Takeo Hirose
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, (May 27, 1868 – March 27, 1904) was a career officer in the
Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, Potsdam Declaration, when it was dissolved followin ...
. He commanded the cargo vessel ''Fukui Maru'' during the
Battle of Port Arthur The of 8–9 February 1904 marked the commencement of the Russo-Japanese War. It began with a surprise night attack by a squadron of Imperial Japanese Navy, Japanese destroyers on the neutral country, neutral Imperial Russian Navy, Russian fl ...
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 ...
. The ship was hit by coastal artillery, and despite being wounded, he drowned while looking for other survivors of the sinking, going down with his ship. His selfless sacrifice elevated him to the status of a deified national hero.


Biography

Born in what is now
Taketa, Ōita 270px, Taketa City Hall is a city located in Ōita Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 19,456 in 9838 households, and a population density of 41 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Taketa is loc ...
, his father Hirose Shigetake was a judge, while his elder brother
Hirose Katsuhiko (September 20, 1862October 20, 1920) was a Japanese Rear-Admiral of the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War. He was known as the elder brother of the war hero Hirose Takeo as well as the commander of the '' Akitsushima'' during ...
was a
rear admiral Rear admiral is a flag officer rank used by English-speaking navies. In most European navies, the equivalent rank is called counter admiral. Rear admiral is usually immediately senior to commodore and immediately below vice admiral. It is ...
. He studied at the
Imperial Japanese Naval Academy The was a school established to train line officers for the Imperial Japanese Navy. It was originally located in Nagasaki, moved to Yokohama in 1866, and was relocated to Tsukiji, Tokyo, in 1869. It moved to Etajima, Hiroshima, in 1888. Students ...
in
Etajima , also called , ''Nomijima'', ''Nomi Island'', or is an island in Hiroshima Bay located in southwestern Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The mess with island name originates from the ancient (and possibly legendary) strait at now town . Geography T ...
, graduating from the 15th class in 1889. He served aboard the
ironclad warship An ironclad was a steam-propelled warship protected by steel or iron armor constructed from 1859 to the early 1890s. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or incendiary shells. The firs ...
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 ...
and saw action at the Battle of Yalu River on September 17, 1894. From 1897 to 1899 Hirose was sent to study in
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
and stayed on as the resident
military attaché A military attaché or defence attaché (DA),Defence Attachés
''Geneva C ...
in
St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...
until 1902. During his time as attaché he went on a tour of
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
,
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
and
Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...
. He was promoted to lieutenant commander in 1900. When
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
went to war against Russia in the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, Hirose was assigned to the
battleship A battleship is a large, heavily naval armour, armored warship with a main battery consisting of large naval gun, guns, designed to serve as a capital ship. From their advent in the late 1880s, battleships were among the largest and most form ...
as torpedo officer. However, during the
Battle of Port Arthur The of 8–9 February 1904 marked the commencement of the Russo-Japanese War. It began with a surprise night attack by a squadron of Imperial Japanese Navy, Japanese destroyers on the neutral country, neutral Imperial Russian Navy, Russian fl ...
he volunteered to command the ''Fukui Maru'', an old cargo vessel which was used as a
blockship A blockship is a ship deliberately sunk to prevent a river, channel, or canal from being used as a waterway. It may either be sunk by a navy defending the waterway to prevent the ingress of attacking enemy forces, as in the case of at Portland ...
during the second unsuccessful attempt to blockade the entrance to Port Arthur on the night of March 26. As the ship was about to reach the channel, it was hit by Russian artillery and a torpedo fired by a destroyer ''Silnyi'' and sunk. Hirose was fatally wounded while searching for survivors and went down with the ship. Because of his heroism, he was posthumously promoted to commander, and deified as a "martial spirit" (軍神 ''gunshin''), and a
Shinto shrine A Stuart D. B. Picken, 1994. p. xxiii is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more kami, , the deities of the Shinto religion. The Also called the . is where a shrine's patron is or are enshrined.Iwanami Japanese dic ...
was built in his honor in Taketa, Oita. A statue of him was also erected outside the Manseibashi Railway Station in Tokyo until 1947.


Cultural references

Song of Commander Hirose
was a ''Monbusho Shoka'', or a song authorized by the Ministry of Education, a predecessor of the current
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology The , also known as MEXT, is one of the eleven ministries of Japan that compose part of the executive branch of the government of Japan. History The Meiji period, Meiji government created the first Ministry of Education in 1871. In January 2001 ...
. Hirose was the subject of the epic historical novel ''
Saka no Ue no Kumo , or "Clouds Above the Hill" is a Japanese historical novel by Shiba Ryōtarō originally published serially from 1968 to 1972 in eight volumes. A three-year NHK television special drama series based on the novel and also entitled '' Saka no ...
'', by author
Ryōtarō Shiba , also known as , was a Japanese author. He is best known for his novels about historical events in Japan and on the Northeast Asian sub-continent, as well as his historical and cultural essays pertaining to Japan and its relationship to the r ...
. The novel became the basis for the
NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...
television drama ''Saka no Ue no Kumo'', in which Hirose portrayed by ex-Olympic swimmer and actor
Takahiro Fujimoto is an actor and a retired male medley swimmer from Japan, who represented his native country in two consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in 1988. His best Olympic result was the 8th place (4:23.86) in the Men's 400m Individual Medley event at t ...
.


See also

*
Tachibana Shūta was a soldier in the early Imperial Japanese Army, noted for his heroic death in combat during the Russo-Japanese War.Kowner, '' Historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War'', p. 366. Biography Tachibana was born as the second son to a vill ...
- 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 ...
equivalent to Hirose, who was also deified as a ''gunshin''. * Ariadna Kovalskaya - Russian woman known for her relationship with Hirose


References

*Connaughton, R.M (1988). ''The War of the Rising Sun and the Tumbling Bear—A Military History of the Russo-Japanese War 1904–5'', London, . *Jukes, Geoffry. ''The Russo-Japanese War 1904–1905''. Osprey Essential Histories. (2002). . *


External links


Portrait of Takeo Hirose
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hirose, Takeo 1868 births 1904 deaths Japanese military personnel of the First Sino-Japanese War Japanese military personnel killed in the Russo-Japanese War Military personnel from Ōita Prefecture People from Taketa, Ōita Imperial Japanese Navy officers Captains who went down with the ship Deified Japanese men Deaths by drowning Accidental deaths in China