Mitsuru Ushijima

was a Japanese general who served during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. He was the commanding general of the 32nd Army, which fought in the Battle of Okinawa during the final stages of the war. Ushijima's troops were defeated, and at the end of the battle he committed suicide. Ushijima was born in Kagoshima city, where his father had been a samurai in the service of Satsuma Domain and later a career officer in the early Imperial Japanese Army. He was the fourth son, and one of his elder brothers served as governor of Ibaraki Prefecture. The family relocated to Tokyo, but when his father died shortly after Ushijima was born, his mother moved the family back to Kagoshima. He graduated from school with honors and decided to follow in his father's footsteps for a military career. Ushijima graduated from the 20th class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1908 with honors, and was noted for his mastery of the Jigen-ryū school of Japanese swordsmanship. He graduated from the 28th class of the Army Staff College in 1916, where his classmates included Tomoyuki Yamashita and Shizuichi Tanaka. In August 1918, Ushijima was assigned to the staff of the Japanese Expeditionary Force based at Vladivostok during the Siberian Intervention against Bolshevik forces during the Russian Civil War, where his duty was to coordinate the dispatch of troops and to arrange transportation of supplies. He was promoted to captain later that year. On his return to Japan, he was awarded the Order of the Golden Kite, 5th class. In April 1919, Ushijima served as commander of the 4th Guards Regiment and became an instructor at the Army Infantry School in August 1920. When he was promoted to major in 1924, he took command of the IJA 43rd Infantry Battalion. In April 1925, he was assigned to his alma mater, Daiichi Kagoshima Junior High School as part of an experiment conducted by the Minister of the Army, Kazunari Ugaki to provide basic military education to students at universities, junior high schools, and normal schools nationwide.