Kanin Kotohito (10 November 1865 – 21 May 1945) was Chief of the General Staff of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1931 to 1940, succeeding Kanaya Hanzo and preceding Hajime Sugiyama.
Biography[]
Kanin Kotohito was born on 10 November 1865 in Kyoto, Japan to a noble family. Emperor Komei adopted Kotohito, making him the adoptive brother of Emperor Meiji and adoptive grand-uncle of Emperor Showa. In 1877 he entered the Imperial Japanese Army Academy and served in the First Sino-Japanese War from 1894 to 1895 and the Russo-Japanese War from 1904 to 1905, being promoted to Lieutenant-General in 1905 and becoming the youngest Japanese field marshal in 1919. In 1931, Emperor Hirohito appointed him as Chief of the General Staff of the IJA, and under his rule the IJA fought against China in the Second Sino-Japanese War. Mustard gas was used against both Nationalist China and Communist China, and the Rape of Nanking also took place while he was Chief of Staff. He opposed Prime Minister Mitsumasa Yonai's United States and United Kingdom peace overtures, and Kotohito and Hideki Tojo both supported the September 1940 Tripartite Pact. He retired from the General Staff on 3 October 1940 before World War II reached Japan, and Hajime Sugiyama succeeded him. Kotohito died in 1945 at the age of 79.