Background
Akashi Motojiro was born on September 1, 1864 in Fukuoka, Chikuzen Province, Japan.
Akashi Motojiro was born on September 1, 1864 in Fukuoka, Chikuzen Province, Japan.
In 1889 graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy.
A graduate of the 1889 class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy, Akashi was nominally under the Imperial Guard Division attached to the staff of General Kawakami Sōroku during the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). His primary duty was information gathering. In that capacity he traveled extensively around the Liaodong Peninsula and northern China, Taiwan, and Annam. Toward the end of the war, he was promoted to major.
During the Spanish–American War, he was dispatched as a military observer to the Philippines. During the Boxer Rebellion, he was stationed in Tianjin, northern China. Around this time, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel.
Under Governor-General MasatakeTerauchi,he was Commander-in-Chief of the Gendarmerie, then Chief of Staff of the Japanese Forces in Korea and Chief of the Police Affairs Department of the Government-General in Korea.
In 1918, Akashi was promoted to general and appointed by Prime Minister Terauchi as the Governor-General of Taiwan. He also received the title of danshaku (baron) under the kazoku peerage system. During his brief tenure, Akashi devoted significant efforts to improving the infrastructure and economy of Taiwan, and is especially remembered for his electrification projects and the creation of the Taiwan Power Company, and for planning the Sun Moon Lake hydroelectric power plant.
During the Russo-Japanese War (1904-5), he directed Japan's psychological war efforts. When he was on his way to Formosa to take up the post of Gevernor-General of the island, he was taken ill and died in Fukuoka. He rose to the rank of full general and was created baron. Was known for his, poems and paintings.
The flamboyant exploits (both real and imagined) of "Colonel Akashi" have been the subject of countless novels, manga, movies and documentary programs in Japan, where he has been dubbed the "Japanese James Bond".