Homma's WW1 service

Peter H · Post by **Peter H** » 17 Nov 2005 13:40

From Kogun :

military student, England, August 1918 (and served as observer with British forces in France)

Did any other Japanese officers serve as observers on the Western Front 1914-18?

Peter H · Post by **Peter H** » 17 Nov 2005 14:17

Four Japanese also served with the French Foreign Legion on the Western Front.I have no further details on who they were.

An Japanese-Australian soldier as well:

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=47918

Also Japanese-Canadians that served on the Western Front:

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=84013

Lt.Amuro · Post by **Lt.Amuro** » 17 Nov 2005 14:36

>observers on the Western Front
Katsuichi Ogata
Kesago Nakajima
Waichiro Sonobe
Yoshitsugu Tatekawa
Marquis Toshinari Maeda

Windward · Post by **Windward** » 18 Nov 2005 04:54

IJN observer lieut.comdr. Shimomura Chusuke 下村忠助 sunk with HMS Queen Mary during the Battle of Jutland.

Peter H · Post by **Peter H** » 18 Nov 2005 15:13

Thanks gentlemen.

Plus two other observers who witnessed Jutland:

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=77007

Its been said that Japan turned a blind eye to the lessons of WW1?

After the end of the Nomonhan fighting, the Army High Command set up a
committee to investigate the whole Incident. The commission was to evaluate
the abilities of the Soviet Army, and to re-examine the performance of
Japanese armaments and operations against the Russians.

Where military equipment was concerned, Japanese fire power proved far
inferior. Heated debates ensued about the two basic alternatives: whether to
effect a thoroughgoing reorganization, or whether to go only as far as
reinforcing current fire power materiel. The second alternative was selected.

Lurking in the background of the controversy was the problem of
abandoning the principle of hand-to-hand fighting, a tradition of the Japanese
infantry. The High Command did not awaken to the remarkable progress of
material potentials in modern warfare, but instead continued to esteem the
superiority of spiritual fighting strength. This attitude could perhaps be
traced to the fact that the Japanese Army did not progress beyond
comprehending fire power at the levels of 1904-05. It had never received a
baptism of fire on the modern scale of World War I.

Saburo Hayashi's Kogun

Peter H · Post by **Peter H** » 05 Dec 2005 10:50

Photo from Herbert Bix's Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan.

Crown Prince Hirohito on his Grand Tour of Europe 1921 visited the WW1 battlefields of Belgium and France.Here he is said to be at Dunkirk with his court military advisers.However I think this might be a location on the Flanders coast further east that had been held by the Germans.