Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office

The Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office (参謀本部, Sanbō Honbu), also called the Army General Staff, was one of the four principal agencies charged with overseeing the Imperial Japanese Army.

Postcard with view of Imperial General Staff Office HQ, circa 1910

Role

The Army Ministry (陸軍省, Rikugunshō) was created in April 1872, along with the Navy Ministry, to replace the Ministry of Military Affairs (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, from December 1878, the Imperial Army General Staff Office took over all operational control of the Army, leaving the Army Ministry only with administrative functions.

The Imperial Army General Staff was thus responsible for the preparation of war plans; the military training and employment of combined arms; military intelligence; the direction of troop maneuvers; troop deployments; and the compilation of field service military regulations, military histories, and cartography.

The Chief of the Army General Staff was the senior ranking uniformed officer in the Imperial Japanese Army and enjoyed, along with the War Minister, the Navy Minister, and the Chief of the Navy General Staff, direct access to the emperor.

In wartime, the Imperial Army General Staff formed part of the army section of the Imperial General Headquarters, an ad-hoc body under the supervision of the emperor created to assist in coordinating overall command.

Origins and development

Following the overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1867 and the "restoration" of direct imperial rule, the leaders of the new Meiji government sought to reduce Japan's vulnerability to Western imperialism by systematically emulating the technological, governing, social, and military practices of the European great powers.

Initially, under Ōmura Masujirō and his newly created Ministry of the Military Affairs (Hyōbu-shō), the Japanese military was patterned after that of Napoleonic France. However, the stunning victory of Prussia and the other members of the North German Confederation in the 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian War convinced the Meiji oligarchs of the superiority of the Prussian military model and in February 1872, Yamagata Aritomo and Oyama Iwao proposed that the Japanese military be remodeled along Prussian lines.

In December 1878, at the urging of Katsura Taro, who had formerly served as a military attaché to Prussia, the Meiji government fully adopted the Prussian/German general staff system (Großer Generalstab) which included the independence of the military from civilian organs of government, thus ensuring that the military would stay above political party maneuvering, and would be loyal directly to the emperor rather than to a Prime Minister who might attempt to usurp the emperor's authority.

The administrative and operational functions of the army were divided between two agencies. A reorganized Ministry of War served as the administrative, supply, and mobilization agency of the army, and an independent Army General Staff had responsibility for strategic planning and command functions. The Chief of the Army General Staff, with direct access to the emperor could operate independently of the civilian government. This complete independence of the military from civilian oversight was codified in the 1889 Meiji Constitution which designated that the Army and Navy were directly under the personal command of the emperor, and not under the civilian leadership or Cabinet.

Yamagata became the first chief of the Army General Staff in 1878. Thanks to Yamagata's influence, the Chief of the Army General Staff became far more powerful than the War Minister.

Furthermore, a 1900 imperial ordinance (Military Ministers to be Active-Duty Officers Law (軍部大臣現役武官制, Gumbu daijin gen'eki bukan sei)) decreed that the two service ministers had to be chosen from among the generals (or admirals) or lieutenant generals (or vice admirals) on the active duty roster. By ordering the incumbent War Minister to resign or by ordering generals to refuse an appointment as War Minister, the Chief of the General Staff could effectively force the resignation of the cabinet or forestall the formation of a new one.

Of the seventeen officers who served as Chief of the Army General Staff between 1879 and 1945, three were princes of the imperial blood (Prince Arisugawa Taruhito, Prince Komatsu Akihito, and Prince Kan'in Kotohito) and thus enjoyed great prestige by virtue of their ties to the emperor.

The American Occupation authorities abolished the Imperial Army General Staff in September 1945.

Organization

The Organization of the Army General Staff Office underwent a number of changes during its history. Immediately before the start of the Pacific War, it was divided into four operational bureaus and a number of supporting organs:

Chief of the Army General Staff (general or Field Marshal)
Vice Chief of the Army General Staff (lieutenant general)

• General Affairs (personnel, accounting, medical, mobilization planning)

• G-1 (Operations)
  • Strategy and Tactics Department
  • Land Survey Department

• G-2 (Intelligence)
  • Russia Department
  • Europe and North America Department
  • China Department
  • Others Department
• G-3 (Transport & Communications)
• G-4 (Historical and Maps)
• G-5 (Fortifications) [from Jan 1889-Dec 1908]
• General Staff College

Chiefs of the Army General Staff

Note: The given rank for each person is the rank the person held at last, not the rank the person held at the time of their post as Chief of the Army General Staff. For example, the rank of Field Marshal existed only 1872/3 and from 1898 on.

#	Date	Name
1	24 Dec 1878 - 4 Sep 1882	Field Marshal Count Yamagata Aritomo
2	4 Sep 1882 - 13 Feb 1884	Field Marshal Oyama Iwao
3	13 Feb 1884 - 22 Dec 1885	Field Marshal Marquis Yamagata Aritomo
4	22 Dec 1885 - 14 May 1888	General Prince Arisugawa Taruhito
5	14 May 1888 - 9 Mar 1889	Lieutenant General Ozawa Takeo
6	9 Mar 1889 - 15 Jan 1895	General Prince Arisugawa Taruhito
7	26 Jan 1895 - 20 Jan 1898	Field Marshal Prince Komatsu Akihito
8	20 Jan 1898 - 11 May 1899	General Kawakami Soroku
9	16 May 1899 - 20 Jun 1904	Field Marshal Prince Ōyama Iwao
10	20 Jun 1904 - 20 Dec 1905	Field Marshal Prince Yamagata Aritomo
11	20 Dec 1905 - 11 Apr 1906	Field Marshal Prince Ōyama Iwao
12	11 Apr 1906 - 30 Jul 1906	General Kodama Gentarō
13	30 Jul 1906 - 20 Jan 1912	Field Marshal Baron Oku Yasukata
14	19 Jan 1912 - 17 Dec 1915	Field Marshal Hasegawa Yoshimichi
15	17 Dec 1915 - 17 Mar 1923	Field Marshal Uehara Yusaku
16	17 Mar 1923 - 2 Mar 1926	General Kawai Misao
17	2 Mar 1926 - 19 Feb 1930	General Suzuki Soroku
18	19 Feb 1930 - 23 Dec 1931	General Kanaya Hanzo
19	23 Dec 1931 - 3 Oct 1940	Field Marshal Prince Kan'in Kotohito
20	3 Oct 1940 - 21 Feb 1944	Field Marshal Sugiyama Hajime
21	21 Feb 1944 - 18 Jul 1944	General Hideki Tōjō
22	18 Jul 1944 - Sep 1945	General Yoshijirō Umezu

Vice Chiefs of the General Staff

#	Date	Name
1	5 Dec 1878 - 16 Oct 1879	Field Marshal Ōyama Iwao
x	16 Oct 1879 - 6 Feb 1882	Post not filled
2	6 Feb 1882 - 21 May 1885	Lieutenant General Soga Sukenori
3	21 May 1885 - 16 Mar 1886	General Kawakami Soroku
4	16 Mar 1886 - 26 Jul 1886	Lieutenant General Soga Sukenori
5	26 Jul 1886 - 12 May 1888	Lieutenant General Ozawa Takeo
x	12 May 1888 - 9 Mar 1889	Post not filled
6	9 Mar 1889 - 20 Jan 1898	General Kawakami Soroku
x	20 Jan 1898 - 26 Aug 1898	Post not filled
7	26 Aug 1898 - 25 Apr 1900	General Osako Hisatoshi
8	25 Apr 1900 - 27 Mar 1902	Field Marshal Terauchi Masatake
9	17 Apr 1902 - 1 Oct 1903	Major General Tamura Iyozu
10	2 Oct 1903 - 12 Oct 1903	General Fukushima Sei
11	12 Oct 1903 - 11 Apr 1906	General Kodama Gentaro
12	16 Apr 1906 - 25 Apr 1912	General Fukushima Sei
13	25 Apr 1912 - 17 Apr 1914	Lieutenant General Oshima Ken'ichi
14	17 Apr 1914 - 4 Oct 1915	General Akashi Jiro
15	4 Oct 1915 - 10 Oct 1918	General Tanaka Giichi
16	10 Oct 1918 - 5 May 1921	General Fukuda Masataro
17	5 May 1921 - 24 Nov 1922	General Kikuchi Shinnosuke
18	24 Nov 1922 - 1 May 1925	Field Marshal Nobuyoshi Mutō
19	1 May 1925 - 5 Mar 1927	General Kanaya Hanzo
20	5 Mar 1927 - 1 Aug 1929	General Jirō Minami
21	1 Aug 1929 - 22 Dec 1930	Lieutenant General Okamoto Renichiro
22	22 Dec 1930 - 9 Jan 1932	Lieutenant General Ninomiya Osamu
23	9 Jan 1932- 19 Jun 1933	Lieutenant General Masaki Jinzaburō
24	19 Jun 1933 - 1 Aug 1934	General Ueda Kenkichi
25	1 Aug 1934 - 23 Mar 1936	Lieutenant General Sugiyama Hajime
26	23 Mar 1936 - 1 Mar 1937	General Nishio Juzo
27	1 Mar 1937 - 14 Aug 1937	Lieutenant General Imai Kiyoshi
28	14 Aug 1937 - 10 Dec 1938	General Tada Hayao
29	10 Dec 1938 - 2 Oct 1939	Lieutenant General Nakajima Tetsuzo
30	2 Oct 1939 - 15 Nov 1940	Lieutenant General Sawada Shigeru
31	15 Nov 1940 - 6 Nov 1941	General Tsukada Osamau
32	6 Nov 1941 - 8 Apr 1943	Lieutenant General Tanabe Moritake
33	8 Apr 1943 - 21 Feb 1944	Lieutenant General Hata Hikosaburo
34	21 Feb 1944 - 7 Apr 1944	Lieutenant General Ushiroku Jun
35	7 Apr 1945 - Sep 1945	Lieutenant General Torashirō Kawabe

References

• U.S. War Department, Handbook of Japanese Military Forces, TM-E 30-480 (1945; Baton Rogue and London: Louisiana State University Press, 1991, reprint).
• Hayashi, Saburo (1959). Kogun: The Japanese Army in the Pacific War. Quantico, Virginia: The Marine Corps Association. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Shin'ichi Kitaoka, "Army as Bureaucracy: Japanese Militarism Revisited", Journal of Military History, special issue 57 (October 1993): 67-83.
• 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.