Background
Kamio was the younger son of Kamio Heizaburō, a samurai retainer of the Suwa clan in Shinano province (present-day Nagano prefecture). Kamio Mitsuomi was born on February 27, 1856 Shinano Province.
Kamio was the younger son of Kamio Heizaburō, a samurai retainer of the Suwa clan in Shinano province (present-day Nagano prefecture). Kamio Mitsuomi was born on February 27, 1856 Shinano Province.
He graduated from military academy in 1874, and served as a sergeant in the Imperial infantry during the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877.
His career over the next twenty years brought a rotation between staff and line positions, including command of first a company, then in 1897 a regiment. In 1888, while assigned to the army General Staff, Kamio along with a coterie of other rising young officers was exposed to the ideas of Major Jacob Meckel. On leave from the Prussian army, Meckel was serving as an instructor and adviser to the Japanese forces. He immersed his students in the need for methodical logistical preparation for battle; then he demanded aggressive offensive tactics using the natural cover offered by the terrain of the battlefield. Meckel taught that the Japanese army must look to future operations on the Asian continent. Kamio proved an apt pupil.
Kamio's career was marked by extensive tours in China: in 1882-1886 as a lieutenant; in 1892-1896 as a field grade officer, including duty as a military attaché; then as a staff officer during the Sino-Japanese War. He visited Europe in 1899, advanced to the rank of major general in 1902, and went on to serve in the Russo-Japanese War. By 1914 he had commanded the Eighteenth Division for two years. On August 16 he received orders to move his forces from Japan to the Chinese mainland.
Kamio conducted a model campaign against Germany's prize possession in the Far East, the leased territory of Kiaochow and its important port of Tsingtao. At the start of September, his two brigades landed at Lungkow in northern Shantung province, then moved southward to bottle up the entire German leasehold and its garrison of 4,000 men. Storms and floods impeded the Japanese land and naval forces more than did German opposition. To these difficulties was added the need to integrate a token British contingent, a reinforced battalion of the South Wales Borderers, into the expedition. Kamio had the historic distinction of commanding regular European troops the first Asian military leader in modem times to do so.
By late September the Germans had been pushed back into the city of Tsingtao. Kamio assembled an overwhelming superiority in heavy artillery during a methodical siege that lasted throughout October. The need to divert troops for an advance into western Shantung as the Japanese government used the war to cover its larger goal of expanded influence in northern China slowed Kamio down. So too did unseasonable rains that swept away Japanese landing facilities and turned the field of operations into a sea of mud. Artillery barrages and naval gunfire smashed the city's defenses in early November. The novel tool of aerial reconnaissance was only one of the remarkable features of the campaign; it served to map out and then to coordinate the work of the heavy guns. A final night assault carried the city's defenses. It surrendered on November 7.
With a force of over 30,000 men, the Japanese High Command was certain of victory from the start. But Kamio brought notable elements to the campaign. His stress on limiting Japanese casualties through a series of short advances preceded by devastating artillery fire is strongly reminiscent of his contemporary in the French army, General Henri-Philippe Pétain. His knowledge of German military practice proved valuable. German regulations stressed the likelihood of enemy attacks at dawn. Kamio's climactic assault was accordingly carried out at night.
The victorious general commanded the Tsingtao garrison and became the first Japanese governor general of Kiaochow. In 1915 he took command of the Tokyo garrison. Additional rewards came in the following year: elevation to the nobility and advancement to the rank of general. Kamio retired from the army in 1925 and died two years later.