Kesago Nakajima /中島 今朝吾, Nakajima Kesago, 15 June 1881 – 28 October 1945/ was born in Oita prefecture. He attended military preparatory schools as a youth, and graduated from the 15th class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1903. He served in combat in the Russo-Japanese War. After the war, he attended the Army War College (Japan), and graduated from the 25th class in 1913. From July 1918 to May 1923, he was stationed in France as a military attaché. He was promoted to major general in April 1932 and was appointed commander of the Maizuru Army District, responsible for the defenses of Honshū’s coast along the Sea of Japan. Nakajima served as commandant of the Narashino Chemical Warfare School from 1933 to 1936. In March 1936, he was promoted to lieutenant general and was appointed a Provost Marshal. With the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Nakajima was appointed commander of the IJA 16th Division, and participated in the Second Shanghai Incident and operations in Hebei, China. Under the elderly General Iwane Matsui, Nakajima was named Operational Commander in the Battle of Nanjing in late-1937 and was thus the senior officer (aside from the nominal commander in chief Prince Asaka) at the time of the Nanjing massacre. Nakajima personally loaned his sword to be used in the killings at Nanjing, and laughed as he and his men carried out the massacres. Nakaijma was subsequently at the Battle of Wuhan before being transferred to take command of the Japanese Fourth Army in Manchukuo from 1938 to 1939. Recalled to Japan in 1939, Nakajima retired in September 1939 and died in October 1945 of illness.
Promotions
1927-02-10 Colonel
1932-04-11 Major-General
1936-03-07 Lieutenant-General
Service
1923-08-XX – 1927-02-10 Instructor at the Field Artillery School
1927-02-10 – 1929-08-01 Commanding Officer 7th Field Artillery Regiment
1929-08-01 – 1932-04-11 Instructor at the War College
1932-04-11 – 1933-08-01 Commandant of Maizuru Fortress
1933-08-01 – 1936-03-23 Commandant of the Chemical Warfare School
1936-03-23 – 1937-08-02 Provost Marshal
1937-08-02 – 1937-08-26 Commander in Chief Central Defence Army
1937-08-26 – 1938-07-15 General Officer Commanding 16th Division [China]
1938-07-15 – 1939-08-01 General Officer Commanding 4th Army
1939-08-01 – 1939-10-03 Attached to the General Staff
1939-09-30 – Transferred to reserve
1945-10-28 – Died of liver cirrhosis and uremia