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Kiten, Count Nogi olarak da bilinen Nogi Maresuke (乃木希典, Nogi Maresuke), (25 Aralık 1849 - 13 Eylül 1912), Japon İmparatorluk Ordusu'nda generallik yapmış ve Rus - Japon Savaşı'nda önemli rol oynamıştır.

İlk hayatı

Nogi bir samurayın oğlu olarak Edo kentinin (günümüz:Tokyo) Chöshü (günümüz:Yamaguchi) Bölgesi'nin Chofu kabilesinde dünyaya gelmiştir. Eski Japon güneş takvimine göre 11 Kasım 1849 tarihinde doğmuştur. Kötü ruhların zarar vermesini engellemek için "hiç kimse" anlamına gelen Mujin, Nogi'nin çocukluk ismiydi.

Askeri kariyeri

The next year (1876), Nogi was named as the Kumamoto regional troop's Staff Officer, and transferred to command the 1st Infantry Regiment.

Bir sonraki yılda (1876), Kumamato bölgesel birliğine Kurmay Subay olarak atandı ve kendisine 1.Piyade Alayı'nın komutanlığı görevine verildi.

On 27 August 1876, Nogi married Shizuko, the fourth daughter of Satsuma samurai Yuji Sadano, who was then 20 years old. As Nogi was 28 years old, it was a very late marriage for that time, considering that the average age to marry was in the early 20s. On 28 August 1877, their first son Katsunori was born, and Nogi bought his first house at Nizakamachi, Tokyo. In 1878, he became a colonel. The next year, his second son, Yasunori, was born.

In 1887, Nogi went to Almanya with Kawakami Soroku to study European military strategy and tactics.

In 1894, during the First Sino-Japanese War, Nogi served as major general in command of the First Infantry Brigade, which penetrated the Chinese defenses and successfully occupied Port Arthur in only one day of combat. The following year, he was promoted to lieutenant general and assigned to the Second Infantry Brigade, tasked with the invasion of Tayvan. Nogi remained with the occupation forces in Taiwan until 1898. In 1899, he was recalled to Japan, and placed in command of the newly formed 11th Infantry Brigade, based in Kagawa.

Political career

After the war, he was elevated to danshaku (baron) and awarded the Order of the Golden Kite (1st class).

Nogi was appointed as the third Japanese Governor-General of Taiwan from 14 October 1896 to February 1898. When moving to Taiwan, he moved his entire family, and during their time in Taiwan, his mother contracted malaria and died. This led Nogi to take measures to improve on the health care infrastructure of the island.

However, unlike many of his contemporary officers, Nogi expressed no interest in pursuing politics.

Russo-Japanese War

Nogi (center) during the Russo-Japanese War.

The Ziziphus jujuba which written in Monbusho chant lyrics.
It is located in General Nogi's mansion now.

In 1904, Nogi was recalled to active service on the occasion of the Russo-Japanese War, and was promoted to army general in command of the Japanese Third Army, with an initial strength of approximately 90,000 men and assigned to the capture of the Rusya port of Port Arthur on the southern tip of Liaodong Peninsula, Manchuria. Nogi’s forces landed shortly after the Battle of Nanshan, in which his eldest son, serving with the Japanese 2nd Army, was killed. Advancing slowly down the Liaodong Peninsula, Nogi encountered unexpectedly strong resistance, and far more fortifications than he had experienced ten years earlier against the Chinese. The attack against Port Arthur quickly turned into the lengthy Siege of Port Arthur, a dilemma lasting from 1 August 1904 to 2 January 1905, costing the Japanese massive losses, including Nogi’s second son. Due to the mounting casualties and failure of Nogi to overcome Port Arthur’s defenses, there was mounting pressure within the Japanese government and military to relieve him of command. However, in an unprecedented action, Emperor Meiji spoke out during the Supreme War Council meeting, defending Nogi and demanding that he be kept in command.

After the fall of Port Arthur, Nogi was regarded as a national hero. He led his 3rd Army against the Russian forces at the final Battle of Mukden, ending the land combat phase of operations of the war.

At the end of the war, Nogi made a report directly to Emperor Meiji during a Gozen Kaigi. When explaining battles of the Siege of Port Arthur in detail, he broke down and wept, apologizing for the 56,000 lives lost in that campaign and asking to be allowed to kill himself in atonement. Emperor Meiji told him that suicide was unacceptable, as all responsibility for the war was due to imperial orders, and that Nogi must remain alive, at least as long as he himself lived.

Post War Career

After the war, Nogi was elevated to the title of count and awarded the Order of the Rising Sun (1st class with Paulownia Blossoms, Grand Cordon).

As head of the Peers' School from 1908-1912, he was the mentor of the young Hirohito, and was, perhaps, the most important influence on the life of the future emperor of Japan.

Nogi spent most of his personal fortune on hospitals for wounded soldiers and on memorial monuments erected around the country in commemoration of those killed during the Russo-Japanese War. He also successful petitioned the Japanese government to erect a Russian-style memorial monument in Port Arthur to the Russian dead of that campaign.

Scouting

General Nogi is significant to Scouting in Japan, as in 1911, he went to England in attendance on Prince Higashifushimi Yorihito for the coronation of King George V. The General, as the "Defender of Port Arthur" was introduced to General Robert Baden-Powell, the "Defender of Mafeking", by Lord Kitchener, whose expression "Once a Scout, always a Scout" remains to this day.

Seppuku

House of Maresuke Nogi.

He committed seppuku shortly after the Emperor Meiji's funeral entourage left the palace. The ritual suicide was in accordance with the samurai practice of following one's master to death (junshi). Nogi and his spouse bathed together, and changed into white kimonos, before sharing a cup of sake before the tokonoma. Mrs. Nogi proceeded to commit suicide first; while Nogi assisted by plunging a dagger into her neck. He then sliced his own stomach open. In his suicide letter, he said that he wished to expiate for his disgrace in Kyūshū, and for the thousands of casualties at Port Arthur.

All four members of the Nogi family are buried at Aoyama Cemetery in Tokyo. Under State Shinto, Nogi was revered as a kami and a Shinto shrine in his honor still exists on the site of his house in Nogizaka, Tokyo.

Legacy

Nogi's seppuku immediately created a sensation and a controversy. Some writers claimed that it reflected Nogi’s disgust with the profligacy and decline in moral values of late Meiji Japan. Others pointed to Nogi's own suicide note, calling it an act of atonement for mistakes in his military career. In either case, Nogi's suicide marked the end of an era, and it had a profound impact on contemporary writers, such as Mori Ōgai ve Natsume Sōseki. For the public, Nogi became a symbol of loyalty and sacrifice. His deification made him a guardian of the military, but among his military contemporaries, his military reputation had always been marginal.

References

• Bix, Herbert P. Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. HarperCollins Books (2000) ISBN 0-06-019314-X
• Buruma, Ian. Inventing Japan: 1853-1964. Modern Library; Reprint edition (2004) ISBN 0-8129-7286-4
• Ching, Leo T.S., Becoming Japanese: Colonial Taiwan and the Politics of Identity Formation. University of California Press (2001). ISBN 0-520-22553-8
• Dupuy, Trevor N. Encyclopedia of Military Biography. I B Tauris & Co Ltd (1992). ISBN 1-85043-569-3
• Jukes, Jeffery. The Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905. Osprey Publishing (2002).ISBN 1-84176-446-9
• Wolferen, Karl van. The Enigma of Japanese Power: People and Politics in a Stateless Nation. Vintage; Reprint edition (1990). ISBN 0-679-72802-3

External links

• Portrait of Nogi
• Nogi Shrine in Nogizaka, Tokyo. There is another in Shimonoseki and several others throughout Japan.

[[Category:1849 births]] [[Category:1912 deaths]] [[Category:Military personnel who committed suicide]] [[Category:Scouting in Japan]] [[Category:Seppuku]] [[Category:Japanese generals]] [[Category:People of the Russo-Japanese War]] [[Category:People of the First Sino-Japanese War]] [[Category:People of the Boshin War]] [[Category:Kazoku]] [[Category:People in Meiji period Japan]] [[Category:People associated with Scouting]]