World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseYoshitsugu Tatekawa was born in 1880. He was a member of the Japanese Military Delegation to the League of Nations between 1920 and 1922. Between 1922 and 1924, he was a cavalry officer at the regiment level. Between 1924 and 1928, he was the head of the 2nd Bureau of the 4th Section (European and American) of Army Intelligence. He was the Military Attaché to China between 1928 and 1929. In Sep 1931, at the rank of Major General, he was dispatched by Minister of War Jiro Minami to Manchuria in an attempt to curb the militarist behavior of the Japanese Kwantung Army, but he had only just arrived in Manchuria when Kwantung Army Colonel Seishiro Itagaki and Lieutenant Colonel Kanji Ishiwara staged an explosion that led to the Mukden Incident; when the incident took place, he was distracted by Itagaki at a teahouse. After the Mukden Incident, he returned to Tokyo to serve in intelligence roles until 1932. In 1932, he was a member of the General Staff who attended the Geneva Disarmament Conference and was a permanent representative of Japan to the League of Nations. Between 1933 and 1936, he commanded 10th and then 4th Divisions. Tatekawa retired from military service in 1936. From 1940 to 1942, he was the ambassador to Russia; during this time, on 13 Apr 1941, Tatekawa together with Minister of Foreign Affairs Yosuke Matsuoka acted as the representatives of Japan at the signing of the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact opposite of Vyacheslav Molotov. Tatekawa passed away in 1945.

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