World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbasePrince Tsuneyoshi was the only son of Prince Tsunehisa and Princess Masako; Princess Masako was the sixth daughter of Emperor Meiji, which made Prince Tsuneyoshi a first cousin to Emperor Showa. On 23 Apr 1919, he was named the head of the Takeda branch of the Japanese Imperial Family. He was educated at the Gakushuin and the Imperial Army Academy; upon completing the latter, he was given commission as a sub-lieutenant in the Japanese Army cavalry in Jul 1930 and was sent to Manchuria. On 12 May 1934, he married Mitsuko Sanjo, the youngest daughter of Prince Kiteru Sanjo; they had five children together. During the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, he was a member of Japan's equestrian team. In Aug 1936, at the rank of captain, he was sent back to Manchuria once again. In 1938, he returned to Japan to attend the Army War College. In Aug 1940, he was promoted to the rank of major and headed the personnel department of the Army General Staff in Tokyo. In Aug 1943, he was promoted to the rank of colonel and headed Unit 731 of the Kwantung Army, which conducted biological weapons research on human subjects; it had not been proven that Prince Tsuneyoshi was aware of the atrocities. He then served briefly as Emperor Showa's personal liaison to the Saigon, Vietnam headquarters of General Hisaichi Terauchi of the Japanese Southern Army. After the Japanese surrender, he ensured that Kwantung Army's officers complied with the surrender order. After the war, on 14 Oct 1947, Prince Tsuneyoshi and his family were made common citizens. He moved to his estate in Chiba Prefecture, Japan to raise race horses. In late 1947, he started a knitting machine business, but the company soon failed. In 1948, he became the president of the Japan Skating Association and a member of the north Tokyo Rotary Club. In 1962, he became the president of the Japanese Olympic Committee, playing an important role in the organization of the 1946 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo; he was also a member of the International Olympic Committee from 1967 to 1981, during which he was director of its executive board for five years. He died of heart failure in 1992.

Photographs

Tsuneyoshi Timeline