Takeichi Nishi (12 July 1902-22 March 1945) was a Japanese baron, Olympic Gold Medalist, and Imperial Japanese Army colonel who was killed at the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II.
Biography[]
Takeichi Nishi was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1902, the illegitimate third son of baron Tokujiro Nishi. In 1912, he succeeded to his father's baronet title, and he joined the Hiroshima Army Cadet School in 1917. Nishi graduated from the Central Cadet School in 1920 and the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1924, after which he became a cavalryman and rose to the rank of lieutenant in 1927. In 1930, he bought an Italian horse called Uranus and won a gold medal in show jumping at the 1932 Los Angeles Summer Olympics. He became popular among Americans, especially the Japanese-American community, and he also befriended Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, whom he later hosted at his Tokyo home. He went on to become an army captain in 1933, and he competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, where he was compelled to fall from his horse to prevent a Japanese victory harming that country's relations with Nazi Germany. In 1939, he was promoted to major, and, during his service in Manchukuo, he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in 1943 and given command of the IJA 26th Tank Regiment.
Nishi in 1945
In 1944, Nishi and his regiment were transferred to Iwo Jima, where Nishi quickly befriended Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, commander of the IJA 109th Division on the island. On the start of the Battle of Iwo Jima on 19 February 1945, the American invaders broadcast daily appeals for Nishi to surrender, stating that the world would regret losing "Baron Nishi." During the battle, he utilized some of his army's scarce medical supplies to treat a wounded US Marine from Oklahoma, whom he briefly befriended before the Marine's death; Nishi went on to read a letter to the Marine from his mother before his soldiers, garnering their sympathy. On 22 March 1945, he was blinded by shrapnel, ceded command over his men to Lieutenant Eijiro Okubo, and ordered his men to withdraw before shooting himself with an Arisaka rifle.