1920 in Japan explained

Events in the year 1920 in Japan. It corresponds to Taishō 9 (大正9年) in the Japanese calendar.

Incumbents

• Emperor

Taishō^[1]

• Prime Minister

Takashi Hara^[2]

Governors

• Aichi Prefecture

Shunji Miyao

• • • • • • Akita Prefecture: Ryoshin Nao Aomori Prefecture: Hidehiko Michioka Ehime Prefecture: Toshio Mawatari Fukui Prefecture: Kohei Yuji Fukuoka Prefecture: Yasukouchi Asakichi Fukushima Prefecture: Miyata Mitsuo
    • Gifu Prefecture: Kanokogi Kogoro Gunma Prefecture: Muneyoshi Oshiba Hiroshima Prefecture

• Ibaraki Prefecture

• • • • Iwate Prefecture: Takeo Kakinuma Kagawa Prefecture: Yoshibumi Satake Kochi Prefecture: Abe Yoshihiko Kumamoto Prefecture

• Kyoto Prefecture

• • Mie Prefecture: Haruki Yamawaki Miyagi Prefecture

• • Miyazaki Prefecture: Naomiki Hirose Nagano Prefecture

• Niigata Prefecture

• Okayama Prefecture

Masao Kishimoto

• Okinawa Prefecture

• Saga Prefecture

• Saitama Prefecture

• • • Shiname Prefecture: Sanehide Takarabe Tochigi Prefecture: Hiroyoshi Hiratsuka Tokushima Prefecture: Rinpei Otsu
• Tokyo

• • Toyama Prefecture: Higashizono Motomitsu Yamagata Prefecture: Ichiro Yoda
• Yamanashi Prefecture: Miki Nagano

Events

• January 10  - Japan is a founding member of the League of Nations.
• January 30  - Mazda founded, as predecessor name was Toyo Cork Industry.
• February  - The Kawanishi Engineering Works, predecessor of ShinMaywa, is founded in Hyogo-ku, Kobe.
• February 1  - Japanese sugar plantation workers in Hawaii officially join a strike led by Filipinos and Hispanic workers.
• February 24  - Nikolayevsk Incident: Realizing that he is outnumbered and far from reinforcement, the commander of the Japanese garrison allows Yakov Triapitsyn's troops to enter the town of Nikolayevsk-on-Amur under a flag of truce.^[3]
• May 10  - In the general election, the Rikken Seiyūkai, led by Prime Minister Hara Takashi, increases on its majority of seats in the lower house of the Diet.^[4]
• May 31 - The Rome–Tokyo Raid, a cross-Eurasian flight from Rome to Tokyo organized by Harukichi Shimoi and Gabrielle D'Annunzio ends with Arturo Ferrarin arriving in Tokyo.^[5]
• June - About 450 Japanese civilians and 350 Japanese soldiers, along with Russian White Army supporters, are massacred by partisan forces associated with the Red Army at Nikolayevsk on the Amur River.
• June Unknown date  - Shikishima Bakery was founded in Nagoya, as predecessor of Pasco Shikishima.
• September 1  - Rinnai was founded in Nagoya.
• September 17  - The Victory Medal, a commemorative military medal of Japan awarded to mark service during the First World War, is established by Imperial Edict.
• October 21  - The Battle of Qingshanli begins between the Imperial Japanese Army and Korean armed groups in a densely wooded region of eastern Manchuria called Qīngshānlǐ.^[6]
• December 16  - Bank of Yokohama was founded, as predecessor name was Yokohama Kōshō Bank (横浜興商銀行) in Kanagawa Prefecture.
• date unknown
  • The literary magazine Teikoku Bungaku is published for the last time.
  • The Guards Cavalry Regiment, Guards Field Artillery Regiment, Guards Engineer Battalion, Guards Transport Battalion, plus other Guards service units are added to the Japanese Imperial Guard.

Births

• January 23  - Nejiko Suwa, violinist (d. 2012)
• January 30  - Machiko Hasegawa, Illustrator (d. 1992)
• February 12  - Yoshiko Yamaguchi, singer, actress, journalist, and politician (d. 2014)
• March 17  - Takeo Doi, academic, psychoanalyst and author (d. 2009)
• March 22  - Katsuko Saruhashi, geochemist (d. 2007)
• April 1  - Toshiro Mifune, actor (d. 1997)
• May 9  - Mitsuko Mori, actress (d. 2012)
• May 30  - Shōtarō Yasuoka, writer (d. 2013)
• June 17  - Setsuko Hara, actress (d. 2015)
• July 15  - Yoshio Inaba, actor (d. 1998)
• October 20  - Masao Sugiuchi, go player (d. 2017)
• December 24  - Hiroyuki Agawa, writer (d. 2015)

Deaths

• January 10  - Yoshikawa Akimasa, politician and cabinet minister (b. 1842)
• January 11  - Kataoka Shichirō, admiral (b. 1854)
• April 12  - Takaki Kanehiro, naval physician (b. 1849)
• April 27  - Tadashi Satō, soldier and politician (b. 1849)^[7]
• September 20  - Shō Ten, last Ryūkyū crown prince, member of the House of Peers (b. 1864)
• October 5  - Suematsu Kenchō, politician and author (b. 1855)
• October 6  - Kuroiwa Shūroku, journalist and writer (b. 1864)^[8]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Taishō emperor of Japan . Encyclopedia Britannica . 27 March 2019 . en.
2. Web site: Takashi Hara: The commoner who lost his life leading Japan. 23 December 2021. Japan Times. 16 August 2024.
3. Gutman, Anatoly. Ella Lury Wiswell (trans.); Richard A. Pierce (ed.) The Destruction of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, An Episode in the Russian Civil War in the Far East, 1920. Limestone Press (1993).
4. [Najita, Tetsuo]
5. Web site: FERRARIN, Arturo. Giuseppe . Sircana. 15 December 2022.
6. Sasaki Harutaka (佐々木春隆): Kankoku dokuritsu undōshi jō no "Seizanri taisen" kō (韓国独立運動史上の「青山里大戦」考), Gunji shigaku (軍事史学), Vol.15 No. 3, pp. 22–34, 1979.
7. "Chronological List of the Mayors of Hiroshima City" Hiroshima Municipality
8. Web site: Kuriowa Ruikō. Portraits of Modern Japanese Historical Figures. National Diet Library. 8 August 2014. Japanese.