, birth_date = , death_date = , birth_place = Kōchi Prefecture, Japan , death_place = , image = , caption = , office1 = 33rd Army Minister , monarch1 =

Emperor Hirohito 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 ...

, primeminister1 =

Kijūrō Shidehara Baron was a pre– World War II Japanese diplomat and politician. He was Prime Minister of Japan from 1945 to 1946 and a leading proponent of pacifism in Japan before and after World War II. He was the last Japanese Prime Minister who was a me ...

, term_start1 = 23 August 1945 , term_end1 = 1 December 1945 , predecessor1 =

Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni General was a Japanese imperial prince, a career officer in the Imperial Japanese Army and the 30th Prime Minister of Japan from 17 August 1945 to 9 October 1945, a period of 54 days. An uncle-in-law of Emperor Hirohito twice over, Prince Hi ...

, successor1 = Office abolished , nickname = , allegiance = , branch = , serviceyears = 1908–1945 , rank =

General A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". O ...

, commands = Thirteenth Army

Northern China Area Army The was an area army of the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War. History The Japanese North China Area Army was formed on August 21, 1937 under the control of the Imperial General Headquarters. It was transferred to the ...

, battles =

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 T ...

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, awards = , relations = Shimomura in 1955 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 Emper ...

and the final Minister of War of the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent form ...

Biography

Early career

Shimomura was born in Kōchi Prefecture, but was raised in

Kanazawa, Ishikawa is the capital 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 File:もてな� ...

, where his father was a recruiting officer for the Imperial Japanese Army. After attended military preparatory schools in Kanazawa and Nagoya, he graduated 6th out of 273 cadets from the 20th 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 1908. His classmates included Prince Asaka, Prince Higashikuni Naruhiko,

Prince Kitashirakawa Naruhisa , was the 3rd head of a collateral branch of the Japanese Imperial Family. Early life Prince Naruhisa was the son of Prince Yoshihisa Kitashirakawa and Princess Tomiko.Takenobu, Yoshitaro. (1906). Prince Naruhisa succeeded as head of the hou ...

, Mitsuru Ushijima, Heitarō Kimura, Takashi Sakai, and Shōjirō Iida. His speciality was artillery. He subsequently graduated at the head of his class from the 28th class of the Army Staff College in 1916. After serving in a number of staff and administrative positions within 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 ...

, Shimomura was posted to France 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 ...

in 1919. He returned to the Strategy and Planning bureau of the General Staff in 1921 and was promoted to major in 1922. He was assigned as the Army observer to the Japanese delegation at the

Geneva Naval Conference The Geneva Naval Conference was a conference held to discuss naval arms limitation, held in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1927. The aim of the conference was to extend the existing limits on naval construction which had been agreed in the Washington ...

negotiations from 1928 to 1929, during which time he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. He returned to Geneva in April 1931 as part of the Japanese delegation 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 th ...

and was promoted to colonel in August. The Geneva

Conference on Disarmament The Conference on Disarmament (CD) is a multilateral disarmament forum established by the international community to negotiate arms control and disarmament agreements based at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. The Conference meets annually i ...

occurred in December. From December 1933 Shimomura was commander of the IJA 1st Heavy Field Artillery Regiment.

World War II

In March 1935, Shimomura was assigned to the staff of the

Kwantung Army ''Kantō-gun'' , image = Kwantung Army Headquarters.JPG , image_size = 300px , caption = Kwantung Army headquarters in Hsinking, Manchukuo , dates = April ...

, returning to Japan in December to serve as an instructor at the Army Staff College. 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 ...

in March 1936. He returned to the General Staff as Chief of the 4th Bureau from August 1936, and of the 1st Bureau from September 1937. The 1st Bureau was in charge of operational planning, and Shimomura was strong proponent of a more aggressive approach towards the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Ta ...

government in the

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...

area and his recommendations influenced the decision of the Japanese General Staff to authorize the landings of the Japanese Tenth Army at the start of the

Battle of Shanghai The Battle of Shanghai () was the first of the twenty-two major engagements fought between the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Republic of China (ROC) and the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) of the Empire of Japan at the beginning of the ...

. he was assigned command of

Tokyo Bay Fortress file:Fort No2 tokyobay mlit1988.jpg, 270px, No.2 Kaiho（1988） file:Fort No3 tokyobay mlit1983.jpg, 270px, No.3 Kaiho（1983） file:Kenzaki battery -01.jpg, 270px, Kenzaki Battery（2010） was the name of a group of coastal fortifications b ...

in September 1938. Shimomura was 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 th ...

in March 1939. He was appointed commandant of the Artillery School in August 1940, and of the Army Staff College in September 1941. He was given a field command in October 1942 in the form of the

Japanese Thirteenth Army , image= , caption= , dates= September 23, 1939 - August 15, 1945 , country= Empire of Japan , allegiance= , branch= Imperial Japanese Army , type= Infantry , role= Corps , garrison=Shanghai , nickname= , battles= , no ...

, a garrison force based in

and surrounding provinces primarily to deter the possible landings of the

Allies of World War II The Allies, formally referred to as the Declaration by United Nations, United Nations from 1942, were an international Coalition#Military, military coalition formed during the World War II, Second World War (1939–1945) to oppose the Axis ...

in the lower

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows ...

area of east central China. In March 1944, Shimomura was withdrawn to the

Japanese home islands The Japanese archipelago (Japanese: 日本列島, ''Nihon rettō'') is a group of 6,852 islands that form the country of Japan, as well as the Russian island of Sakhalin. It extends over from the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast to the East Chin ...

and became commander of the Western District Army, another force intended to defend against Allied landings. However, in November 1944, he was sent back to China as commander of the

North China Area Army The was an area army of the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War. History The Japanese North China Area Army was formed on August 21, 1937 under the control of the Imperial General Headquarters. It was transferred to t ...

. In May 1945, Shimomura was promoted to full

general A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". O ...

, and on 23 August (just after the

surrender of Japan The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the war's hostilities to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Na ...

), was appointed final Army Minister under the

Shidehara cabinet The Shidehara Cabinet is the 44th Cabinet of Japan led by Kijūrō Shidehara Baron was a pre–World War II Japanese diplomat and politician. He was Prime Minister of Japan from 1945 to 1946 and a leading proponent of pacifism in Japan befo ...

. One of the reasons for his selection was that he had never been involved in hostilities against the United States at any point in his military career. Shimomura was also concurrently the final Inspector-General for Military Training. His primary task was to oversee the demobilization of the Imperial Japanese Army. As with all other members of the former Japanese government, Shimomura was briefly taken into custody by the American occupation authorities from 1946 to 1947, but was released without charges filed. In 1955, Shimomura was asked to help create the post-war

Japan Defense Agency The is an executive department of the Government of Japan responsible for preserving the peace and independence of Japan, and maintaining the country’s national security and the Japan Self-Defense Forces. The ministry is headed by the Mi ...

. In June 1959, he was elected to the

House of Councilors The is the upper house of the National Diet of Japan. The House of Representatives is the lower house. The House of Councillors is the successor to the pre-war House of Peers. If the two houses disagree on matters of the budget, treaties, or ...

in the post-war

Diet of Japan The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (, '' Sangiin''). Both houses are directly elected under a paral ...

for a single term with the support of the Liberal-Democratic Party. He ran again in the

1965 Japanese House of Councillors election House of Councillors elections were held in Japan on 4 July 1965,traffic accident on 25 March 1968.

Decorations

* 1940 –

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 ...

, 3rd class * 1940 – JPN Zuiho-sho (WW2) 2Class BAR

Order of the Sacred Treasure, 2nd class 『官報』第4008号「叙任及辞令」May 20, 1940 * 1944 – JPN Zuiho-sho (WW2) 1Class BAR

Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure 『官報』第1850号「叙任及辞令」October 2, 1918 * 1958 – JPN Kyokujitsu-sho 1Class BAR

Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun

References

* * *

External links

* * *

Footnotes

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Shimomura, Sadamu 1887 births 1968 deaths People from Kōchi Prefecture Japanese generals Japanese military attachés Japanese military personnel of World War II Ministers of the Imperial Japanese Army Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) politicians Members of the House of Councillors (Japan) Road incident deaths in Japan Grand Cordons of the Order of the Rising Sun Recipients of the Order of the Golden Kite Recipients of the Order of the Sacred Treasure, 1st class