Tokyo Shinbu Gakko

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Tokyo Shinbu Gakko
Information
Other name東京振武学校
Opened1896
Closed1914

The Tokyo Shinbu Gakkō (東京振武学校) was a military preparatory school located in

Xinhai Revolution and in the early period of the Republic of China
. The school closed in 1914.

Background and creation

Following the resumption of

Empire of Russia and other European powers, as well as to place Japan in a favorable position to influence the direction of Chinese military reforms and domestic political policy.[1]

To this effect, the

Imperial Japanese Army General Staff dispatched General Fukushima Yasumasa and General Utsunomiya Taro to open discussions with Zhang Zhidong, Liu Kunyi and Yuan Shikai about sending Chinese students to Japan for military training. On the diplomatic side, Yano Fumio, the Japanese minister to China, advised the Chinese government that the Japanese government was willing to bear all expenses for the first two hundred students. The first thirty students were sent the same year to the newly established Foreign Student Division of the Seijō Gakkō, a military preparatory school in Tokyo attached to the Imperial Japanese Army Academy.[1]

As the number of students grew year-by-year, in 1903, a separate Shinbu Gakkō was established in Tokyo specifically for Chinese military students, who numbered over 1000 by 1908.[1]

Influences

The creation of the school was initially strongly opposed by Army leader General Yamagata Aritomo, who argued against the wisdom in training a recent, a possibly future enemy, but his objections were overruled by Fukushima. The policy paid dividends to Japan in terms of Chinese assistance and goodwill during the Russo-Japanese War, as well as creating a pro-Japanese officer corps, some of whom would later collaborate with Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War.[1] The program was initially hailed by Yuan Shikai as essential to the modernization and training of the Chinese military, especially after Japan's victory over Russia in the Russo-Japanese War, and given the much greater economic burden that sending so many students to European schools would have entailed. However but he later expressed concerns that the training stopped at the sub lieutenant rank with little field training, and that access to more advanced training at the Imperial Japanese Army Academy was not forthcoming.[1]

Following the

Shandong Province during World War I led to increasing anti-Japanese sentiments in China, the numbers of Chinese students in Japan began to drop precipitously. The Tokyo Shinbu Gakkō closed in 1914 for lack of students.[2]
The site of the school is now the campus of the Tokyo Women's Medical University.

Notable alumni

References