Uehara Yusaku

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Baron Uehara Yusaku
(6 December 18568 November 1933)

Japanese General Baron Uehara Yusaku.
Place of birth Miyakonojo, Hyūga, Japan
Place of death Tokyo, Japan
Allegiance Empire of Japan
Years of service 1879–1933
Rank Field Marshal
Commands Imperial Japanese Army
Battles/wars Russo-Japanese War

Baron Yusaku Uehara (上原 勇作 Uehara Yusaku?) (6 December 18568 November 1933) was a field marshal in the Imperial Japanese Army.

Born in Miyakonojo, Hyūga province (currently Miyazaki prefecture, Uehara’s father was a samurai of the Satsuma domain. After graduating from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1879, he was sent to France for studies on modern military techniques from 1881-1885. He later fought in the Russo-Japanese War, as a staff officer in the Japanese 4th Army commanded by his father-in-law, Nozu Michitsura.

In December 1912, he was appointed War Minister in Prime Minister Saionji Kinmochi's second cabinet. Since the government was pursuing a tight fiscal policy, it soon came into conflict with the army, which was demanding an increase of two divisions. When Uehara resigned as War Minister over this conflict, the remainder cabinet resigned en masse when the Army refused to nominate a successor, precipitating the collapse of Saionji's government. This event was known as the "Taisho political crisis".

In 1915, Uehara became Chief of the General Staff, and remainded in this post longer than any person before or after (with the exception of a member of the Imperial House). While in this position, he (together with Tanaka Giichi and Ugaki Issei authorized the Siberian Intervention in support of White Russian forces against the Bolshevik Red Army in the Russian Civil War

He received the rank of field marshal on 22 April 1922, and was ennobled with the title of danshaku (baron) the same year.

Later, Uehara became Inspector General of Military Training. He was also the founder of the Imperial Japanese Army Engineering Corps.

He died in 1933.

[edit] References

  • Dupuy, Trevor N. The Harper Encyclopedia of Military Biography. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 1992. ISBN 0-7858-0437-4
  • Harries, Meirion. Soldiers of the Sun: The Rise and Fall of the Imperial Japanese Army. Random House; Reprint edition (1994). ISBN: 0679753036
  • Jansen, Marius B. The Making of Modern Japan. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2000.
  • Sims, Richard. Japanese Political History Since the Meiji Renovation 1868-2000. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN: 0312239157
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