Prince Nashimoto
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His Imperial Highness Prince Nashimoto (Morimasa) of Japan (梨本宮守正王, Nashimoto no miya Morimasa ō) (9 March 1874 - 2 January 1951) was a one-time member of the Japanese imperial family, field marshal in the Imperial Japanese Army, and the chief priest of the Ise Shrine from 1937 until 1947. An uncle-in-law of Emperor Shōwa and an uncle of his consort, Empress Kojun, Prince Nashimoto was the only member of the imperial family arrested as a war criminal during the American occupation of Japan following the Second World War. He was released without charge in April 1946, but lost his princely title and became a commoner as part of the occupation's reforms of the imperial household in October 1947.
Early Life
Prince Nashimoto Morimasa was born in Kyoto, the fourth son of Prince Kuni Asahiko (Kuni no miya Asahiko Shinnō) and Harada Mitsue, a court lady. His father, a prince of the blood and one-time Buddhist priest, was the head of one of the new collateral branches of the imperial family created during the Meiji period. Originally named Prince Tada, his half-brothers included Prince Higashikuni Naruhiko, Prince Asaka Yasuhiko, and Prince Kuni Kuniyoshi. On 2 December 1885, the Emperor Meiji named him successor to the Nashimoto no miya, another cadet branch of the imperial family. He adopted the personal name "Morimasa" the following year.
Military Career
Like the other princes of the imperial blood at the time, Prince Nashimoto pursued a military career. Educated at the Central Military Prepatory School and the Imperial Military Academy, he received a commission as a second lieutenant in the Thirty-Ninth Infantry Regiment in 1899. In 1903, he went to the French Military Staff College at St. Cyr, but returned to Japan the following year and served with his regiment in the Russo-Japanese War. He returned to France in August 1906 and remained until July 1909. He was promoted to lieutenant general and commander of the Sixteenth Infantry Division in August 1917. Prince Nashimoto became a member of the Supreme Military Council in November 1919 and was promoted to the rank of general in August 1922. On August 8, 1932, he was given the largely honorary rank of field marshal and became a member of the Board of Marshals and Fleet Admirals. However, the prince held no major military commands during the Pacific War (1931-1945). Unlike Prince Asaka and Prince Higashikuni, he remained largely removed from the mounting radicalism within the army, which culminated in the February 26 Incident of 1936. In October 1937, he became chief priest (sasu) of the Ise Shrine, the ancestral shrine of the imperial dynasty.
On 28 November 1900, Prince Nashimoto married Nabeshima Itsuko (2 February 1882 - 18 August 1976), the second daughter of Marquis Nabeshima Naohiro, a one-time Japanese ambassador to Italy and the son of the last feudal lord (daimyo) of Saga. The couple had two daughters. At the instigation of the Japanese government and the Imperial Household Ministry, the couple's elder daughter, Princess Masako (4 November 1901 - 30 April 1989), married the half-brother and heir of Korea's last monarch, Crown Prince Yi Eun in 1920. The couple's second son, Prince Gu of Korea, is the successor to the Korean throne. Prince Nashimoto's second daughter, Princess Noriko (27 April 1907 - 1992), married Count Hirohashi Tadamitsu in 1926.
Post War
In December 1945, General Douglas MacArthur, the supreme allied commander in the Pacific and the military governor of Japan, ordered the arrest of Prince Nashimoto as a suspected "class A" war criminal. The prince's arrest caused great consternation among the Japanese, because it opened the possibility that Emperor Shōwa and more senior members of the imperial household might face prosecution for war crimes. Few people on either side regarded Nashimoto was more than a symbol. After four month's imprisonment in Tokyo's Sugamo Prison, American authorities released him without charge. Former prince Nashimoto Morimasa died of a heart attack in January 1951 at the age of 76.ja:梨本宮守正王