose of the Imperial Japanese Navy, with whom he became close friends. Tanaka was fluent in the Russian language, which he learned while attending mass every Sunday at a Russian Orthodox church, which enabled him to practice his Russian at church social events, although it is uncertain if he ever actually converted to Christianity. As one of the few Russian experts within the military, he was an invaluable resource to Army planners during the Russo-Japanese War, and served as aide to General Kodama Gentarō in Manchuria.

Tanaka (left) walking with Generals Ōshima Ken'ichi (center) and Uehara (right), 1918

In 1906, Tanaka helped draft a defense plan which was so highly regarded by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff and General Yamagata Aritomo that it was adopted as basic policy until World War I. He was also awarded the Order of the Golden Kite (3rd class) in April 1906.

In 1910, he established a Veterans Association. Tanaka was promoted to major general in 1911, and was made director of the Military Affairs Bureau at the Ministry of the Army, where he recommended an increase in the strength of the standing army by two additional infantry divisions. He was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure (1st class) in September 1918. He joined the cabinet of Prime Ministers Hara Takashi as Army Minister from September 1918 to June 1921. He was promoted to full general in 1920 and was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun (1st class). He was also elevated to the title of danshaku (baron) under the kazoku peerage system. However, the Hara cabinet came under unceasing criticism due to the Nishihara Loans, the disastrous Nikolayevsk incident and accusations of Army misappropriation of secret funds, and supporting unsavory figures such as White Movement general Roman von Ungern-Sternberg. After suffering from an attack of angina, Tanaka resigned all posts, and retired to his summer home in Oiso, Kanagawa.

Political career

Tanaka returned as Army Minister in the 2nd Yamamoto administration from September 1923 to January 1924. After retiring from the army, Tanaka was invited to accept the post of party president of the Rikken Seiyūkai political party in 1925 and was made a member of the House of Peers in January 1926. He had been scheduled to be promoted to the rank of Field Marshal at the time of his retirement. However, when news reached the ears of the Army Ministry of a 3 million Yen bonus that Tanaka received on agreeing to join the Rikken Seiyukai, the promotion was denied.

Premiership (1927–1929)

Template:Infobox premiership Tanaka became Prime Minister of Japan on 20 April 1927, during the Shōwa financial crisis, serving simultaneously as the Foreign Affairs Minister. He later added the posts of Home Minister (4 May 1928 to 23 May 1928), and Colonial Affairs Minister (10 June 1929 to 2 July 1929) to his portfolio.

On the domestic front, Tanaka attempted to suppress communists and socialists and their sympathizers through widespread arrests (the 15 March incident of 1928, and the 19 April incident of 1929).

On foreign policy, Tanaka differed from his predecessor Shidehara both tactically and strategically. Whereas Shidehara preferred to evacuate Japanese residents where conflicts occurred with local people, Tanaka preferred using military force. While Shidehara theoretically respected China's sovereignty, Tanaka openly pursued a Template:Nihongo to create a sense of difference between those areas and the rest of China.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> On three separate occasions in 1927 and 1928 he sent troops to intervene militarily in Shandong Province to block Chiang Kai-shek's Northern Expedition to unify China under Kuomintang rule, in what became known as the Jinan Incident.

Tanaka came into office even as forces were already beginning to converge that would draw Japan into World War II. In 1928, however, the machinations of the ultranationalist secret societies and the Kwantung Army resulted in a crisis: the assassination of the Manchurian warlord Zhang Zuolin and the failed attempt to seize Manchuria. Tanaka himself was taken by surprise by the assassination plot and argued that the officers responsible should be publicly court-martialed for homicide. The military establishment, from which Tanaka was by now estranged, insisted on covering up the facts of the incident, which remained an official secret. Bereft of support, and under mounting criticism in the Diet and even from emperor Hirohito himself, Tanaka and his cabinet resigned en masse on 2 July 1929.

Prime Ministers Korekiyo Takahashi (1854–1936, in office 1921–22, left) and Giichi Tanaka (1864–1929, in office 1927–29)

Death

Tanaka was succeeded by Hamaguchi Osachi, and died a few months after his resignation. He was awarded the Order of the Paulownia Flowers on his death. His grave is at the Tama Cemetery in Fuchū, Tokyo.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Tanaka Memorial

In 1929, China accused Tanaka of having authored the "Tanaka Memorial Imperialist Conquest Plan," which advocated the conquest of Manchuria, Mongolia, and eventually the whole of China. He was alleged to have presented the plan to the emperor in 1927. The plan was presented as fact in the wartime propaganda film series Why We Fight, which claimed that the plan envisaged the conquest of America after East Asia.<ref>Dower, John W (1987). War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War. Pantheon. Template:ISBN. p. 22.</ref> In a memoir published in the mid-1950s, a Japanese-born Taiwanese businessman, Tsai Chih-Kan, claimed that he had personally copied the "Plan" from the Imperial Library on the night of 20 June 1928 in a covert action assisted by several of Japan's leading prewar politicians and officers, who were opposed to Tanaka. Today, most historians regard the document as a forgery.<ref>日本批判の根拠『田中上奏文』　中国側　『偽物』認める見解 Template:Webarchive, Tokyo Shimbun, 1 January 2008</ref>Template:Sfn

Awards and decorations

From the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia

Japanese

Peerages and titles

  • Baron (7 September 1920)<ref name="Kanpo 19200908">"Kanpo" No. 2431 "Investiture and Appointments" (in Japanese) 8 September 1920.</ref>

Decorations

  • 1889 – Imperial Constitution Promulgation Medal<ref>"Kanpo" Appendix to Extra "Appointments" (in Japanese) 30 December 1889.</ref>
  • 1895 – Order of the Sacred Treasure, 6th class<ref name="Kanpo 18951014">"Kanpo" No. 3689 "Investiture and Appointments" (in Japanese) 14 October 1895.</ref>
  • 1895 – Order of the Golden Kite, 5th class<ref name="Kanpo 18951014"/>
  • 1895 – First Sino-Japanese War Medal<ref>"Kanpo" Appendix to No. 3862 "Appointments" (in Japanese) 16 May 1896.</ref>
  • 1901 – Order of the Sacred Treasure, 5th class<ref>"Kanpo" No. 5525 "Investiture and Appointments" (in Japanese) 2 December 1901.</ref>
  • 1905 – Order of the Sacred Treasure, 4th class<ref>"Kanpo" No. 6627 "Investiture and Appointments" (in Japanese) 2 August 1905.</ref>
  • 1906 – Order of the Golden Kite, 3rd class<ref>中野文庫 旧・金鵄勲章受章者一覧</ref>
  • 1912 – Korean Annexation Commemorative Medal<ref>"Kanpo" Appendix to No. 205 "Appointments" (in Japanese) 9 April 1913.</ref>
  • 1915 – Order of the Sacred Treasure, 2nd Class<ref>"Kanpo" No. 979 "Investiture and Appointments" (in Japanese) 4 November 1915.</ref>
  • 1915 – Emperor Taishō Enthronement Commemorative Medal<ref>"Kanpo" Appendix to No. 1310 "Appointments" (in Japanese) 13 December 1916.</ref>
  • 1918 – Order of the Sacred Treasure, 1st Class<ref>"Kanpo" No. 1850 "Investiture and Appointments" (in Japanese) 2 October 1918.</ref>
  • 1920 – Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun<ref name="Kanpo 19200908"/>
  • 1920 – World War I Victory Medal<ref>"Kanpo" No. 2903 "Investiture and Appointments" (in Japanese) 10 April 1922.</ref>
  • 1921 – First National Census Commemorative Medal<ref>"Kanpo" Appendix to No. 2858 "Appointments" (in Japanese) 14 February 1922.</ref>
  • 1929 – Order of the Rising Sun with Paulownia Flowers Order of the Paulownia Flowers<ref name="Kanpo 19291001">"Kanpo" No. 828 "Investiture and Appointments" (in Japanese) 1 October 1929.</ref>
  • 1929 – Imperial Capital Rehabilitation Commemorative Medal<ref>"Kanpo" Appendix to No. 1499 "Appointments" (in Japanese) 28 December 1931.</ref>

Order of precedence

  • Senior second rank (29 September 1929; posthumous)<ref name="Kanpo 19291001"/>

Foreign

References

Template:Reflist

Sources

Template:Commons category Template:Wikisource

Template:Prime Ministers of Japan Template:Japanese foreign ministers

Template:Authority control

Retrieved from "https://wiki.sarg.dev/index.php?title=Tanaka_Giichi&oldid=124568"