Nogi Maresuke

Count Nogi Maresuke (December 25, 1849 – September 13, 1912), also referred to as Kiten or Count Nogi, served as a general in the Imperial Japanese Army and as governor-general of Taiwan. He helped lead the capture of Port Arthur from China in 1894 and later commanded the forces that took the same port from Russia during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05.

In Imperial Japan, Nogi was hailed as a national hero, embodying feudal loyalty and self-sacrifice—ultimately to the point of suicide. During the Satsuma Rebellion, he lost an imperial battle banner, a disgrace he tried to offset by seeking suicidal bravery to recover it, until ordered to stop. After capturing Port Arthur in the Russo-Japanese War, he felt too many of his soldiers had died and requested permission to kill himself; the emperor refused. These two events, along with his wish not to outlive his master, drove him to take his own life on the day of Emperor Meiji’s funeral. His death highlighted the samurai code of bushido and the controversial practice of junshi (following one’s lord in death).

**Early life** Nogi was born on December 25, 1849, at the Chōfu Domain Mansion in Edo (now Roppongi, Tokyo), the third son of samurai cavalry officer Nogi Maretsugu and his wife Hisako. His father served the Chōfu Domain, a subsidiary of Chōshū Domain, holding land worth 80 koku. His childhood name was Nakito (meaning “no one”), chosen to ward off evil spirits. He was briefly called Bunzō before being renamed Maresuke. Claiming descent from the Izumo Minamoto clan through the Sasaki clan, he often signed documents as Minamoto no Maresuke.

**Early military career** In November 1869, ordered by the Nagato domain’s lord, Nogi enlisted in the Fushimi Goshin Heisha (the Fushimi Loyal Guard Barrack) for French-style military training. After finishing, he became an instructor at the Kawatō Barrack in Kyoto, then served as army trainer for the Toyōra domain, overseeing coastal defense troops. In 1871, he was commissioned as a major in the new Imperial Japanese Army. Around this time, he adopted the name Maresuke, taking a character from his father’s name. In 1875, he became attaché to the 14th Infantry Regiment. The next year, he was named staff officer for the Kumamoto regional troops, then transferred to command the 1st Infantry Regiment. For his service in the Satsuma Rebellion against Saigō Takamori in Kyūshū, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel on April 22, 1877. During a fierce battle, he lost the 14th Infantry Regiment’s regimental banner—considered the emperor’s property—to the enemy. This disgrace weighed on him so heavily that he later listed it as one of the reasons for his suicide. On August 27, 1876, Nogi married Shizuko, the 20-year-old fourth daughter of Satsuma samurai Yuji Sadano. At 28, Nogi married late for the era, when the average marriage age was early 20s. Their first son, Katsunori, was born on August 28, 1877, and Nogi bought his first house in Niizakamachi, Akasaka, Tokyo. A second son, Yasunori, was born in 1879. He was promoted to colonel on April 29, 1880. During the early Meiji period, he was posted to Nagoya. A warehouse in the Sannomaru enceinte of Nagoya Castle, built around 1880 as an army ammunition depot, was later named after him. After promotion to major general in 1885, Nogi went to Germany with Kawakami Soroku two years later to study European military strategy and tactics. In 1894, during the First Sino-Japanese War, Major-General Nogi commanded the First Infantry Brigade, which broke through Chinese defenses and captured Port Arthur in a single day. He was thus a senior commander during the Port Arthur massacre. Promoted to lieutenant general on April 29, 1895, he was assigned to the Second Division for the invasion of Taiwan. Nogi stayed with the occupation forces there until 1898. Recalled to Japan in 1899, he took command of the newly formed 11th Infantry Brigade, based in Kagawa.

**Political career** After the war, Nogi was made a baron (danshaku) and received the Order of the Golden Kite, 1st class. He served as the third Japanese Governor-General of Taiwan from October 14, 1896, to February 1898. He moved his entire family to Taiwan, where his mother contracted malaria and died. This prompted Nogi to improve the island’s healthcare infrastructure. Unlike many fellow officers, he showed no interest in pursuing politics.

**Russo-Japanese War** In 1904, Nogi was recalled to active duty for the Russo-Japanese War and promoted to army general, commanding the Japanese Third Army (initially about 90,000 men). His mission was to capture the Russian-held Port Arthur on the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula in Manchuria. His forces landed shortly after the Battle of Nanshan, in which his eldest son, serving with the Japanese Second Army, was killed. Advancing slowly down the peninsula, Nogi met unexpectedly strong resistance and far more fortifications than he had faced against the Chinese a decade earlier. The attack turned into the lengthy Siege of Port Arthur, lasting from August 1, 1904, to January 2, 1905, and costing the Japanese massive losses. As casualties mounted and Nogi failed to break through, pressure grew within the Japanese government.