General Seishirō Itagaki (板垣 征四郎, Itagaki Seishirō, 21 January 1885 – 23 December 1948) was a Japanese military officer and politician who served as a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II and War Minister from 1938 to 1939.
He was a disciple of Kanji Ishiwara and his ideas were strongly influenced by his apocalyptic Buddhist beliefs, being firmly convinced of the idea of a "Final War" in which Japan would unite the entire world into a single nation, resulting in an era of true peace, regeneration and harmony.[1]
The newly appointed War Minister Itagaki (center, stepping down from the rock) with his vice-minister Hideki Tōjō (right) and Navy minister Mitsumasa Yonai (left, in black Navy uniform, standing on the rock)
From 1924 to 1926, Itagaki was a military attaché assigned to the Japanese embassy in China. On his return to Japan, he held a number of staff positions within the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff until 1927 before being given a field command as commanding officer of the IJA 33rd Infantry Brigade based in China. His brigade was attached to the IJA 10th Division from 1927 to 1928. Itagaki was then transferred to command the IJA 33rd Infantry Regiment in China from 1928 to 1929, under the aegis of the prestigious Kwantung Army.
Lieutenant-General Sir Frank Messervy receives the sword of General Seishirō Itagaki, commander of the Japanese Seventh Area Army, at a formal ceremony of surrender held in the grounds of HQ Malaya Command, Kuala Lumpur, 22 February 1946.
Itagaki was recalled to Japan in 1938, briefly serving as War Minister from 1938 to 1939. On 6 December 1938, Itagaki proposed a national policy in accordance with Hakko Ichiu (Expansion) at the Five Ministers Conference,[5] which was the Japanese highest decision making council,[6][7] and the council made a decision of prohibiting the expulsion of the Jews in Japan, Manchuria, and China as Japanese national policy.[6][7] Itagaki returned to China again as chief of staff of the China Expeditionary Army from 1939 to 1941. However, in the summer of 1939, the unexpected defeat of Japanese forces against the Soviet Union at the Battle of Khalkhin Gol or Nomonhan incident, the decisive battle of the Soviet–Japanese border conflicts, was a major blow to his career. On 7 July 1941, Itagaki was reassigned to command the Chosen Army in Korea, then considered to be a non-prestigious backwater post. He was able to prevent Masanobu Tsuji from being cashiered as the Emperor had wished due to Tsuji's insolence and extreme gekokujō during the Nomonhan incident by instead having Tsuji transferred to a research unit at Formosa.[8] While Itagaki was commander of the Chosen Army, Japan began assembling its nuclear weapons program with the industrial site near the Chosen reservoir as its equivalent to the Oak Ridge laboratory for the United States' Manhattan Project.[9] As the war situation continued to deteriorate for Japan, the Chosen Army was elevated to the Japanese Seventeenth Area Army in 1945, with Itagaki still as commander in chief until 7 April 1945. Itagaki was then reassigned to the Japanese Seventh Area Army in Singapore and Malaya in April 1945. Itagaki surrendered Japanese forces in Southeast Asia to British Admiral Louis Mountbatten in Singapore on 12 September 1945.
Death
After the war, Itagaki was taken into custody by the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers authorities and charged with war crimes, specifically in connection with the Japanese seizure of Manchuria, his escalation of the war against the Allies during his term as War Minister, and for allowing inhumane treatment of prisoners of war during his term as commander of Japanese forces in Southeast Asia. Itagaki was found guilty on counts 1, 27, 29, 31, 32, 35, 36 and 54 and was condemned to death in 1948 by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. Itagaki was hanged on 23 December 1948 at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo.[10]
References
Notes
^Victoria, Brian (2012). Zen War Stories. Taylor & Francis. p. 190. ISBN9781136127700.
^Budge, Kent G. Tsuji Masanobu (1901–1961?). Pacific War Online Encyclopedia website. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
^Wilcox, Robert K. (10 December 2019). Japan's Secret War: How Japan's Race to Build its Own Atomic Bomb Provided the Groundwork for North Korea's Nuclear Program. Permuted Press (third edition). ISBN978-1682618967.
