2021年7月

Politics

Saturday, July 30 1921: OBATA Yukichi, Ambassador to China, left Tokyo.

Saturday, July 30 1921 (Taisho 10) OBATA Yukichi, the minister to China who had been in Tokyo since the Eastern Conference (Colonial Conference) in May, left for home. On the previous day, the group had a meeting with Miyoji ITO, Shinpei GOTO, Tomosaburo KATO (Minister of the Navy), Kosai UCHIDA (Foreign Minister), and the director-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who were members of the ad hoc Foreign Relations Research Council. The Eastern Conference (Colonial Conference) was held on May 16 to 17, 1921, by Prime Minister Hara Takashi. The cabinet ministers, Makoto SAITO, the governor-general of Korea, Isaburo YAMAGATA, the director-general of the Kwantung Agency, and Yukichi OBATA,...
Economy

Wednesday, July 27 1921: Isaka Naomoto of Noshiro was dead.

1921 (Taisho 10) On Wednesday, July 27, the death of Isaka Naomoto, a wealthy merchant in Noshiro, Akita Prefecture, Japan. He was 60 years old. Isaka was born in 1860, the first year of the Manen era, as a child of a feudal retainer of Mito. His childhood name was Ryotaro. At that time, I entered Jikou-sha where the talented of Mito Domain studied, and I studied Mitogaku which developed in my hometown Mito. Mitogaku is a philosophy that is based on Confucianism, but also eclectic between Kokugaku (the study of Japanese classical literature) and Shinto, and later became the driving force of the Sonno Joi movement. In 1881 (Meiji...
Politics

Tuesday, July 26 1921: Colonel Hideichi Miwa, Chief of Staff of the 11 Division, killed.

1921 (Taisho 10) Tuesday, July 26 During a mission to Siberia, Colonel Hideichi Miwa, Chief of Staff of the 11 Division (Zentsuji), and others were attacked and killed by partisans on a bridge north of Manzovka while they were moving from Camp Nicolisk to the northern city of Spaskaya. At that time, the cabinet of President Takashi Hara was in the middle of negotiations with the Russian puppet state, the Far Eastern Republic, on specific conditions for the withdrawal of troops from Siberia. Wahideichi, chief of the staff, who died in the battle, was promoted to major general on the same day. His father-in-law, General Shigeyuki NITAHARA, served as Chief...
Birthday

Monday, July 25 1921: Model railway researcher Yamazaki Kiyo was born.

1921 (Taisho 10) Monday, July 25 Model railway researcher Yamazaki Kiyo (alias Yamazaki Yoshiaki) was born in Sasebo City, Nagasaki Prefecture. Yamazaki has had a strong interest in railways since he was a child. Before the war, he won the Model Railway Speed Competition and the Traction Competition sponsored by the magazine “Science of Children”. The “Science of Children” is still being published energetically, and in 2024 it will mark its 100 year anniversary. Yamazaki later graduated from the Faculty of Science at Tokyo Imperial University, and his passion for model trains grew rather stronger than subsiding as he grew older. At last, he launched the 1947 (Showa 22) magazine...
Politics

Saturday, July 23: The first Chinese Communist Party Congress was held

1921 (Taisho 10) Saturday, July 23 The first Chinese Communist Party Congress was held in the Shanghai French Concession. The place was Li Shucheng’s home in Wangji 106. Li Shucheng is a close friend of Sun Wen and one of the founders of the Chinese Alliance in 1904. Li has a younger brother named Li Hanjun. He was also known as Li Renjie, but his younger brother is known for his appearance in “Shanghai-yu-ki,” a memoir of Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s visit to China. In addition, Akutagawa visited China 100 years ago, from May to July, 1921 (1921), so Li Renjie may have met him in June, the month before the first...
Social

Friday, July 22, Kiyonari Kurasawa died at the age of 88.

1921 (Taisho 10) On Friday, July 22, Kiyonari Kurasawa, a scholar of Japanese classical history (Koku-Gaku), died at the age of 88. His other names were Kurasawa Yoshiyuki. If you have read “Yoake-mae (Before the Dawn)” by Toson Shimazaki, you may be more impressed by the name “Yoshiyuki.” Kiyonari or Yoshiyuki Kurazawa was born at Ono, Shinshu in 1832, in present-day Tatsuno-machi, Kamiina-gun, Nagano Prefecture. He devoted himself to Atsutane HIRATA and became a scholar of Japanese classical literature in his hometown of Shinshu. He went to Edo in 1854 and met famous Toko Fujita who was a scholar of Mito Domain. Exactly 10 years after Kurasawa’s encounter with Fujita...
Politics

Wednesday, July 20 1921: Kanji Ishiwara returning Japan from China

1921 (Taisho 10) Wednesday, July 20 There was a regular personnel change in the Army. 10 years later, in 1931, Kanji Ishiwara, as a staff officer at Kwan-tong Army, is known for the Manchurian Incident. In 1921, Ishihara was a 32 year-old captain. Ishiwara, who had been stationed in Hankou, Hunan Province for one year and three months as a member of the Central China Expeditionary Force Headquarters, returned to Japan through this personnel transfer and became a military science instructor at the Army War College. When Ishiwara was young, he did not pay attention to studying in Germany, which was the top goal for elite officers at that time,...
2021

New Party of Tokyo Governor Koike

Koike is the only powerful drug that has the potential to change the current politics, as the opposition cannot be expected to take over the LDP. “It seems that the media is spreading rumors about the revival of national politics as a joke, but it is not in my mind.” Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike’s statement on her return to national politics at a press conference on July 9 can be taken as a de facto announcement of her return. This is because, as common sense in political terms, such expressions are rather idiomatic expressions used when one is “in the middle of the head.” This expression is often used by...
Social

Saturday, July 16 1921: The 49th graduation ceremony of the Naval Academy was held.

1921 (Taisho 10) Saturday, July 16 The graduation ceremony of the Naval Academy was held. Recently, there has been a discussion in Japan about changing the September entrance/new term system in accordance with world standards, but from the Meiji period to the Taisho period, September entrance and July graduation were also common in Japan. The reason for the April enrollment system was that Tokyo Imperial University and other imperial universities changed the system to April enrollment, exactly 100 years ago in 1921 (1921). The Naval Academy was also changed to enter in April and graduate in March. The Naval Academy was a four-year school, but starting this year, new students...
Birthday

Friday, July 15 1921: Chinese tragic heroine, Sun Weishi was born.

1921 (Taisho 10) On Friday, July 15, Sūn Wéishì was born in Nanxi County, Sichuan Province. His father was a revolutionary, Sūn Bíangwén. Mother is Yǔ Rénruì. Around the time when Sūn Wéishì was born, her father was the chief of the Sichuan Mint in the Republic of China, but in September 1922 he returned to Germany together with Zhū dé. Zhū is the father of the People’s Liberation Army. They met with Zhōu ēnái in Germany, who was also studying in Europe, and joined the Communist Party of China in Berlin. In April 1927, Chiang Kai-shek’s father, Sūn Bíangwén, was assassinated in the so-called 4.12 coup d’etat in Shanghai....