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...

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,...

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,...

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...

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...

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,...