was an officer in the
Japanese Imperial Army
The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...
in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Ichiki commanded the 28th Infantry Regiment "Ichiki detachment" in the
Battle of the Tenaru
The Battle of the Tenaru, sometimes called the Battle of the Ilu River or the Battle of Alligator Creek, was a land battle between the Imperial Japanese Army and Allied ground forces that took place on 21 August 1942, on the island of Guada ...
. The regiment was disastrously defeated by the
1st Marine Regiment
The 1st Marine Regiment is an infantry regiment of the United States Marine Corps based at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California. The regiment is under the command of the 1st Marine Division and the I Marine Expeditionary Force. The 1st ...
and of the 917 soldiers of Ichiki's 1st echelon, only 128 survived. Ichiki was either killed during the final stages of the battle, or performed ritual suicide (''
seppuku
, sometimes referred to as hara-kiri (, , a native Japanese kun reading), is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honour but was also practised by other Japanese people ...
'') shortly thereafter.
Biography
Early life
Born in
Shizuoka Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,637,998 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Prefecture to the northea ...
, Ichiki graduated from the 28th class of the
Imperial Japanese Army Academy
The was the principal officer's training school for the Imperial Japanese Army. The programme consisted of a junior course for graduates of local army cadet schools and for those who had completed four years of middle school, and a senior course f ...
in 1916. He subsequently served two tours as an instructor at the Imperial Army's Infantry School in
Chiba
Chiba may refer to:
Places China
* (), town in Jianli County, Jingzhou, Hubei
Japan
* Chiba (city), capital of Chiba Prefecture
** Chiba Station, a train station
* Chiba Prefecture, a sub-national jurisdiction in the Greater Tokyo Area on ...
.
War in China
Promoted to
major
Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...
in 1934, Ichiki was assigned to the
China Garrison Army as a battalion commander of the 1st Infantry Regiment in 1936. On 7 July 1937, the Japanese conducted a practice night attack around the
Marco Polo Bridge
The Marco Polo Bridge or Lugou Bridge () is a stone bridge located 15 km southwest of Beijing's city center in the Fengtai District. It bridges the Yongding River, a major tributary of Hai River. Situated at the eastern end of the bridge ...
, firing blanks in the air. The Chinese, thinking an attack was underway, fired a few ineffectual artillery shells. A Japanese soldier failed to show up for roll call the next morning, and Ichiki, his company commander, thought that the Chinese had captured him. He ordered an immediate attack on Wanping, precipitating the first real battle of the
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...
.
Recalled to Japan soon after the incident, Ichiki served as an instructor in specialized military equipment training schools from 1938 until 1940.
Pacific War
With the start of the
Pacific War
The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...
in 1941, Ichiki was promoted to
colonel
Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations.
In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...
and was placed in command of the IJA 28th Infantry Regiment, from the
7th Division, which consisted of 3,000 troops, and was assigned to assault and occupy
Midway island
Midway Atoll (colloquial: Midway Islands; haw, Kauihelani, translation=the backbone of heaven; haw, Pihemanu, translation=the loud din of birds, label=none) is a atoll in the North Pacific Ocean. Midway Atoll is an insular area of the Unit ...
. The defeat of Japanese naval forces at the
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place on 4–7 June 1942, six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. The U.S. Navy under Adm ...
in June 1942 forced a cancellation of the operation. In August 1942, Ichiki and his regiment were transferred to the
IJA 17th Army in the southern front and were based at
Truk in the
Caroline Islands
The Caroline Islands (or the Carolines) are a widely scattered archipelago of tiny islands in the western Pacific Ocean, to the north of New Guinea. Politically, they are divided between the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in the centra ...
. After
Allied forces landed on
Guadalcanal
Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the south-western Pacific, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomon Islands by area, and the seco ...
in the
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...
, as part of the Allied
Guadalcanal campaign
The Guadalcanal campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal and codenamed Operation Watchtower by American forces, was a military campaign fought between 7 August 1942 and 9 February 1943 on and around the island of Guadalcanal in th ...
, Ichiki was assigned to take a portion of his regiment (2nd Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment, with artillery and engineers; nicknamed the “Ichiki Detachment”) to recapture
Henderson Airfield and drive the Allied forces off the island.
On 19 August, six Japanese destroyers carried Ichiki and his 916 troops from Truk and landed them at Taivu Point on Guadalcanal. Ichiki had been ordered to wait on the beachhead for the remainder of his regiment, but finding the beach deserted and the island apparently lightly defended, Ichiki grossly underestimated the strength of the American forces, left a rear guard of 125 men, and advanced to make a nighttime frontal assault against the American positions. Unknown to Ichiki, the
American Marines were aware of his landing and were entrenched in defensive positions. In the
Battle of the Tenaru
The Battle of the Tenaru, sometimes called the Battle of the Ilu River or the Battle of Alligator Creek, was a land battle between the Imperial Japanese Army and Allied ground forces that took place on 21 August 1942, on the island of Guada ...
of 21 August 1942 Ichiki was defeated with extremely heavy losses. Recent Japanese scholarship disputes the claim that Ichiki was personally at fault, and state that the Imperial General Staff placed Ichiki in a suicidal position by ordering him to attack prepared positions, outnumbered 15 to 1, without air, naval or heavy artillery support, and with poor intelligence that vastly underestimated American strength. The additional troops from his second group would not have changed this equation. However, the General Staff needed a scapegoat, and decided to pin the failure on Ichiki. There was also speculation that the General Staff preferred to send Ichiki to battle directly from the aborted Midway operation, calculating that if the detachment returned to Japan the secret of the failure at Midway would leak.
[Sekiguchi]
Accounts differ as to how Ichiki died. At least one account claims that Ichiki was
killed in action during the heat of battle; others state that he committed
ritual suicide
A suicide method is any means by which a person chooses to end their life. Suicide attempts do not always result in death, and a nonfatal suicide attempt can leave the person with serious physical injuries, long-term health problems, and brai ...
due to the humiliation of his defeat in the battle. Despite the failure of his attack, Ichiki was promoted posthumously to
major general
Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...
.
See also
*
Marco Polo Bridge Incident
The Marco Polo Bridge Incident, also known as the Lugou Bridge Incident () or the July 7 Incident (), was a July 1937 battle between China's National Revolutionary Army and the Imperial Japanese Army.
Since the Japanese invasion of Manchuria ...
References
Books
*Crowley, James. ''"A Reconsideration of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident," Journal of Asian Studies'', Vol. XXII, No. 3 (May 1963).
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External links
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Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ichiki, Kiyonao
1892 births
1942 deaths
Japanese generals
Military personnel from Shizuoka Prefecture
Battle of Midway
Japanese military personnel killed in World War II
Imperial Japanese Army personnel of World War II