Saigo Torataro (西郷寅太郎)
Torataro SAIGO (August 21, 1866 - January 1, 1919) was a military man of the Imperial Japanese Army. His final position was Army Colonel.
Career and Personal Profile
He was born in Uenosono-cho, a castletown around Kagoshima-jo Castle in Satsuma Province. He served as Tokyo Internment Camp Chief, Narashino Internment Camp Chief, Member of the House of Peers, and so on. His official title (rank, order, decoration, grade, and peerage) was Rikugun hohei taisa (Army Colonel of Infantry), Jusanmi (Junior Third Rank), Second-class Order, Fifth Grade, and Marquis. He was born as the legitimate heir to Army General Takamori SAIGO and his wife Itoko. His wife was Nobuko who was Sanenori SONODA's daughter. Marquis Tsugumichi SAIGO, Marshal Full Admiral, was his uncle. Kikujiro SAIGO, Torataro's illegitimate older half-brother, served as Yilan (Taiwan) Branch Office Governor, Mayor of Kyoto City and so on.
In 1877, his father Takamori was killed in the war. After Takamori had been deprived of his court rank as a ringleader of the Seinan War (Satsuma Rebellion), his family and relatives lived secretly in Kagoshima.
In 1884, as a result of the successful appeal of Tomozane YOSHII, Kaishu KATSU and others to the government, Emperor Meiji ordered Torataro to study in Potsdam Army War College, and while he was studying in Germany for thirteen years, he became a Prussian army lieutenant. After returning to Japan, he was trained in shooting at Army Toyama School and was appointed army lieutenant. On June 3, Torataro was conferred the title of Marquis and thus raised to the peerage on the ground of his father Takamori's achievements in the Restoration, thereafter becoming a member of the House of Peers (Marquis member). Takamori was pardoned under an amnesty granted in honor of issuance of the Constitution of the Empire of Japan, and was conferred a court rank of Shosanmi (Senior Third Rank).
On November 11, 1914, during World War I, he assumed the position of Tokyo Internment Camp Chief, and on September 7, 1915, became Narashino Internment Camp Chief. On January 1, 1919, he died while in office due to pneumonia caused by the Spanish flu. On January 5 in the same year he was granted Emperor's special consideration and was raised to Jusanmi. His grave is located in Aoyama Cemetery managed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
The family estate was succeeded by Torataro's second son Takateru, but Takateru had no heir, so that Torataro's third son Kichinosuke SAIGO succeeded to Takateru. Kichinosuke served as a member of the House of Peers and the House of Councilors, and became the Minister of justice. Incidentally, Sanenori SONODA, father of Torataro's wife Nobu (mother of Nobuko, Takateru and Kichinosuke), was an old brother of Hikoshichi TAKE who was a great grandfather of Yutaka TAKE and Koshiro TAKE, that is, they are distant relatives.