2021年

Politics

Friday, August 12 1921: Colonel Otawara Tataru, Commander of Naval Defense Force in Siberia, returned.

1921 (Taisho 10) Friday, August 12 Colonel Otawara Tataru, Commander of the Ad Hoc Naval Defense Force in Siberia, returned to his home in Tokyo. Colonel Otawara was assigned to Nicolaevsk as a temporary coastal defense commander in July of the previous year. After completing his one-year term, he was replaced by his successor, Hidetaro Akimoto. He returned to his home in Ichigaya-tanimachi and was interviewed by the media. In January of the previous year, the so-called “Nikolaevsk incident” occurred in Nikolaevsk, which was closed in the middle of winter. Local partisans killed 351 Japanese soldiers and 384 civilians, leaving a total of 735 victims. The administration of Prime Minister...
Social

Thursday, August 11 1921: Masana Maeda, a planner of Industrial policy in Meiji era, died.

1921 (Taisho 10) On Thursday, August 11, Masana Maeda, who had led the Meiji government’s policy of encouraging new industries, passed away. He was 71 years old. Masana MAEDA was born in 1850. His father was a doctor of the Satsuma Domain, Zen-an MAEDA. I was born as his second son. He studied Western studies under Shohei Yagi, who was a scholar of the Satsuma Domain at the age of 9. Shohei Yagi is an interesting person who was born in Tenpo 3 (1832), so he is 18 years older than Masana Maeda. So when Masana Maeda joined Yagi, his master Yagi was 31 years old. By the order of...
Birthday

Monday, August 8 1921: American actress Esther Williams was born.

1921 (Taisho 10) Monday, August 8 American actress Esther Williams was born in Inglewood, a suburb of Los Angeles, California. Her father was Louis Stanton Williams, a famous painter, and mother Bula, a psychologist. She was the youngest of their five children. She has been a competitive swimmer since high school and won the U.S. National Championships three times. Esther was expected to win a medal in the swimming event at the Tokyo Olympics, which was scheduled to take place in 1940 when she was 19 years old, but the Olympics itself has been cancelled. In 1941, a year after the Pacific War began, she was recruited by the film...
Social

Monday, August 8 1921: Huge Explosion at Hiroshima army arsenal.

1921 (Taisho 10) On Monday, August 8, an explosion occurred at the army arsenal on Mt. Hiji in Hiroshima City. There were 7 deaths and 21 serious injuries. Four huge explosions spread fear in Hiroshima. The 5th Division (Commander: Lieutenant General Yamada Rikutsui) was dispatched to Vladivostok for the Siberia Expedition and returned to Hiroshima in August 1920, but its ammunition was not strictly controlled, for example, a safety needle was disconnected on the way back. A report addressed to the Chief of Naval Operations (Shōichi Kanno), “Explosion Cause of Hiroshima Hijiyama Artillery” It is presumed to be a defect in handling. The explosion was caused by the dropping of...
Birthday

Sunday, August 7 1921: Guitarist, Manitas de Plata was born in a Gypsy Caravan.

1921 (Taisho 10) Sunday, August 7 The flamenco guitarist Manitas de Plata was born in a Gypsy Caravan in southern France. His real name was Ricardo Barriardo. “Manitas de Plata” means “a small silver hand” in Spanish, and the artist’s name is derived from the nickname that praises his guitar skills in his words. Manitas de Plata is 11 years older than Jango Reinhardt, who is said to be the top gypsy guitarist in the world. Manitas de Plata inherited the craftsmanship of Jango Reinhardt and has been in the limelight since Jango’s death in 1953. In 1964, I was invited to Pablo Picasso’s atelier in southern France where I...
Politics

Saturday, August 6 1921: Takijiro Onishi participated in the Semmill Mission

1921 (Taisho 10) Saturday, August 6 Takijiro Onishi (later Vice Admiral) returned from his study abroad in Europe and participated in the Semmill Mission. Onishi was a captain of the navy at the age of 30. The Sempill Mission is formed by Royal Air Force. It is a 19th Lord Sempill (the official name is William Forbes-Sempill) training mission to teach aviation engineering to the Imperial Japanese Navy. In April 1918, towards the end of World War I, the United Kingdom established the world’s first independent Royal Air Force, or RAF. It was created by fusing the Army Air Corps and the Navy Air Corps. It was because it became...
Politics

Friday, August 5 1921: Yasutaro Hosoya passed away.

1921 (Taisho 10) On Friday, August 5, former Shogun’s retainer and Denshutai member Yasutaro Hosoya passed away. He was 70 years old. Yasutaro Hosoya was born in Edo in 1851 as the eldest son of Kisaburo Hosoya, a direct retainer of the Edo Shogunate. In 1865 (Keio Era), when Yasutaro was 14 years old, he entered Yokohama French Language School. At the end of the Edo period, the Edo shogunate aimed to strengthen the shogunate army under the guidance of the French military advisory group. Before that, this French language school was established for the purpose of training cadets who can understand French. It was set up in Honcho 6-chome,...
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...