was a general in the

Imperial Japanese 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 ...

, during the Nomonhan Incident.

Biography

A native of

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

Kanagawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kana ...

, where his father was a naval engineer, Komatsubara graduated from the 18th class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1905. He served as a

military attaché A military attaché is a military expert who is attached to a diplomatic mission, often an embassy. This type of attaché post is normally filled by a high-ranking military officer, who retains a commission while serving with an embassy. Opport ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

from 1909–1910, and became fluent in the

Russian language Russian (russian: русский язык, russkij jazyk, link=no, ) is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language mainly spoken in Russia. It is the First language, native language of the Russians, and belongs to the Indo-European langua ...

. After his return to Japan, he was assigned to a number of staff positions within the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff and

Supreme War Council (Japan) The was established during the development of representative government in Meiji period Japan to further strengthen the authority of the state. Its first leader was Yamagata Aritomo (1838–1922), a Chōshū native who has been credited with the ...

. In 1914, he was part of the

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Japanese Expeditionary Force at the Battle of Tsingtao. On Komatsubara's return to Japan in 1915, he graduated from the 27th class of the Army Staff College and was assigned as commander of the IJA 34th Infantry Regiment. From 1919, Komatsubara was assigned to the Soviet Branch of the 4th Section (European & American

Military Intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...

), 2nd Bureau, of the Army General Staff. After spending 1926–1927 as an instructor at the War College, he returned to

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

again as a military attache from 1927–1929. After Komatsubara returned again to Japan, he became commander of the IJA 57th Infantry Regiment from 1930–1932. Two years later, he became Chief of the Harbin Special Agency in

Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of (Great) Manchuria after 1934, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China, Manchuria from 1932 until 1945. It was founded as a republic in 1932 afte ...

. He was promoted 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 ...

in 1934 and returned to Japan to take command of the IJA 8th Infantry Brigade. Subsequently, from 1936–1937, he was commander of the 1st Imperial Guards Brigade. Promoted to

lieutenant general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

in 1936, he was reassigned to Manchukuo as commander of the IJA 23rd Division, and served on the staff of the Kwangtung Army. He retired from the army on 31 January 1940, after more than 35 years of military service. While in retirement he joined the ''National Policy Research Association'' attending meetings, and sharing his knowledge and experience of both the

ns and the Battle of Khalkhin Gol ( Nomonhan). Although General Komatsubara had an air of gentleness about him, he carried a sense of gloom. He was admitted to the Tokyo University hospital, where he was diagnosed with

stomach cancer Stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer, is a cancer that develops from the lining of the stomach. Most cases of stomach cancers are gastric carcinomas, which can be divided into a number of subtypes, including gastric adenocarcinomas. Lymph ...

. Transferred to the army medical school, the general died on 6 October 1940 at age 55, less than eight months after retiring from the army.Coox, 1981, pp. 957–958

Footnotes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Komatsubara, Michitaro 1885 births 1940 deaths People from Yokohama Japanese generals Deaths from cancer in Japan