was a general in 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 ...

Biography

A native of

Kagoshima , is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 583,966 in 285,992 households, and a population density of 1100 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Etymology While the ...

, Hishikari graduated from the 5th class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1894. During the

First Sino-Japanese War The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 189417 April 1895), or the First China–Japan War, was a conflict between the Qing dynasty of China and the Empire of Japan primarily over influence in Joseon, Korea. In Chinese it is commonly known as th ...

, Hishikari was an officer in the IJA 3rd Infantry Regiment. After the end of the war, he returned to the Army Staff College, graduating from the 16th class in 1902. After graduation, he was appointed commander of the IJA 26th Infantry Regiment. After serving briefly as

Chief of Staff The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supportin ...

to the Japanese

Governor-General of Taiwan The governor-general of Taiwan (, shinjitai: ) was the head of the Government-General of Taiwan in the Japanese era (including Formosa and the Pescadores) when they were part of the Empire of Japan, from 1895 to 1945. The Japanese governors- ...

, Hishikari became Chief of Staff to the Japanese First Army in the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...

. He later also served during the Siberian Intervention against

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

partisans alongside the White Russian forces in the Russian Maritime Province. In the interwar period, Hishikari held a number of positions, including Commandant of the Army Academy, commander of the IJA 4th Infantry Regiment, chief of staff of the IJA 2nd Division, and commander of the IJA 23rd Division. He was promoted to major general in July 1918, and

lieutenant general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was norma ...

in August 1928. He subsequently commanded the

IJA 8th Division The was an infantry division in the Imperial Japanese Army. It was formed 1 October 1898 in Hirosaki, Aomori, as one of the six new reserve divisions created after the First Sino-Japanese War and was annihilated in the Philippines during the ...

, IJA 4th Division and the Taiwan Army. He was promoted to full general in August 1929. In 1930, Hishikari was assigned to be Commander in Chief of

Kwantung Army The Kwantung Army (Japanese language, Japanese: 関東軍, ''Kantō-gun'') was a Armies of the Imperial Japanese Army, general army of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1919 to 1945. The Kwantung Army was formed in 1906 as a security force for th ...

Manchuria Manchuria is a historical region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China and parts of the modern-day Russian Far East south of the Uda (Khabarovsk Krai), Uda River and the Tukuringra-Dzhagdy Ranges. The exact ...

. He was replaced on 1 August 1931, less than a month before the Mukden Incident. Following Operation Nekka (the invasion of Northern China), Hishikari was promoted in 1933 to be Commander in Chief of the Kwantung Army for the second time. During his period of command, he administered the agreement reached between Japan and China on 7 August 1933 whereby Japan withdrew China to the north of the

Great Wall The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand Li (unit), ''li'' long wall") is a series of fortifications in China. They were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection agains ...

. He also commanded the continuing operations against the remaining Chinese guerilla forces in the newly established state of

Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially known as the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of Great Manchuria thereafter, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China that existed from 1932 until its dissolution in 1945. It was ostens ...

, to which Hishikari also held the position of Japanese ambassador.Matsuzaka, ''The Making of Japanese Manchuria'' On 25 September 1933, the Soviet Union protested an alleged plot for Manchukuoan seizure of Chinese Eastern Railway accusing that it was a carefully worked out plan adopted in

Harbin Harbin, ; zh, , s=哈尔滨, t=哈爾濱, p=Hā'ěrbīn; IPA: . is the capital of Heilongjiang, China. It is the largest city of Heilongjiang, as well as being the city with the second-largest urban area, urban population (after Shenyang, Lia ...

at a series of meetings of the Japanese military mission and the responsible Japanese administrators of Manchukuo. The Japanese had been offered the railway for sale by the Russians a few months earlier. On 10 December 1934 Hishikari was replaced by General Jirō Minami. Hishikari served as a member of the Supreme War Council for 1934–1935, and went into the reserves. He retired completely from military service in April 1941. From 1943 until his death he was the chairman of the All Japan

Kendo is a modern Japanese martial art, descended from kenjutsu (one of the old Japanese martial arts, swordsmanship), that uses bamboo swords ( shinai) as well as protective armor ( bōgu). It began as samurai warriors' customary swordsmanship ex ...

Association.

References

Books

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External links

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hishikari, Takashi Japanese colonial governors and administrators 1871 births 1952 deaths Japanese military personnel of the Russo-Japanese War Imperial Japanese Army generals of World War II Members of the Kwantung Army Recipients of the Order of the Golden Kite Japanese military personnel of the First Sino-Japanese War People of the Kwantung Leased Territory Military personnel from Kagoshima Prefecture