Lot n° 158.Bis
Estimation :
1200 - 1500
EUR
JAPON. Mineichi KOGA (1885-1944), amiral japonais, chef d'État-major de la marine impériale, il est nommé à la tête de la flotte combinée en 1943 à la mort de l'amiral Yamamoto ; il disparaît en mer l'année suivante.
Set of letters and postcards sent by Admiral Mineichi KOGA during the 1920s
Mineichi KOGA (1885-1944) was a Japanese admiral, head of the combined fleet of the Japanese Imperial Navy. In 1906 he entered the Imperial Naval Academy of Japan from which he graduated as an officer. He reached the rank of Lieutenant Commander in 1917, and in 1920 left for France where he stayed for 2 years. Most of the documents in this set relate to this period, where he studied French while staying with the Le Marchand family in the Tours area. He exchanged many letters with his host family during his travels in Europe, and then continued to write to them from Japan. These letters offer a testimony of Mr. Koga's daily life, including a letter sent following the great earthquake of 1923, as well as photos of his wife and children taken in a studio in Japan.
Promoted to Captain (Navy) in 1926, he was appointed Naval Attaché to the Japanese Embassy in Paris in 1927. Recalled back to Japan in 1930, his career took off: he commanded the heavy cruiser Aoba and then the battleship Ise. At the head of the intelligence bureau of the naval staff, Koga played an important role in the rearmament of Japan during the 1930s. In 1936 he was appointed Vice-Admiral and then Chief of Staff of the Imperial Navy in 1937. In 1941, he was given command of the fleet in the Chinese theatre of operations. He took part in the Japanese campaign in Asia, particularly in the conquest of Hong Kong. He came to the forefront after the death of Admiral Yamamoto, when he was appointed head of the Combined Fleet in 1943, and developed a strategy aboard the battleship Musashi. He disappeared in 1944 aboard a seaplane.
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