Miniatures of Major-General Ichirō Suganami

Sugimura-made miniature group https://asiamedals.info/threads/groups-of-miniatures-from-sugimura-workshop-tokyo.20727/

Order of the Rising Sun (silver, gilt, size 14.2 x 24.5 mm);
Order of the Sacred Treasure (silver, gilt, size 13 x 15.8 mm);
Showa Enthronement Commemorative Medal 1928 (medal is missing);
1931-1934 Incident War Medal ( bronze, size 12.3 mm);
Manchukuo National Foundation Merit Medal (blackened bronze, size 12.5 mm).

Allegedly belong to Ichirō Suganami.

Miniatures of Major-General Ichirō Suganami.jpg



Ichirō Suganami was born on June 22, 1895. He was a Staff Officer with the Northern China Area Army during the first portion of the Second Sino-Japanese War, beginning on August 26, 1937. By the Spring of 1938, he was posted as Military Attaché to Great Britain from April 7, 1938 until December 1, 1939. During his time in London, he was promoted to the rank of Colonel on July 15, 1938. He was attached to the General Staff as of December 1, 1939 for the next five and a half months. By May 15, 1940, Colonel Suganami was Commanding Officer of the 222nd Infantry Regiment and was in charge of the regiment when Japan entered the Second World War on September 27, 1940 by signing the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy. Fourteen months after he took over the 222nd Infantry Regiment, he was named Chief of the Hailar Special Agency in China on July 7, 1941, a position he would assume until August 31, 1942. During this period, Suganami was promoted to the rank of Major-General on August 1, 1942. Major-General Suganami was attached to the General Staff from August 31, 1942 to November 12, 1942, at which point he was named Chief of Staff to the Japanese Governor General's Department at Hong Kong, Occupied Territory from November 12, 1942 to June 26, 1944. With the war still raging, he was placed in reserve on June 26, 1944 and was retired from service on September 13, 1944, now age 49. Suganami had maintained his intelligence connections throughout the years and knew the United States was developing a bomb with the capacity to eradicate an entire city in an instant. He urged Emperor Hirohito, to surrender to avoid that fate for Japan. Instead, the Emperor dismissed Suganami, but friendships he had developed gained him an early warning by which he was able to make fateful warning calls to his family. He failed to convince the Emperor to surrender, but he gained appreciation from the Allies, who evidently warned him about the pending bomb drop. After the war, Suganami avoided prison when General Douglas McArthur came to oversee the occupation of Japan. While McArthur put the Emperor’s inner circle and all the highly placed military leaders in prison, he did not imprison Suganami. This distinction bothered his wife until she died at the age of 104. She felt it would have been more honorable and befitting his rank as a Major-General, to have gone to prison. Still, Suganami lost his high status and made a living basically as a private tutor until he died. He already struggled for full inclusion into the inner circles because he was a Catholic Christian and did not see the Emperor as a god, as did the vast majority of his other subjects. Major-General Ichirō Suganami died on June 7, 1960, at the age of 64.​

Army First Leutnant Saburō Suganami (left) & Colonel Chōsei Oyadomari.jpg

Army First Leutnant Saburō Suganami (left) and Colonel Chōsei Oyadomari.
 
Medal ribbon bars of Major-General Ichirō Suganami.

Ribbon bar of Major-General Ichirō Suganami.jpg
 
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