was a Japanese politician and general. He served as

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 ...

Commander of the

Japanese Korean Army The was an army of the Imperial Japanese Army that formed a garrison force in Korea under Japanese rule. The Korean Army consisted of roughly 350,000 troops in 1914. History Japanese forces occupied large portions of the Empire of Korea du ...

during the Mukden Incident and the invasion of Manchuria. He briefly served as

Prime Minister of Japan The prime minister of Japan (Japanese: 内閣総理大臣, Hepburn: ''Naikaku Sōri-Daijin'') is the head of government of Japan. The prime minister chairs the Cabinet of Japan and has the ability to select and dismiss its Ministers of Sta ...

in 1937.

Early life

Hayashi was born on 23 February 1876, in Kodatsuno,

Kanazawa is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 466,029 in 203,271 households, and a population density of 990 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . Overview Cityscape ...

, Ishikawa Prefecture, the first son of secretary of Tonami District Office Hayashi Shishirō and his wife Bessho Saha. The family was a

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

-class family formerly in service to Kaga Domain. The second oldest of his brothers Hayashi Ryōzō became an Imperial Army

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 o ...

, and the youngest brother Shirakawa Yūkichi became Vice Mayor of

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

. Hayashi dropped out of school in July 1894 to enlist in the Imperial Japanese Army at the start of the

First Sino-Japanese War The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895) was a conflict between China and Japan primarily over influence in Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the ...

. After the end of the war, he attended 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 ...

, and on graduation in June 1897 was assigned to the IJA 7th Infantry Regiment. in 1903, he graduated from the

Army Staff College Staff colleges (also command and staff colleges and War colleges) train military officers in the administrative, military staff and policy aspects of their profession. It is usual for such training to occur at several levels in a career. For exa ...

. With the start of the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

, Hayashi participated in the

Siege of Port Arthur The siege of Port Arthur ( ja, 旅順攻囲戦, ''Ryojun Kōisen''; russian: link=no, Оборона Порт-Артура, ''Oborona Port-Artura'', August 1, 1904 – January 2, 1905) was the longest and most violent land battle of the Russ ...

Military career

Hayashi's first major command from 1918 to 1920 was as commanding officer of the IJA 57th Infantry Regiment, followed by a time in 1921 attached to the Technical Research Headquarters and as an acting Military Investigator. From 1921 to 1923 he was the head of the Preparatory Course at the Imperial Japanese Army Academy, followed by a time attached to the

Inspectorate General of Military Training The was a section of the Imperial Japanese Army charged with military education and training in the army, except military aviation training. It was headed by an inspector general who was responsible for overseeing technical and tactical training, a ...

. From 1923 to 1924 he was the Japanese Army Representative to the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

, followed by another stint attached to the Inspectorate General of Military Training from 1924 to 1925. In 1925, Hayashi became the commanding Officer of the IJA 2nd Infantry Brigade. In 1926 he was made Commandant of the Tokyo Bay Fortress. In 1927, he became the Commandant of the Army War College, followed in 1928 as Deputy Inspector-General of Military Training. Finally in 1929 he became the General Officer Commanding the

Imperial Guards Division In Japan, the Imperial Guard is the name for two separate organizations dedicated to the protection of the Emperor of Japan and the Imperial Family, palaces and other imperial properties. The first was the , a quasi-independent elite branch of the ...

. In 1930, Lieutenant-General Senjūrō Hayashi, was made Commander in Chief of the

. On the day after the Mukden Incident on 19 September, he ordered the IJA 20th Division to split its force, forming the 39th Mixed Brigade. Acting without authorization by the

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

or central government in Tokyo, Hayashi ordered the 39th Mixed Brigade to cross the

Yalu River The Yalu River, known by Koreans as the Amrok River or Amnok River, is a river on the border between North Korea and China. Together with the Tumen River to its east, and a small portion of Paektu Mountain, the Yalu forms the border between ...

that same day into

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 ...

. The Cabinet was forced to concede the point to the military afterwards and the movement of the 39th Mixed Brigade from Korea was authorized on 22 September. Following his command in Korea, Hayashi was made Inspector General of Military Training and a member of the Supreme War Council from 1932 to 1934. In 1932, he was awarded with the Order of the Sacred Treasure (1st class) and in 1934, he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun (1st class).

Political career

From 1934 to 1935 Hayashi was Army Minister, and again member of the Supreme War Council from 1935 until his retirement the next year. As Army Minister, Hayashi was a supporter of Major General

Tetsuzan Nagata was a Japanese military officer and general of the Imperial Japanese Army best known as the victim of the Aizawa Incident in August 1935. Nagata was an influential military figure in the Meiji government and the '' de facto'' leader of the ...

, who was Chief of Military Bureau and the leader of the ''

Tōseiha The ''Tōseiha'' or was a political faction in the Imperial Japanese Army active in the 1920s and 1930s. The ''Tōseiha'' was a grouping of moderate officers united primarily by their opposition to the radical ''Kōdōha'' (Imperial Way) faction ...

'' faction within the Imperial Japanese Army. The ''Tōseiha'' scored a victory in July 1935 when General

Jinzaburō Masaki was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II. He was regarded as a leader of the radical political faction within the Japanese military. Biography Born in Saga Prefecture in 1876, Masaki graduated from the 9th class of the Imperial ...

, one of the leaders of the '' Kōdōha'' faction was removed as Inspector General of Military Training. But Nagata was assassinated the next month(the

Aizawa Incident The , also known as the was an attempted coup d'état that took place in the Empire of Japan in November 1934. It was one of a sequence of similar conspiracies for a "Shōwa Restoration" led by radical elements with the Imperial Japanese Army. B ...

). The struggle between the ''Tōseiha'' and ''Kōdōha'' factions continued below the surface of the government; and the war in North China carried on apace until February 1936. Hayashi also promoted Fumimaro Konoe's doctrines, as a "right-winger" amongst the

militarist Militarism is the belief or the desire of a government or a people that a state should maintain a strong military capability and to use it aggressively to expand national interests and/or values. It may also imply the glorification of the mil ...

s, who approved of the "fiction" of

democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which people, the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation ("direct democracy"), or to choo ...

, and the Emperor's role with an "adviser group", against "left-winger" radical militarists, led by Kingoro Hashimoto, wanted a Military Shogunate. Hayashi also happen to the president of Greater Japan Muslim League (大日本回教協会, Dai Nihon Kaikyō Kyōkai). Hayashi served as

for a brief four-month period in 1937. Later from 1940 to 1941, he was a Privy Councillor. Hayashi suffered from an

intracranial hemorrhage Intracranial hemorrhage (ICH), also known as intracranial bleed, is hemorrhage, bleeding internal bleeding, within the Human skull, skull. Subtypes are intracerebral bleeds (intraventricular bleeds and intraparenchymal bleeds), subarachnoid bleed ...

in January 1943 and died at his home of 4 February without regaining consciousness. He was posthumously awarded the

Order of the Golden Kite The was an order of the Empire of Japan, established on 12 February 1890 by Emperor Meiji "in commemoration of Jimmu Tennō, the Romulus of Japan". It was officially abolished 1947 by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) during the ...

(4th class) and the

Order of the Paulownia Flowers The is an order presented by the Japanese government. Established in 1888 during the Meiji Restoration as the highest award in the Order of the Rising Sun; however, since 2003 it has been an Order in its own right. The only grade of the order i ...

. His grave is at the Tama Reien Cemetery in

Fuchū, Tokyo 260px, Fuchū City Hall is a city located in western Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. Fuchū serves as a regional commercial center and a commuter town for workers in central Tokyo. The city hosts large scale manufacturing facilities for Toshiba, NEC ...

.
Find-a-Grave Website

Honours

''From the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia'' *Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure (1932) *Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun (1934) *Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun with Paulownia Flowers (1943; posthumous)

References

External links

Senjuro Hayashi
* , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Hayashi, Senjuro 1876 births 1943 deaths 20th-century prime ministers of Japan Prime Ministers of Japan Japanese military personnel of the Russo-Japanese War People from Kanazawa, Ishikawa Japanese generals Ministers of the Imperial Japanese Army Government ministers of Japan Foreign ministers of Japan Imperial Rule Assistance Association politicians 20th-century Japanese politicians Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun Recipients of the Order of the Sacred Treasure Recipients of the Order of the Golden Kite