Ministry of the Army

The Army Ministry (陸軍省, 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.

Ministry of the Army

陸軍省 Rikugun-shō
HQ building of the Imperial Japanese Army, Tokyo, from 1937–1945
Agency overview
Formed	April 1872 (1872-04)
Preceding	Ministry of War
Dissolved	November 1945 (1945-11)
Superseding agency	Ministry of Defense
Jurisdiction	Imperial Japanese Army

History

The Army Ministry was created in April 1872, along with the Navy Ministry, to replace the Ministry of War (兵部省, 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" (軍部大臣現役武官制, 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

• Under-Secretary of the Army (Vice Minister)
  • Military Affairs Bureau
  • Personnel Bureau
  • Weapons Bureau
  • Army Service Bureau
  • Administration Bureau
  • Intendance (Accounts and Supply)
  • Medical
  • Judicial Bureau
  • Economic Mobilization Bureau
  • Aeronautical Department
  • Economic Mobilization (abolished in April 1945)

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

No.	Portrait	Name	Term of Office		Cabinet
1		Ōyama Iwao 大山 巌	22 December 1885	17 May 1891	1st Itō
					Kuroda
					1st Yamagata
					1st Matsukata
2		Takashima Tomonosuke 高島 鞆之助	17 May 1891	8 August 1892
3		Ōyama Iwao 大山 巌	8 August 1892	20 September 1896	2nd Itō
					2nd Matsukata
4		Takashima Tomonosuke 高島 鞆之助	20 September 1896	12 January 1898
5		Katsura Tarō 桂 太郎	12 January 1898	23 December 1900	3rd Itō
					1st Ōkuma
					2nd Yamagata
					4th Itō
6		Kodama Gentarō 兒玉 源太郎	23 December 1900	27 March 1902
					1st Katsura
7		Terauchi Masatake 寺内 正毅	27 March 1902	30 August 1911
					1st Saionji
					2nd Katsura
8		Ishimoto Shinroku 石本 新六	30 August 1911	2 April 1912	2nd Saionji
9		Uehara Yūsaku 上原 勇作	5 April 1912	21 December 1912
10		Kigoshi Yasutsuna 木越 安綱	21 December 1912	24 June 1913	3rd Katsura
					1st Yamamoto
11		Kusunose Yukihiko 楠瀬 幸彦	24 June 1913	16 April 1914
12		Oka Ichinosuke 岡 市之助	16 April 1914	30 March 1916	2nd Ōkuma
13		Ōshima Ken'ichi 大島 健一	30 March 1916	29 September 1918
					Terauchi
14		Tanaka Giichi 田中 義一	29 September 1918	9 June 1921	Hara
15		Yamanashi Hanzō 山梨 半造	9 June 1921	2 September 1923
					Takahashi
					Katō
16		Tanaka Giichi 田中 義一	2 September 1923	7 January 1924	2nd Yamamoto
17		Kazushige Ugaki 宇垣 一成	7 January 1924	20 April 1927	Kiyoura
					Katō
					1st Wakatsuki
18		Yoshinori Shirakawa 白川 義則	20 April 1927	2 July 1929	1st Tanaka
19		Kazushige Ugaki 宇垣 一成	2 July 1929	14 April 1931	Hamaguchi
20		Jirō Minami 南 次郎	14 April 1931	13 December 1931	2nd Wakatsuki
21		Sadao Araki 荒木 貞夫	13 December 1931	23 January 1934	Inukai
					Saitō
22		Senjūrō Hayashi 林 銑十郎	23 January 1934	5 September 1935
					Okada
23		Yoshiyuki Kawashima 川島 義之	5 September 1935	9 March 1936
24		Hisaichi Terauchi 寺内 寿一	9 March 1936	2 February 1937	Hirota
25		Kōtarō Nakamura 中村 孝太郎	2 February 1937	9 February 1937	Hayashi
26		Hajime Sugiyama 杉山 元	9 February 1937	3 June 1938
					1st Konoe
27		Seishirō Itagaki 板垣 征四郎	3 June 1938	30 August 1939
					1st Hiranuma
28		Shunroku Hata 畑 俊六	30 August 1939	22 July 1940	Abe
					Yonai
29		Hideki Tojo 東條 英機	22 July 1940	22 July 1944	2nd Konoe
					3rd Konoe
					Tojo
30		Hajime Sugiyama 杉山 元	22 July 1944	7 April 1945	Koiso
31		Korechika Anami 阿南 惟幾	7 April 1945	14 August 1945	Suzuki
32		Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni 東久邇宮稔彦王	17 August 1945	23 August 1945	Higashikuni
33		Sadamu Shimomura 下村 定	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. Accessed 2 March 2005.