Oyama Iwao
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Oyama Iwao (大山 巌 Ooyama Iwao) (born 10 October 1842 - 10 December 1916) was a Japanese field marshal, and one of the founders of the Imperial Japanese Army.
He was born in Kagoshima to a samurai family of the Satsuma han domain. A follower of Okubo Toshimichi, he worked to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate and thus played a major role in the Meiji Restoration. In 1870, he went to France to study and he was official Japanese military observer to the Franco-Prussian War. The following year, he returned to Japan. After promotion to Major General, he went to France again for further study. On his return home, he helped establish the Imperial Japanese Army.
He served as commander in chief of the Detached First Brigade during the Boshin War, although he and his elder brother were cousins of Saigo Takamori.
In the Sino-Japanese War, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the 2nd Japanese Army, which after landing on Liaotung Peninsula, carried Port Arthur by storm, and subsequently crossed to Shantung, where it captured the fortress of Weihaiwei.
For these services he received the title of marquess, and, three years later, he became field-marshal. In the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 he was named commander-in-chief of the Japanese armies in Manchuria. After Japan's victory, Emperor Meiji elevated him to the rank of prince. He was made a member of the British Order of Merit in 1906.
As war minister in several cabinets and as chief of staff he upheld the autocratic power of the oligarchs (genro) against democratic encroachments. From 1914 he served as Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal. He died at age 75 in 1916.
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