Prince Kitashirakawa Nagahisa

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His Imperial Highness Prince Kitashirakawa Nagahisa (北白川宮永久王 Kitashirakawa-no-miya Nagahisa-ō?, 10 February 1910 - 14 September 1940) of Japan, was the 4th head of a collateral branch of the Japanese imperial family and a career officer in the Imperial Japanese Army.

Contents

[edit] Early years

His Imperial Highness Prince Kitashirakawa Nagahisa was the only son of Prince and Princess Kitashirakawa Naruhisa. He succeeded as the head of the Kitashirakawa-no-miya house upon his father's unexpected death in an automobile accident in France in 1923.

[edit] Marriage & family

On 25 April 1935, Prince Nagahisa married Tokugawa Sachiko (born 26 August 1916), the daughter of Baron Tokugawa Yoshikuni. Prince and Princess Kitashirakawa Nagahisa had one son and one daughter:

  1. HIH Prince Kitashirakawa Michihisa (2 May 1937)
  2. HIH Princess Kitashiakawa Hatsuko (13 Nov 1939)

[edit] Military career

Prince Nagahisa graduated from the 43rd class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1935, and was commissioned a sub-lieutenant in field artillery. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1936 and captain in 1939 after his graduation from the Army Staff College. After the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Prince was assigned to the North China Area Army. However, on 14 September 1940, Captain Prince Kitashirakawa died in an airplane crash while on duty in Inner Mongolia, thus becoming the second member of the Imperial Family killed in World War II (the first being Captain Prince Fushimi Hiroyoshi in 1937)

The Prince received as posthumous promotion to major and the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Chrysanthemum.

[edit] Subsequent history

Dowager Princess Kitashirakawa Sachiko, became a commoner in 1946 with the abolition of the collateral branches of the Japanese imperial family during the American occupation of Japan. She became a professor at Ochanomizu University, and in 1969, entered the service of the Imperial Household Agency. She served for many years as the chief of the ladies-in-waiting to Empress Kojun.

The site of the Kitashirakawa palace in Tokyo is now the Shin-Takanawa Prince Hotel.

[edit] References

  • Dupuy, Trevor N. The Harper Encyclopedia of Military Biography. New York: Harper Collins Publishers Inc., 1992. ISBN 0-7858-0437-4
  • Fujitani,T. Splendid Monarchy: Power and Pageantry in Modern Japan. University of California Press; Reprint edition (1998). ISBN: 0520213718
  • Lebra, Sugiyama Takie. Above the Clouds: Status Culture of the Modern Japanese Nobility. University of California Press (1995). ISBN: 0520076028
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