Yamashita Gentarō

Baron was an admiral in the early Imperial Japanese Navy.

Biography Early career Yamashita was the second son of a samurai in the service of the Yonezawa Domain and was born in the castle town of Yonezawa, Dewa Province (present day Yamagata prefecture). Yamashita graduated from the 10th class of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in 1883, ranked 4th out of 27 cadets. His classmates included Katō Sadakichi.

His midshipman service was aboard the ironclad warship during its long-distance navigational training voyage to Wellington, Valparaíso, Callao and Honolulu in 1886. After his return to Japan, he was assigned to a number of ships in the early navy as gunnery officer, including the ironclad , gunboat (1889), corvettes (1891), (1892) and (1893).

During the First Sino-Japanese War, Yamashita served as the chief gunnery officer on the corvette , followed by the cruiser .

In 1896, Yamashita was sent to the United Kingdom to oversee warship construction and to study then latest designs of the Royal Navy. While based in London, he was promoted to lieutenant commander in 1897 and then to commander in 1898. On his return to Japan in 1899, he was appointed executive officer, first on the cruiser , then on .

In July 1900, Yamashita was assigned command of Japanese marines during the Boxer Rebellion at Tientsin and lived in retirement until his death in 1931. His grave is at the Aoyama Cemetery in Tokyo.

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