World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbasePrince Nagahisa was born to Prince Naruhisa, head of the Kitashirakawa branch of the Japanese Imperial family, and Fusako, the Princess Kane. In 1923, when his father passed away in France in 1923, he became the head of Kitashirakawa. In 1931, he graduated from the Japanese Army Academy and became a junior artillery officer. In 1935, he married Sachiko Tokugawa, the daughter of Baron Yoshikuni Tokugawa; they would have one son and one daughter. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in 1936. Upon graduating from the Army Staff College in 1939, he was promoted to the rank of captain; later in the same year, he was assigned to Japanese Army's North China Area Army. Prince Nagahisa of Kitashirakawa died in an airplane crash in Sep 1940 at Zhangjiakou in Japanese puppet state of Mengjiang in northern China, becoming the first member of the Japanese Imperial family to be killed in WW2. He was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Chrysanthemum posthumously along with a promotion to the rank of major.

Nagahisa Interactive Map

Nagahisa Timeline

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