Background
Gombei Yamamoto was born on 26 November 1852 in domain of Satsuma in Kyushu.
Gombei Yamamoto was born on 26 November 1852 in domain of Satsuma in Kyushu.
He served in the forces loyal to the throne at the time of the Boshin civil war in 1868, taking part in the actions at Toba and Fushimi and later in northern Honshu and Hakodate. In 1870 he was assigned to the Naval Training Station and later to the Naval Training Barracks. On graduating from the course of instruction, in 1874 he became a candidate for the rank of ensign. In 1877, in order to study navigation and logging, he was assigned to German warships. After his return to Japan in 1878, his career as a navy man began in earnest. He was appointed to the position of the commander of the Takachiho and in 1891 became chief secretary of the Naval Ministry.
With the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1894, he was made adjutant to the naval minister at Imperial Headquarters. The following year he advanced to the rank of rear admiral and, in his capacity as chief of the Bureau of Naval Affairs, member of the council of generals and admirals, and staff officer of Imperial Headquarters, exercised virtual control over the navy’s role in the war, displaying great talent in the task of leadership. In 1898 he advanced to the rank of vice-admiral and was appointed naval minister in the second Yamagata Aritomo cabinet. From that time until 1906, when he became a military councilor of state, he continued to serve as naval minister in succeeding cabinets. Prior to the Russo-Japanese War, he joined with Terauchi Masakata in drawing up the articles for the Anglo-Japanese Military alliance of 1902. With regard to the sending of Japanese troops to Korea, he opposed Yamagata Aritomo and others like him who favored military intervention, but at the same time he appointed Togo Heihachiro as commander-in-chief of the standing fleet and took other steps on his own to make certain that Japan would be prepared in the event of an outbreak of hostilities with Russia.
In 1913, when the first movement to preserve the constitution brought about the fall of the Katsura Taro cabinet, Yamamoto formed his own cabinet in cooperation with the Rikken Seiyukai. He established the prin-ciple that the posts of minister of war and minister of the navy should be held by officers on active duty, carried out changes in the civil service appointment system, took steps to improve the financial administration of the government, and introduced other political reforms. But because of the Siemens affair, in which a German company named Siemens was found to have given bribes to affect the assignment of naval contracts, and because of the failure to arrive at a budget due to cuts in naval expenditures, Yamamoto and his cabinet were obliged to resign in 1914. Yamamoto at the same time retired from military service.
In 1923, Yamamoto became prime minister once more and formed a second cabinet, appointing Inukai Tsuyoki, a member of the Kakushin Kurabu, as minister of communications and minister of education. The first major task that confronted the new' cabinet was that of guiding the country through the aftermath of the Great Kanto Earthquake of September 1. Yamamoto declared a state of marshal law throughout the Tokyo area and issued orders designed to maintain order and security. But rumors of riots and uprisings bred by the social unrest soon spread, resulting in a reign of terror in which Koreans and persons of socialist or anarchist beliefs were massacred, while the government stood by in silence. In order to alleviate the economic situation, Yamamoto put through a moratory law and worked to rebuild Tokyo. But in December of 1923, an anarchist made an attempt on the life of the crown prince, who at this time was acting as regent, at Torano- mon in Tokyo.
The following year, the Yamamoto cabinet, accepting responsibility for the incident, resigned en masse. Yamamoto is remembered chiefly for his achievements in building up the Japanese navy and also showed remarkable ability in selecting and advancing men of talent.
