Prince Tsuneyoshi Takeda
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was the second and last heir of the
Takeda-no-miya The Takeda (竹田) ''ōke'' (princely house) was the tenth and youngest branch of the Japanese Imperial Family created from branches of the Fushimi-no-miya house. The Takeda-no-miya house was formed by Prince Tsunehisa, eldest son of Prince K ...
collateral branch of the
Japanese Imperial Family The , also referred to as the Imperial Family or the House of Yamato, comprises those members of the extended family of the reigning Emperor of Japan who undertake official and public duties. Under the present Constitution of Japan, the Emperor i ...
.


Biography


Early life

Prince Takeda Tsuneyoshi was the only son of Prince Takeda Tsunehisa and Masako, Princess Tsune (1888–1940), the sixth daughter of Emperor Meiji. He was, therefore, a first cousin of
Emperor Shōwa Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...
. Prince Tsuneyoshi became the second head of the
Takeda-no-miya The Takeda (竹田) ''ōke'' (princely house) was the tenth and youngest branch of the Japanese Imperial Family created from branches of the Fushimi-no-miya house. The Takeda-no-miya house was formed by Prince Tsunehisa, eldest son of Prince K ...
house on 23 April 1919. After being educated at the
Gakushūin The or Peers School (Gakushūin School Corporation), initially known as Gakushūjo, is a Japanese educational institution in Tokyo, originally established to educate the children of Japan's nobility. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2002)"Gakushū- ...
Peers' School, and serving for a session in the House of Peers, he graduated from the 32nd 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 July 1930, and received a commission as a sub-lieutenant in the cavalry.


Marriage and family

On 12 May 1934, Prince Takeda married Sanjo Mitsuko.''Nihon Gaiji Kyōkai.'' (1943). ''The Japan Year book'', p. 5. She was the youngest daughter of Prince Sanjo Kimiteru, with whom he had five children (3 sons and 2 daughters): # , born on # , (b. 1942) # , (b. 1943) # (b. 1944) Japanese ambassador to
Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...
# , (b. 1947)


Military career

The Prince served a brief tour with a cavalry regiment in
Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...
, and rose to the rank of
lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...
in August 1930 and captain in August 1936. He then graduated from the 50th class of the Army War College in 1938 as the build-up to
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 ...
was beginning. He was promoted to the rank of major in August 1940, and attached to the
Imperial Japanese Army General Staff The , also called the Army General Staff, was one of the two principal agencies charged with overseeing the Imperial Japanese Army. Role The was created in April 1872, along with the Navy Ministry, to replace the Ministry of Military Affairs ...
in
Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
, where he headed the Personnel Department. He became
lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...
in August 1943. Author
Sterling Seagrave Sterling Seagrave (April 15, 1937 – May 1, 2017) was an American historian. He was the author of numerous books which address unofficial and clandestine aspects of the 20th-century political history of countries in the Far East. Personal life Bo ...
contends that between 1940 and 1945 Prince Takeda oversaw the looting of gold and other precious items in China, Hong Kong,
Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
, Laos, Cambodia, Burma, Malaya, Singapore, Sumatra, Java, Borneo and the Philippines. Seagrave says that most of this loot was stored in 175 vaults located in the Philippines, and that considerable amounts have since been recovered by former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and others. Prince Takeda held executive responsibilities over
Unit 731 , short for Manshu Detachment 731 and also known as the Kamo Detachment and Ishii Unit, was a covert Biological warfare, biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that engaged in unethical h ...
in his role as chief financial officer of the
Kwantung Army ''Kantō-gun'' , image = Kwantung Army Headquarters.JPG , image_size = 300px , caption = Kwantung Army headquarters in Hsinking, Manchukuo , dates = April ...
. Unit 731 conducted biological weapons research on human subjects with a variety of bacterial cultures and viruses during
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 ...
. According to Daniel Barenblatt, Takeda received, with
Prince Mikasa was a Japanese prince, the youngest of the four sons of Emperor Taishō (Yoshihito) and Empress Teimei (Sadako). He was their last surviving child. His eldest brother was Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito). After serving as a junior cavalry officer in ...
, a special screening by
Shirō Ishii Surgeon General was a Japanese microbiologist and army medical officer who served as the director of Unit 731, a biological warfare unit of the Imperial Japanese Army. Ishii led the development and application of biological weapons at Unit 73 ...
of a film showing imperial planes loading germ bombs for bubonic plague dissemination over the Chinese city of
Ningbo Ningbo (; Ningbonese: ''gnin² poq⁷'' , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly romanized as Ningpo, is a major sub-provincial city in northeast Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises 6 urban districts, 2 sate ...
in 1940. Moreover, historian Hal Gold has alleged in his work "Unit 731 Testimony" that Prince Takeda had a more active role as "Lieutenant Colonel Miyata" – an officer in the Strategic Section of the Operations Division. Gold reports the testimony of a veteran of the Youth Corps of this unit, who testified in July 1994 in
Morioka is the capital city of Iwate Prefecture located in the Tōhoku region of northern Japan. On 1 February 2021, the city had an estimated population of 290,700 in 132,719 households, and a population density of . The total area of the city is . G ...
during a traveling exhibition on Shirō Ishii's experiments, that Takeda watched while outside
poison gas Many gases have toxic properties, which are often assessed using the LC50 (median lethal dose) measure. In the United States, many of these gases have been assigned an NFPA 704 health rating of 4 (may be fatal) or 3 (may cause serious or perman ...
tests were made on thirty prisoners near
Anda Anda or ANDA may refer to: Places China *Anda, Heilongjiang, a city in Heilongjiang, China *Anda railway station, a railway station in Anda, China Iran *Anda, Iran, a village in Fars Province, Iran Norway *Anda, Norway, an island in Øksnes mun ...
. After the war, a staff photographer also recalled the day the Prince visited Unit 731's facility at
Pingfang Pingfang District () is one of nine districts of the prefecture-level city of Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang Province, Northeast China, forming part of the city's urban core. The least spacious of Harbin's county-level divisions, it borde ...
, Manchukuo and had his picture taken at the gates. Prince Takeda briefly served as the emperor's personal liaison to the
Saigon , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info = 2019 , blank1_name = – Total , blank1_ ...
headquarters of Field Marshal
Terauchi Hisaichi Count was a '' Gensui'' (or field marshal) in the Imperial Japanese Army, commander of the Southern Expeditionary Army Group during World War II. Biography Early military career Terauchi was born in Tokyo Prefecture, and was the eldest son of ...
, commander of the
Southern Expeditionary Army Group ''Nanpō gun'' , image = 1938 terauchi hisaichi.jpg , image_size = 200px , caption = Japanese General Count Terauchi Hisaichi, right, commanding officer of the Southern Expedition ...
. During that assignment, he observed first-hand the desperate conditions of the Japanese forces at Rabaul, Guadalcanal, and in
Luzon Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as ...
. After his return, he was then assigned to the Kwantung Army headquarters. After Emperor Shōwa's radio address announcing the surrender of Japan on 15 August 1945, he went to Shinkyo in Manchukuo to ensure the Kwantung Army's compliance with the surrender orders.


Post-war

With the abolition of the collateral branches of the imperial family by the American occupation authorities on 14 October 1947, Prince Tsuneyoshi and his family became commoners. Initially, he retired to his estate in
Chiba Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama Prefecture to t ...
to raise
racehorses Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic pr ...
, thus escaping the financial hardship many of his cousins experienced during the
American occupation of Japan Japan was occupied and administered by the victorious Allies of World War II from the 1945 surrender of the Empire of Japan at the end of the war until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect in 1952. The occupation, led by the United States w ...
. Takeda turned his attention to promoting and developing amateur and professional sports. As a participant in
equestrian The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse". Horseback riding (or Riding in British English) Examples of this are: * Equestrian sports *Equestrian order, one of the upper classes i ...
events as part of Japan's delegation to the 1936 Summer Olympics in
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, he already had a reputation as the "sports prince". He became president of the Japan Skating Association in 1948 and a member of the north Tokyo Rotary Club. He became president of the
Japanese Olympic Committee The is the National Olympic Committee in Japan for the Olympic Games movement, based in Tokyo, Japan. It is a non-profit organisation that selects teams and raises funds to send Japanese competitors to Olympic events organised by the Internati ...
in 1962 and was an important figure at the Organizing Committees of the 1964 Summer Olympics in
Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
and the 1972 Winter Olympics in
Sapporo ( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous cit ...
. He was also a member of the
International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...
from 1967 to 1981, during which he was director of its executive board for five years. In 1987, the former Prince published a volume of autobiographical essays entitled "Kumo no ue shita: Omoide-banashi" (Above and Below the Clouds: Remembrances). The former prince died of heart failure on 12 May 1992, at the age of 83. The current heir to the Takeda-no-miya family is Prince Tsuneyoshi's eldest son, Tsunetada Takeda (b. 1940), a graduate of the Gakushuin and Keio University, with a degree in economics, and formerly employed by Mitsubishi Shoji. He married Kyoko Nezu, the third daughter of
Nezu Kaichirō was a Japanese businessman, national politician and philanthropist. Early life and career Born into an established merchant family in Yamanashi, Yamanashi, Yamanashi, Yamanashi Prefecture, he moved to Tokyo in 1897, and became independently wea ...
, former chairman of
Tobu Railway is a Japanese commuter railway and ''keiretsu'' holding company in the Greater Tokyo Area as well as an intercity and regional operator in the Kantō region. Excluding the Japan Railways Group companies, Tobu's rail system is the second longes ...
s, and has a son, Tsunetaka Takeda (b. 1967), and daughter, Hiroko Takeda (b. 1971). The former Takeda palace and a portion of its gardens in Tokyo survives as a part of the
Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa The Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa (グランドプリンスホテル高輪) is a complex of three hotels (Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa, Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa, and The Prince Sakura Tower) designed by architect Togo Murano in 1982, and ...
, and is open to the public.


Ancestry


Notes


References

* Dower, John W. '' Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II''. W. W. Norton & Company (2000). * Gold, Hal, ''Unit 731 Testimony'', Tuttle, 2003. * Harries, Meirion. ''Soldiers of the Sun: The Rise and Fall of the Imperial Japanese Army''. Random House; Reprint edition (1994). * ''Nihon Gaiji Kyōkai.'' (1943). ''The Japan Year Book.'' Tokyo: Foreign Affairs Association of Japan
OCLC 1782308
* Williams, Peter and Wallace, David. ''Unit 731. The Japanese Army’s Secret of Secrets''. New York: Free Press, 1991. {{DEFAULTSORT:Takeda, Tsuneyoshi, Prince 1909 births 1992 deaths Japanese princes Japanese military personnel of World War II Takeda-no-miya People from Tokyo Olympic equestrians of Japan Japanese male equestrians Equestrians at the 1936 Summer Olympics Members of the House of Peers (Japan) Recipients of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers