was a Japanese military officer of the

Imperial Japanese Army The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA; , ''Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun'', "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire") was the principal ground force of the Empire of Japan from 1871 to 1945. It played a central role in Japan’s rapid modernization during th ...

and former member of the Byakkotai of the

Aizu Domain was a Han (Japan), domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1601 to 1871.Ravina, Mark. (1998) ''Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan,'' p. 222 The Aizu Domain was based at Aizuwakamatsu Castle, Tsuruga Castle in M ...

History

He lied about his age to join the military, and was assigned to the Byakkotai division - essentially a reserve division of young teenagers only meant to be deployed in emergency. He was the sole survivor of group after the Byakkotai committed suicide on Iimori Hill during the Battle of Aizu. Iimori Hill overlooked the Aizuwakamatsu Castle and they thought the flames meant their lord Matsudaira Katamori and families were deceased. Thus they committed seppuku to demonstrate defiance.Yamakawa, ''Aizu Boshin Senshi'', p. 522. The events were not widely known at the time due to the victorious Imperial army not wishing to glorify rebels. After the war Sadakichi relocated to

Sendai is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Miyagi Prefecture and the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,098,335 in 539,698 households, making it the List of cities in Japan, twelfth most populated city in Japan. ...

. He served in the Ministry of Communications and

. He only related the incident much later as an older man, after the tensions of the Boshin War had cooled. It is through him that the events of the Byakkotai suicide at Iimori are known. After his death, his ashes were spread on Mount Iimori together on the buried graves of his Byakkotai comrades.

References

* * * 1854 births 1931 deaths Samurai People from Aizu Aizu-Matsudaira retainers Sole survivors Seppuku from Meiji era to present {{samurai-stub