Yamagata Isaburō

Biography

Yamagata Isaburō entered the world as Katsu Isaburō in Nagato Province, part of the Chōshū Domain, the second son of samurai Katsu Kanesuke and Yamagata Toshiko. Toshiko was the elder sister of Yamagata Aritomo, who had no children of his own, so in 1861 the boy was adopted to carry on the family name. After the Meiji Restoration, he joined the Iwakura Mission, traveling to the United States and Europe, and stayed in Germany to study. Back in Japan, he worked as a translator at the Foreign Ministry and later served on the Cabinet Legislation Bureau. He moved to the Home Ministry, first as secretary to the governor of Aichi Prefecture, then as governor of Tokushima and later Mie Prefectures. He rose to Director of the Local Affairs Bureau and eventually became Vice Minister. In 1906, he joined the First Saionji Cabinet as Minister of Communications. There, his main accomplishment was collapsing the cabinet by engineering a budget deadlock over railroad funding, acting on orders from Yamagata Aritomo. He gained a seat in the House of Peers in July 1908. In 1910, after Itō Hirobumi stepped down as Resident-General of Korea, Yamagata went to Korea as Deputy Resident-General under the new Resident Sone Arasuke. Following Korea’s annexation, he spent nine years as Inspector-General, a role equal to Deputy Governor-General, under Governors-General Terauchi Masatake and Hasegawa Yoshimichi. Though seen as the top candidate to replace Hasegawa, he was removed during the reorganization after the March 1 Movement in 1919. He then served as Governor-General of Kwantung Leased Territory from May 1920 to September 1922. In February 1922, after his foster-father died, he inherited the princely title of kōshaku. In January 1925, he led a special mission to French Indochina. He remained on the Privy Council until his death in 1927.