| Kanji Ishiwara |
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Information AboutKanji Ishiwara |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT KANJI ISHIWARA | |
| japanese generals | |
| ishiwara, kanji | |
| 1889 births | |
| 1949 deaths | |
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He and Itagaki Seishiro were the men behind the Mukden Incident that took place in Manchuria in 1931. EARLY LIFE His father was a police officer, and the family was part of the Shonai ''samurai'' clan. This clan had backed the Shogun during the Meiji Restoration , and its members were subsequently shut out of government positions. At age thirteen he was enrolled in a military prep school. He was subsequently accepted at the Japanese Military Academy and graduated in 1909. He served in Korea after its annexation by Japan in 1910, and in 1915 he passed the exams for admittance to the Army Staff College . He graduated second in his class in 1918, in an example of the meritocratic reform instituted by men like Yamagata Aritomo . Ishiwara spent several years in various staff assignments and then was selected to study in Germany. He stayed ther 1922-1925, focusing on military history and strategy. He hired several former officers from the German General Staff to tutor him, and by the time he returned to Japan, he had formed a remarkable military doctrine. In 1919 Ishiwara had become converted to Nichiren Buddhism . Nichiren had taught that a period of massive conflict would precede a golden era in which the truth of Buddhism would prevail. Japan would be the center and main promulgator of this faith, which would encompass the entire world. Ishiwara thought that the period of world conflict was fast approaching, and Japan would rely upon its vision of the '' Kokutai '', draw upon the strength and resources of China, and lead the yellow races to defeat the white race. In a telling incident, just before he left Japan he had a conversation with American Army captain who encouraged him to visit the United States. He retorted, “Captain, the only occasion on which I plan to visit the United States is when I arrive there as chief of the Japanese forces of occupation.” The U.S. Congress had just passed an immigration law that excluded the Japanese. ISHIWARA AND MANCHURIA See Also: Mukden Incident He was assigned to the Army Staff College, where he preached his vision of ultimate racial conflict, and then appointed to a leadership position with the Kwantung Army in Manchuria. He arrived there at the end of 1928, some months after the assassination of Zhang Zuolin by Daisaku Komoto . He planned a secret initiative that would put the Kwantung Army in control of Manchuria once and for all. On September 18, 1931, the plot moved forward. Under Ishiwara's direction a bomb was secretly planted on the tracks of the Japanese-controlled Southern Manchuria Railway . Based on the pretence that Chinese soldiers had attacked the rail line, Japanese troops quickly seized the Chinese military barracks in the nearby city of Liutiaokou . Ishiwara had not informed the new Kwantung commander, General Honjo Shigeru . Kwantung Army units moved to seize control of other Manchurian cities. Under Ishiwara, a true believer in the power of the airplane, seventy-five bombs were dropped on the city of Chinchou . Aerial bombing was still a novelty, and the staff at Tokyo Army Headquarters was greatly disturbed at the news. Word quickly spread to European capitals and to America, where it alarmed public opinion. Ishiwara thought it most likely that he would be executed or at least dishonorably discharged for his role in the military takeover of Manchuria. There certainly were political and military leaders in Tokyo who thought he deserved such a fate. The initial success of the maneuvers, and a change in the Japanese cabinet, brought just the opposite: he was promoted to command of a home regiment and given a medal. “More importantly,” his biographer observes, “he returned to Japan as the object of intense admiration by the younger officers,… where the brilliance and daring of his exploitation of the principle of field initiative became almost legendary.” Fanatical right-wing cells in the Army and Navy were joined by nationalist civilians in a violent campaign to destroy the liberal, capitalist governing structure. The vision of a “ Showa Restoration ” was widely held in right wing circles. That is, an army-led revolution against the existing power structure, with the “restoration” of correct government under the symbolic leadership of the emperor. Various factions competed for seizure of the Imperial standard and control of the society. ARMY REVOLUTIONARIES He was appointed to the General Staff in 1935 as Chief of Operations. This meant that he had the primary responsibility for articulating the Army's vision for Japan's future. Ishiwara considered that Japan would join with Manchuria and China to form an East Asian League. Then Japan would prepare for and then fight a war with the Soviet Union . Only after the USSR was defeated, Japan would move to the south, capturing Southeast Asia. Then Japan would be ready to tackle the United States. The Navy had a different idea. Their leaders thought that the Army should simply hold the USSR at bay while the Navy Struck Toward The South . These two opposing views were never reconciled. Ishiwara advocated tackling one adversary at a time. First, Japan would build up its economy and its military. That would require a Command Economy . Political parties would have to be abolished, venal politicians and greedy businessmen would have to be removed from power, and the nation would move ahead as a “national defense state” under one-party rule. Japanese would take the lead in the new Asia, running the largest industries, and the military, and manage foreign policy. The Chinese could handle local government in Chinese provinces, and small businesses. But by 1937 Japan had become bogged down in a major war with the Chinese. The radical assault on the government continued. In 1935, General Nagata Tetsuzan , who had taken steps to foil a variety of plots, was hacked to death by Colonel Aizawa Saburo , whose trial became a circus of right-wing fulmination. This was followed by a major rebellion, the February 26 Incident , on February 26, 1936. Hundreds of plotters were involved; assassination squads spread out in the early morning and murdered Lord Privy Seal Saito, Finance Minister Takahashi, and Army Inspector General Watanabe. Grand Chamberlain Suzuki was left for dead. Count Makino was attacked, but managed to escape. Prime Minister Admiral Okada was saved by the fact that the assassins mistook his brother for himself. Meanwhile, officers of the Imperial Guard attempted to storm the Palace and seize control of the Emperor. They were foiled by palace guard commanders. The plotters intended to force the Emperor to appoint a military government that would carry out a Showa Restoration. Ishiwara defended the Emperor. Meeting War Minister Kawashima Yoshiyuki early on the morning of the 26th, Ishiwara demanded proclamation of Martial Law . To Vice Chief of Staff Hajime Sugiyama , he urged that units be immediately pulled in from garrisons around Tokyo. Within twenty-four hours these measures had been carried, and Ishiwara had been named Operations Officer of the Martial Law Headquarters. The Emperor did not sit by passively, demanding that his officials put down the revolt. He upbraided his Army Minister, declaring "All my most trusted retainers are dead and their actions are aimed directly at me…. We ourselves will lead the Imperial Guards and suppress them." He was dissuaded from such an action, but his adamant stance, with support from Ishiwara and other military leaders, won the day. The rebel troops returned to their barracks, and the plotters surrendered. The Emperor was adamant that the perpetrators be punished, and in secret trials seventeen of the ringleaders were convicted and executed. Fifty received lesser sentences. RETURN TO MANCHUKUO, AND DISGRACE In 1937 Ishiwara was transferred back to Manchuria as Vice Chief of Staff of the Kwantung Army. He discovered that his Army colleagues had no intention of creation a new pan-Asian paradise, and were quite content to play the role of colonial occupiers. Ishiwara denounced the Army leadership, and proposed that all officers take a paycut. He confronted General Hideki Tojo over his allocation of funds to an officers' wives club. After becoming an embarrassment to his seniors, he was sent to the command of a local fortress area on the seacoast near Kyoto. Back in Japan, he began to analyze Soviet tactics at Nomonhan , where Japanese forces were defeated by Soviet forces, proposing counterstrategies that were adopted by the Army. He continued to write, and give public addresses. He tried to form an East Asia League which would advocate a true partnership with China and Manchuria. Tojo, now risen to the highest ranks, felt that Ishiwara should be retired from the Army, but feared the reactions of young officers and right-wing activists. Finally, after Ishiwara publicly denounced Tojo as an enemy of Japan, who should "be arrested and executed," he was put on the retired list and his East Asia League was closed down. Ishiwara went back to his home province, where he continued to write and study agriculture until the end of the war. Ishiwara was not tried as a war criminal by the US occupying forces. His biographer suggests that his opposition to Tojo, his public statements that Japan should quit China, his view of the attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor as a disastrous blunder, and his post-war advocacy of peaceful rebuilding—all of this led the American authorities to leave him alone. He was called upon during the trials as a defense witness for others. He displayed his old fire in front of the American prosecutor, observing that Truman should be indicted for the mass bombing of Japanese civilians. CULTURAL/MEDIA REFERENCES The retired General Ishiwara is referenced as a quasi-fictional character in the Japanese Manga & Anime series Zipang . REFERENCES
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