Army Ministry

The Army Ministry (陸軍りくぐん省しょう, Rikugun-shō), also known as the Ministry of War, was the cabinet-level ministry in the Empire of Japan charged with the administrative affairs of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). It existed from 1872 to 1945.

Army Ministry

陸軍りくぐん省しょう Rikugun-shō
HQ building of the Imperial Japanese Army, Tokyo, from 1937–1945
Agency overview
Formed	April 1872 (1872-04)
Preceding agency	Ministry of War
Dissolved	November 1945 (1945-11)
Superseding agency	Ministry of Defense
Jurisdiction	Imperial Japanese Army

In the IJA and IJN, the ministries were in charge of Gunsei (軍政ぐんせい, military administration), and Army General Staff Office and Navy General Staff were in charge of Gunrei (軍令ぐんれい, military command). The two were distinguished.

History

The Army Ministry was created in April 1872, along with the Navy Ministry, to replace the Ministry of War (兵部ひょうぶ省しょう, Hyōbushō) of the early Meiji government.

Initially, the Army Ministry was in charge of both administration and operational command of the Imperial Japanese Army. However, with the creation of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office in December 1878, it was left with only administrative functions. Its primary role was to secure the army budget, weapons procurement, personnel, relations with the National Diet and the Cabinet and broad matters of military policy.

The post of Army Minister was politically powerful. Although a member of the Cabinet after the establishment of the cabinet system of government in 1885, the Army Minister was answerable directly to the Emperor (the commander-in-chief of all Japanese armed forces under the Meiji Constitution) and not the Prime Minister.

From the time of its creation, the post of Army Minister was usually filled by an active-duty general in the Imperial Japanese Army. This practice was made into law under the "Military Ministers to be Active-Duty Officers Law" (軍部ぐんぶ大臣だいじん現役げんえき武官ぶかん制せい, Gumbu daijin gen'eki bukan sei) in 1900 by Prime Minister Yamagata Aritomo to curb the influence of political parties into military affairs. Abolished in 1913 under the administration of Yamamoto Gonnohyōe, the law was revived again in 1936 at the insistence of the Army General Staff by Prime Minister Hirota Kōki. At the same time, the Imperial Japanese Army prohibited its generals from accepting political offices except by permission from Imperial General Headquarters. Taken together, these arrangements gave the Imperial Japanese Army an effective, legal right to nominate (or refuse to nominate) the Army Minister. The ability of the Imperial Japanese Army to refuse to nominate an Army Minister gave it effective veto power over the formation (or continuation) of any civilian administration, and was a key factor in the erosion of representative democracy and the rise of Japanese militarism.

After 1937, both the Army Minister and the Chief of the Army General Staff were members of the Imperial General Headquarters.

With the surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II, the Army Ministry was abolished together with the Imperial Japanese Army by the Allied occupation authorities in November 1945 and was not revived in the post-war Constitution of Japan.

Organization

As in other Japanese ministries, each bureau (局きょく) belonged to a vice-minister. In addition, departments (部ぶ) and their higher-level organizations, headquarters (本部ほんぶ, "main department") were established as external bureaus.

• Vice Minister of the Army (陸軍りくぐん次官じかん)
  • Military Affairs Bureau (軍務ぐんむ局きょく)
  • Personnel Bureau (人事じんじ局きょく)
  • Ordnance Bureau (兵器へいき局きょく)
  • Development Bureau (整備せいび局きょく)
  • Military Administration Bureau (兵務へいむ局きょく)
  • Intendance Bureau (経理けいり局きょく)
  • Medical Bureau (医務いむ局きょく)
  • Judge Bureau (法務局ほうむきょく)
  • Warhorse Bureau (軍馬ぐんば局きょく)
  • external bureaus;
    • Army Fortification Department (陸軍りくぐん築城ちくじょう部ぶ)
    • Army Transport Department (陸軍りくぐん運輸うんゆ部ぶ)
    • Army Land Transport Department (陸軍りくぐん陸運りくうん部ぶ)
    • Army Military Relief department (陸軍りくぐん恤兵じゅっぺい部ぶ)
    • Army Department (陸軍りくぐん軍馬ぐんば補充ほじゅう部ぶ)
    • Army Aviation Department/Army Headquarters (陸軍りくぐん航空こうくう部ぶ/陸軍りくぐん航空こうくう本部ほんぶ)
    • Army Technical Headquarters (陸軍りくぐん技術ぎじゅつ本部ほんぶ)
    • Army Ordnance Headquarters (陸軍りくぐん兵器へいき本部ほんぶ)
    • Army Armour Headquarters (陸軍りくぐん機甲きこう本部ほんぶ)
    • Army Ordnance Administrative Headquarters (陸軍りくぐん兵器へいき行政ぎょうせい本部ほんぶ)
    • Army Fuel Administrative Headquarters (陸軍りくぐん燃料ねんりょう本部ほんぶ)
    • Army Shipping Command (陸軍りくぐん船舶せんぱく司令しれい部ぶ)
    • Army Arsenals (陸軍りくぐん造兵ぞうへい廠しょう)
    • Army Ordnance Depot (陸軍りくぐん兵器廠へいきしょう)
• Yasukuni Shrine

The Army Ministry and Imperial General Headquarters were located in Ichigaya Heights, which is now part of Shinjuku, Tokyo.

Ministers of the Army of Japan

Ministers of the Army or Ministry of War (陸軍りくぐん大臣だいじん) is the Minister of State in charge of the Ministry. Under Japanese law prior to 1945, each ministers belonged directly to the Emperor.

No.	Portrait	Name	Term of Office		Cabinet
1		Ōyama Iwao 大山おおやま 巌いわお	22 December 1885	17 May 1891	1st Itō
					Kuroda
					1st Yamagata
					1st Matsukata
2		Takashima Tomonosuke 高島たかしま 鞆之助すけ	17 May 1891	8 August 1892
3		Ōyama Iwao 大山おおやま 巌いわお	8 August 1892	20 September 1896	2nd Itō
					2nd Matsukata
4		Takashima Tomonosuke 高島たかしま 鞆之助すけ	20 September 1896	12 January 1898
5		Katsura Tarō 桂かつら 太郎たろう	12 January 1898	23 December 1900	3rd Itō
					1st Ōkuma
					2nd Yamagata
					4th Itō
6		Kodama Gentarō 兒玉こだま 源太郎げんたろう	23 December 1900	27 March 1902
					1st Katsura
7		Terauchi Masatake 寺内てらうち 正毅まさき	27 March 1902	30 August 1911
					1st Saionji
					2nd Katsura
8		Ishimoto Shinroku 石本いしもと 新しん六ろく	30 August 1911	2 April 1912	2nd Saionji
9		Uehara Yūsaku 上原うえはら 勇作ゆうさく	5 April 1912	21 December 1912
10		Kigoshi Yasutsuna 木越きごし 安やす綱つな	21 December 1912	24 June 1913	3rd Katsura
					1st Yamamoto
11		Kusunose Yukihiko 楠瀬くすのせ 幸彦さちひこ	24 June 1913	16 April 1914
12		Oka Ichinosuke 岡おか 市之助いちのすけ	16 April 1914	30 March 1916	2nd Ōkuma
13		Ōshima Ken'ichi 大島おおしま 健一けんいち	30 March 1916	29 September 1918
					Terauchi
14		Tanaka Giichi 田中たなか 義一ぎいち	29 September 1918	9 June 1921	Hara
15		Yamanashi Hanzō 山梨やまなし 半はん造づくり	9 June 1921	2 September 1923
					Takahashi
					Katō
16		Tanaka Giichi 田中たなか 義一ぎいち	2 September 1923	7 January 1924	2nd Yamamoto
17		Kazushige Ugaki 宇垣うがき 一成いっせい	7 January 1924	20 April 1927	Kiyoura
					Katō
					1st Wakatsuki
18		Yoshinori Shirakawa 白川しらかわ 義則よしのり	20 April 1927	2 July 1929	1st Tanaka
19		Kazushige Ugaki 宇垣うがき 一成いっせい	2 July 1929	14 April 1931	Hamaguchi
20		Jirō Minami 南みなみ 次郎じろう	14 April 1931	13 December 1931	2nd Wakatsuki
21		Sadao Araki 荒木あらき 貞夫さだお	13 December 1931	23 January 1934	Inukai
					Saitō
22		Senjūrō Hayashi 林はやし 銑ずく十じゅう郎ろう	23 January 1934	5 September 1935
					Okada
23		Yoshiyuki Kawashima 川島かわしま 義之よしゆき	5 September 1935	9 March 1936
24		Hisaichi Terauchi 寺内てらうち 寿一ひさいち	9 March 1936	2 February 1937	Hirota
25		Kōtarō Nakamura 中村なかむら 孝太郎こうたろう	2 February 1937	9 February 1937	Hayashi
26		Hajime Sugiyama 杉山すぎやま 元はじめ	9 February 1937	3 June 1938
					1st Konoe
27		Seishirō Itagaki 板垣いたがき 征四郎せいしろう	3 June 1938	30 August 1939
					1st Hiranuma
28		Shunroku Hata 畑はた 俊六しゅんろく	30 August 1939	22 July 1940	Abe
					Yonai
29		Hideki Tojo 東條とうじょう 英機ひでき	22 July 1940	22 July 1944	2nd Konoe
					3rd Konoe
					Tojo
30		Hajime Sugiyama 杉山すぎやま 元はじめ	22 July 1944	7 April 1945	Koiso
31		Korechika Anami 阿南あなみ 惟幾これちか	7 April 1945	14 August 1945	Suzuki
32		Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni 東ひがし久邇くに宮みや稔彦としひこ王おう	17 August 1945	23 August 1945	Higashikuni
33		Sadamu Shimomura 下村しもむら 定じょう	23 August 1945	1 December 1945
					Shidehara

See also

• Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office

References

• Edgerton, Robert B. (1999). Warriors of the Rising Sun: A History of the Japanese Military. Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-3600-7.
• Harries, Meirion (1994). Soldiers of the Sun: The Rise and Fall of the Imperial Japanese Army. Random House. ISBN 0-679-75303-6.
• "Foreign Office Files for Japan and the Far East". Adam Matthew Publications. Retrieved 2 March 2005.