Kanji Ishiwara

Ishiwara was raised to be a military man. Thirteen years after his birth in 1889, Ishiwara entered himself in a long road of military schooling by enrolling in the Sendai Regional Military Prepatory School. From there, Ishiwara went on to graduate from the twenty-first class of the Military Academy.

 
Lieutenant Colonel Kanji Ishiwara
as he visits Manchuria cerca 1932.

After his formal education, Ishiwara entered the Japanese military with the rank of second lieutenant. From there he fought in Korea and Hankow, with a brief career as an appointed lecturer. In 1928 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel, and a year after the Mukden Incident he was promoted to colonel.

Itagaki Seishiro

Itagaki was four years Ishiwara's senior and was born in Northern Iwate in 1885. He too excelled in the Military Academy and War College and after graduation was denoted as one of the Eleven Reliables. The Eleven Reliables were a group of elite intelligence officers in the 1920's, all junior officers, who served in the Emperor's Cabal. The purpose of the Emperor's Cabal was to secretively work under Hirohito in an effort to revolutionize the Japanese Army. Many other participants in the Cabal, including Ishiwara, were members of other secret organizations such as the Cherry Society.

It was between 1924 and 1926 that Itagaki served as lieutenant-colonel in Peking, and thus an assignment to Mukden in 1928 meant a return to a familiar continent. The assignment also called for Ishiwara and Itagaki's second meeting as the two had served together previously in Hankow.

The events of September 18, 1931...
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This exhibit was researched and designed by Michael Jenkins.

This exhibit and museum were created during an introductory seminar on the Asia-Pacific War, taught at Wake Forest University during the spring semester 2002.

The material and opinions are those of their respective authors and do not represent the views of the University or the Department of History.

The information and pictures above were provided from these sources.