Kenkichi Ueda
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kenkichi Ueda (1875-1962) was a Japanese general who served the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War, most notably during the Russo-Japanese border clashes during the late 1930s.
Born in the Osaka prefecture, Ueda enlisted in the Imperial Japanese Army graduating from the Japanese Military Academy in 1898, and Army Staff College in 1908. Serving as a staff officer in the Siberian Expeditionary Army in 1918, Ueda was eventually awarded the rank of colonel by the following year.
Assigned command of a regiment in 1923, Ueda was promoted to major general after a year and was assigned as commanding officer of a cavalry brigade.
Promoted to lieutenant general in 1928, the following year Ueda was appointed commander of the China Garrison Army which he served as commanding officer until 1930. As commander of the Japanese 9th Division, Ueda's command was involved in much of the fighting against Chinese forces in the aftermath of the Japanese occupation of Manchuria in 1932.
Seriously wounded in the bombing which killed Gen. Yasunori Shirakawa in May, during which he would lose his leg, Ueda was named commander of the Shanghai Expeditionary Army and, a year later vice chief of the Army General Staff. In 1934, Ueda became the commanding officer of the Korean Army and, as a general in 1935, returned to China as commander of the Kwangtung Army (Guangdong). It was in this post that he supported the aggressive and reckless actions initiated by staff and field officers against the Russian-Japanese border which would lead to heavy fighting and high casualties against Soviet forces around Nomonhan between May and August of 1939. Despite the disastrous results against the Soviets, Ueda would refuse to discourage his officers from similar actions and was eventually recalled in late-1939. Retiring to public life, Ueda would live until his death in 1962.
[edit] Reference
- Dupuy, Trevor N. The Harper Encyclopedia of Military Biography. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 1992. ISBN 0-7858-0437-4
