Otani Kikuzo


Baron Ōtani Kikuzō was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army. Otani participated in the First Sino-Japanese War, Russo-Japanese War, World War I and the Russian Civil War. During the course of the latter he commanded the Vladivostok Expeditionary Force and became the formal commander of the Allied Siberian Intervention. He was elevated to baron upon his retirement in 1920.

Military career

Ōtani was born in 1856 in Obama Domain
and General Kikuzo Ōtani, leaders of the Japanese Forces in Siberia
In 1918, Japan joined the Allies in a joint intervention into the Russian Civil War in support of the White movement. Ōtani was appointed head of the Japanese expeditionary force with Yui Mitsue as the Chief of Staff. The Vladivostok Expeditionary Force was 60,000 men strong, comprising three divisions including the 12th Division and the 5th Division. On 12 August, Japanese forces departed from Tokyo Station for Hiroshima, where they were to board ships destined for Vladivostok. Following Vladivostok's occupation Otani became the formal commander of the Allied Siberian Intervention. In April 1920, Ōtani ordered the Allied troops to cut off eastern Transbaikal from the Bolshevik-controlled Far Eastern Republic thus creating the Chita holdup.
In 1919, he was appointed inspector general at the Inspectorate General of Military Training. He retired from active service a year later and was elevated to baron. On 1 November 1920, Ōtani was awarded the Order of the Golden Kite for his role in World War I and the Siberian intervention. He died in 1923, and grave is at the Aoyama Cemetery in Tokyo.

Decorations

Japanese

Knight Grand Cross, Order of St Michael and St George
Grand Officer, Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus
Grand Cross, Order of the Star of Romania
War Merit Cross
Médaille militaire 1919
Czechoslovak War Cross 1918