16 Facts About Teiichi Suzuki

Teiichi Suzuki was a lieutenant general in the Imperial Japanese Army, a minister of state, and member of the House of Peers.

The eldest son of a landowner in Chiba Prefecture, Suzuki had aspired to participate in the forestry development of Manchuria based on stories told by his uncle, who was a colonel in the Imperial Japanese Army during the Russo-Japanese War.

Teiichi Suzuki applied for Tokyo Imperial University's Faculty of Agriculture but passed the examinations for the Imperial Japanese Army Academy and upon the recommendations of his uncle, began a military career instead.

Teiichi Suzuki graduated from the 22nd class in 1910 and from the 29th class of the Army War College in 1917.

In 1927, Teiichi Suzuki started to become increasingly involved in internal political factions within the Army.

Teiichi Suzuki was sent as a military attache to the United Kingdom from February to October 1929.

Teiichi Suzuki then began to advocate a more aggressive policy in Manchuria and was one of the most vocal advocates for Japan's withdrawal from the League of Nations.

From 1934 to 1935, Teiichi Suzuki served as an instructor at the Army Staff College and was assigned to the Cabinet Research Bureau from 1935 to 1936.

Teiichi Suzuki meanwhile co-authored a pamphlet outlining his theory for a "national defense state" to prepare for total war, based on utopian and Marxist theories on the state control of industries and agrarian reform.

Teiichi Suzuki was assigned command of the IJA 14th Infantry regiment in December 1936.

Teiichi Suzuki became a major general in November 1937 and was assigned nominally to the staff of the IJA 16th Division from November 1937 to April 1938, but he remained in Tokyo with the Cabinet Research Bureau.

Teiichi Suzuki was promoted to lieutenant general in August 1940 but retired from military service in April 1941 and entered the reserves.

However, Tojo selected the career bureaucrat Kazuo Aoki instead, and Teiichi Suzuki resigned as Minister of State and became a member of the Upper House of the Diet of Japan in October 1943.

Teiichi Suzuki was released from Sugamo Prison in September 1955 after the end of the American occupation and was pardoned by the Japanese government in 1958.

Teiichi Suzuki was requested to serve as an advisor by several industrialists, and was asked by Nobusuke Kishi to run for the post-war Diet of Japan, but Suzuki refused all offers to return to public life.

Teiichi Suzuki died at his home in Shibayama, Chiba of heart failure on July 15,1989, at 100 years old.