Lieutenant-General SAMURA Masuo (date of death?)

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Steen Ammentorp
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Lieutenant-General SAMURA Masuo (date of death?)

#1

Post by Steen Ammentorp » 27 Aug 2014, 10:14

Hi,

I am a bit puzzled by the exact date of death of Lieutenant-General SAMURA Masuo (佐村益雄)( さむら ますお). The website: http://admiral3166.ddo.jp/31page/a/px14.htm#l011 gives this date of death as 17th March 1936, while the book by Fukukawa Hideki 日本陸軍将官辞典 (p.357) has is as 8th March 1936. Which is correct? However I am a bit puzzled by the fact that Fukukawa list an appointment after his death. He list: 7th March 1936 – 23rd March 1936 Attached to the Inspectorate-General of Military Training (教育総監部附) and then transferred to the reserve 23rd March 1936 (お予備役). Other books, such as 昭和物故人名錄 , and websites also gives 8th March as date of death.

Is anyone able to shed some light on this?

Thank you in advance

edit: typos
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Steen Ammentorp
The Generals of World War Two

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hisashi
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Re: Lieutenant-General SAMURA Masuo (date of death?)

#2

Post by hisashi » 27 Aug 2014, 14:25

the last column of this page reads 補職/任官(appointments/commission). As other examples discussed here, it seems '没(dead)' in this column seems not 'be dead in this date'. It meant 'no more record to his death in the navy'. Very often we have no way to know the date of death for any ordinal officer.


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Wellgunde
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Re: Lieutenant-General SAMURA Masuo (date of death?)

#3

Post by Wellgunde » 28 Aug 2014, 00:45

Elaborating on Hisashi's excellent reply, there are a number of characters in use in Japanese associated with death. These include 没, 亡, and 死 among others. 死is the most emphatic; any association of this character with a date is definitely the date the person expired. 亡is a less harsh word. It is used the same way we say in English that a person "passed away." 没is much more indistinct and more inclusive. It may also refer to death in the sense that there is no further information or it may refer to the death of abstract things which have no actual physical life, for example, a dead country.

On a different note, can anyone comment on or recommend the two Fukukawa books? Thank you
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Re: Lieutenant-General SAMURA Masuo (date of death?)

#4

Post by hisashi » 28 Aug 2014, 11:20

芙蓉書房出版, which published Fukukawa's two work, was established by a retired army major. It is not imaginable they published poorly researched work.

But I think Fukukawa thoroughly researched IJA/IJN official records. It needs some paper work to remove anybody from officer list, so it may happen an order to remove dead officer from active officer list, dated after his death. I am not sure it took the form of 'go to reserve'.

As explained a few times in other entries, 'Attach to/at the disposal of' had a few nuances in IJA/IJN. Here 'Attached to the Inspectorate-General of Military Training' at 8 Mar 1936 meant he was so sick that relieved from any real task. Perhaps staff officers prepared documents to move him into reserve but it was not in time. Death in 17 Mar sounds the most natural to me.

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Re: Lieutenant-General SAMURA Masuo (date of death?)

#5

Post by Steen Ammentorp » 28 Aug 2014, 11:52

Hi,

Thank you Hisashi & Wellgunde for the elaboration, much appreciated.

As for the date of death on SAMURA I think that I will go with 8th of March 1936, as this is what most sources seems to agree on and assuming that Fukukawa book contains a slip of mind regarding the post mortem assignments or based paper records continued after his death as Hisahis suggest.

As for the meaning of “attached to/at disposal of” then I am fully aware of that there may be different meanings. It is similar to other nations, where the officers were “attached to/placed at disposal of” because of illness or pending transfer to the reserve / retirement.

As for the Fukukawa books, then I can only speak of the one with generals. An otherwise excellent reference where you get information on all the army generals (or equivalents) until 1946. On each general you get name (kanji), date of birth and death, date of last promotion – in case of posthumously promotions same as date of death (though there must have been some time for paperwork), and information on assignments with dates. However the information on assignments variate, generally you get all the assignments after they became general officers. Many entries ends with a short summary with information on which campaigns or battles the officer took part in. I have encountered a few typos in names and dates.

Please remember that I am non-Japanese speaking, so finer details may have eluded me.
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Steen Ammentorp
The Generals of World War Two

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