Prince Yasuhiko Asaka

HIH Prince Asaka Yasuhiko
His Imperial Highness Prince Asaka Yasuhiko
Allegiance	Empire of Japan
Years of service	1908–1945
Rank	General
Commands	Imperial Japanese Army
Battles / wars	Second Sino-Japanese War
Awards	Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum.

His Imperial Highness Prince Asaka Yasuhiko (朝香宮鳩彦王, Asaka-no-miya Yasuhiko-ō, 2 October 1887 - 12 April 1981) of Japan, was a the founder of a collateral branch of the Japanese imperial family and a career officer in the Imperial Japanese Army. A son-in-law of Emperor Meiji and an uncle-in-law of Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito), Prince Asaka was commander of Japanese forces in the final assault on Nanjing, then the capital city of Nationalist China in December 1937. He was implicated in the Nanjing massacre, but never charged.

Early years

Prince Yasuhiko was born in Kyoto, the eighth son of Prince Kuni Asahiko (Kuni no miya Asahiko Shinnō) and the court lady Tsunoda Sugako. His father, Prince Kuni, was former Buddhist priest and minor prince descended from the Fushimi-no-miya, one the four branch houses of the imperial dynasty (shinnōke) entitled to provide a successor to the throne. In 1872, the Emperor Meiji granted him the title Kuni-no-miya and authorization to begin a new branch of the imperial family. Prince Yasuhiko was a half-brother of Prince Higashikuni Naruhiko, Prince Nashimoto Morimasa, Prince Kuni Kuniyoshi, and Prince Kaya Kuninori, the father of the future Empress Kojun, the consort of Emperor Shōwa.

Marriage and family

On 10 March 1906, the Emperor Meiji granted PrinceYasuhiko the title Asaka-no-miya and authorization to begin a new branch of the imperial family. On 6 May 1909, Prince Asaka married Princess Fami-no-miya Nobuko (7 August 1891 - 3 November 1933), the eighth daughter of Emperor Meiji. Prince and Princess Asaka had four children:

• HIH Princess Asaka Kikuko 12 September 1911 - 1989; married 1931 Nabeshima Naoyasu, heir of Marquis Nabeshima.
• HIH Prince Asaka Takahiko (8 October 1912 - 5 May 1994); married 16 December 1935 Todo Chikako (5 May 1921 - ), the fifth daughter of Count Todo Takatsugu; and had issue.
• HIH Prince Asaka Tadahito (4 January 1914 - January 1944, killed during the Battle of Kwajalein); renounced membership in the imperial family and created Marquis Otowa, 1936.
• HIH Princess Asaka Kiyoko (2 August 1919 - )

Military career

Like the other imperial princes of the Meiji period, it was expected that Prince Yasuhiko would pursue a career in the military. He received his early education at the Gakushuin and the Central Military Preparatory School, before graduating the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1908 as a second lieutenant.

Prince Asaka was promoted to captain in 1912, lieutenant colonel in 1917, and colonel in 1922.

Between 1920 and 1923, he studied military tactics at the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr in France, along with his half-brother Prince Higashikuni Naruhiko and his cousin Prince Kitashirakawa Naruhisa (1887-1923). However, on 1 April 1923, he was seriously injured in automobile accident in a Paris suburb that killed Prince Kitashirakawa and left Prince Asaka with a limp for the rest of his life.

Princess Asaka travelled to France to nurse her husband. Prince and Princess Asaka also visited the United States in 1925. During that period, Prince and Princess Asaka became enthralled with Art Deco. Upon returning to Japan in 1925, Prince Asaka had a new mansion built in the Art Deco style in Tokyo's Shirokanedai neighborhood. The house was completed in May 1933, but Princess Asaka died a few months later.

Prince Asaka was promoted to the rank of brigadier general in 1926. He rose to the rank of major general and appointed an instructor at the Army War College in 1930. In 1933, he was promoted to lieutenant general and assumed command of the First Imperial Guards Division. In In December 1935, he was appointed a member of the Supreme War Council, which gave him a very influential position with the emperor.

However, during the abortive February 26 Incident Prince Asaka pressed the Emperor to appoint a new government that would be acceptable to the rebels, especially by replacing Prime Minister Okada Keisuke with Hirota Koki. The Prince's pro-Imperial Way Faction sentiments, as well as his connections to other right-wing army cliques, caused a rift between himself and the Emperor. It was perhaps due to this rift that Prince Asaka was transferred to the Central China Area Army (under elderly General Matsui Iwane) in China in 1937.

Disputed role in the Nanjing Massacre

In November 1937, Prince Asaka became temporary deputy commander for Japanese forces outside Nanjing (Nanking), then the capital of China. As deputy for the ill General Matsui, he was nominally commander of the final assault on Nanjing between December 2 and 6, 1937. The Prince (or a member of his staff) allegedly issued an order to "kill all captives," thus providing official sanction for what became known as the "Nanjing Massacre" or the "Rape of Nanking" (December 10, 1937-February 10, 1938).

Some historians contend that Asaka actually signed the order for Japanese soldiers in Nanjing to "kill all captives." Other historians claim that lieutenant colonel Isamu Cho, a member of the staff of the Central China Area Army with known radical ultranationalist politics, sent this order under the prince's sign manual without the prince’s knowledge or assent. However, even if Cho took the initiative of his own, Asaka, who was the nominally the officer in charge, gave no orders to stop the carnage. As for Matsui, he did not arrive in the city until well after the killing had begun.

While Prince Asaka's responsibility for the Nanking Massacre remains a matter of debate, the most rational interpretation for the massacre and the crimes committed during the invasion of China, might be found in the ratification, made on 5 August 1937 by Emperor Hirohito, of the proposition of the army to remove the constraints of international law on the treatment of Chinese prisoners.

In February 1938, with Nanking destroyed, both Prince Asaka and General Matsui were recalled to Japan. Matsui went into virtual retirement, but Prince Asaka was not disciplined, and remained on the Supreme War Council until the end of the war in August 1945. He was promoted to the rank of general in August 1939 but held no further military commands. In 1944, he colluded with Prince Higashikuni, his nephew Prince Takamatsu, and former Prime Minister Konoe Fumimaro (1895-1945) to oust the Hideki Tojo cabinet.

SCAP officials interrogated Prince Asaka about his involvement in the Nanjing Massacre on 1 May 1946, but did not bring him before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East for prosecution. General Douglas MacArthur decided to grant immunity to the Imperial family.

Postwar life as a commoner

On 14 October 1947, Prince Asaka and his children lost their imperial status and privileges and became ordinary citizens, as part of the American Occupation's abolishment of the collateral branches of the Japanese Imperial family. He and his son were purged from holding any political or public office because they had been officers in the Japanese Army. His very palatial Art Deco style residence in Shirokanedai was seized over by the government, and now houses the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum. The former prince moved to Atami, on the Izu Peninsula south of Tokyo.

The former Prince Asaka became a Roman Catholic on 18 December 1951, and was the first member of the Imperial Family to do so.

The former prince spent most of his time playing golf. He also took an active interest in golf course development, and in the 1950s was the of the Plateau Golf Course at the Dai-Hakone Country Club,.

Former Prince Asaka Yasuhiko died of natural causes on 13 April 1981 at his home in Atami, Shizouka prefecture. He was 93 years old.

Gallery

• 
  HIH Princess Asaka Nobuko, consort
• 
  HIH Princess Asaka Kikuko, eldest daughter
• 
  HIH Prince Asaka Takahito, son & heir
• 
  HIH Princess Asaka Kiyoko, younger daughter

References

• Brendon, Piers. The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the 1930s. Vintage; Reprint edition (2002). ISBN: 0375708081
• Fujitani,T. Splendid Monarchy: Power and Pageantry in Modern Japan. University of California Press; Reprint edition (1998). ISBN: 0520213718
• Paine, S.C.M., The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895: Perceptions, Power, and Primacy. Cambridge University Press (2002). ISBN: 0521817145

External links

• Profile of Asaka
• About this museum -Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum