Viscount Kodama Gentarō (兒玉 源太郎, 16 March 1852 – 23 July 1906) was a Japanese general in the Imperial Japanese Army and a government minister during the Meiji period. He was instrumental in establishing the modern Imperial Japanese military.

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Viscount Kodama Gentarō
兒玉 源太郎
General Viscount Kodama Gentarō
Minister of the Army Empire of Japan
In office 23 December 1900 – 27 March 1902
Monarch	Meiji
Preceded by	Katsura Tarō
Succeeded by	Terauchi Masatake
Chief of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office
In office 11 April 1906 – 30 July 1906
Preceded by	Ōyama Iwao
Succeeded by	Oku Yasukata
Governor-General of Taiwan Empire of Japan
In office 26 February 1898 – 11 April 1906
Monarch	Meiji
Preceded by	Nogi Maresuke
Succeeded by	Sakuma Samata
Personal details
Born	(1852-03-16)16 March 1852 Tokuyama, Suō Province, Japan
Died	23 July 1906(1906-07-23) (aged 54) Tokyo, Japan
Awards	Order of the Golden Kite (first class) Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun with Paulownia Flowers Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure
Military service
Allegiance	Empire of Japan
Branch/service	Imperial Japanese Army
Years of service	1868–1906
Rank	General
Battles/wars	Boshin War Saga rebellion Shinpūren Rebellion Satsuma Rebellion First Sino-Japanese War Russo-Japanese War

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Kodama was born on March 16, 1852, in Tokuyama, Tsuno, Suō Province, the first son of the samurai Kodama Hankurō. His father was a mid-ranking samurai with a 100 koku landholding. At the time, the Kodama family had two daughters, Hisako and then Nobuko, and since Kodama was the first male member of the family, his birth was greatly appreciated by the whole family. When Kodama was born, his father, Hankurō, was at the house of his friend Shimada Mitsune, a scholar of Chinese poetry, who lived across the street and was enjoying poetry with four or five other people. When a family member hurriedly arrived to announce the birth of a son, Hankurō was overjoyed and rushed straight home to raise a toast.^[1]

Kodama began his military career by fighting in the Boshin War for the Meiji Restoration against the forces of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868. He was appointed a non-commissioned officer on 2 June 1870, advanced to sergeant major on 10 December, and promoted to warrant officer on 15 April 1871. He was commissioned a second lieutenant on 6 August and promoted to lieutenant on 21 September. He was promoted to captain on 25 July 1872 and to major on 19 October 1874.

As a soldier in the fledgling Imperial Japanese Army, he saw combat during the suppression of the Satsuma Rebellion. He later enrolled in the Osaka Heigakuryo (大阪兵学寮) Military Training School).^[2] Successive and rapid promotions followed: lieutenant-colonel on 30 April 1880, colonel on 6 February 1883, and major-general on 24 August 1889.

Kodama was appointed head of the Army Staff College, where he worked with German Major Jakob Meckel to reorganize the modern Japanese military after the Prussian military.^[3]

Kodama went on to study military science as a military attaché to Germany. After his return to Japan, he was appointed Vice-minister of War in 1892.^[4]

After his service in the Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895), Kodama became Governor-General of Taiwan. During his tenure, he did much to improve on the infrastructure of Taiwan and to alleviate the living conditions of the inhabitants.^[5] He was promoted to lieutenant general on 14 October 1896. Having proved himself an excellent administrator, Kodama spent the following decade serving as Minister of the Army under Prime Minister Itō Hirobumi. Kodama retained the post and took on the concurrent roles of Minister of Home Affairs and Education under the following prime minister, Katsura Tarō.

On 6 June 1904, Kodama was promoted to full general. However, he was asked by Marshal Ōyama Iwao to be Chief of General Staff of the Manchurian Army during the Russo-Japanese War. That was a demotion for him in terms of rank, but he nevertheless chose to take the position; the sacrifice elicited much public applause. Throughout the Russo-Japanese War, he guided the strategy of the whole campaign, as General Kawakami Sōroku had done in the First Sino-Japanese War ten years earlier.^[4][6] The postwar historian Shiba Ryōtarō gives him complete credit for Japan's victory at the Siege of Port Arthur, but there is no historical evidence for that, and Kodama kept quiet about his role in the battle. After the war, he was named Chief of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff but died soon afterwards.

Kodama was raised in rapid succession to the ranks of danshaku (baron) and shishaku (viscount) under the kazoku peerage system, and his death in 1906 of a cerebral hemorrhage was regarded as a national calamity.^[4][2]

Following a petition by Kodama's son, Hideo, the Meiji Emperor elevated Hideo to the title of hakushaku (count). Kodama later received the ultimate honor of being raised to the ranks of Shinto kami. Shrines to his honor still exist at his hometown in Shūnan, Yamaguchi Prefecture, and on the site of his summer home on Enoshima, Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture.

With information from the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia

The actor Tetsurō Tamba portrayed Gentarō in the 1980 Japanese war drama film The Battle of Port Arthur (sometimes referred as 203 Kochi).^[7] Directed by Toshio Masuda the film depicted the Siege of Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War and starred Tamba as General Gentarō, Tatsuya Nakadai as General Nogi Maresuke and Toshirō Mifune as Emperor Meiji.