Itagaki entered the
Imperial Japanese Army Academy, where he befriended numerous notable Japanese military figures including
Yasuji Okamura,
Kenji Doihara, and
Tetsuzan Nagata. Itagaki graduated from the Army Academy in 1904 and fought in the
Russo–Japanese War. Itagaki married Kikuko Ogoshi, the daughter of his former mentor Kenkichi Ogoshi who died in the
Battle of Mukden. From 1924 to 1926, Itagaki was a
military attaché assigned to the Japanese embassy in
China. On his return to Japan, he held a number of staff positions within the
Imperial Japanese Army General Staff until 1927 before being given a field command as commanding officer of the IJA 33rd Infantry Brigade based in China. His brigade was attached to the
IJA 10th Division from 1927 to 1928. Itagaki was then transferred to command the IJA 33rd Infantry Regiment in China from 1928 to 1929, under the aegis of the prestigious
Kwantung Army. In 1931, Itagaki rose to become Chief of the Intelligence Section of the Kwantung Army, in which capacity he helped plan the
Mukden Incident that led to the Japanese seizure of
Manchuria. Itagaki was subsequently a military advisor to the Japanese
puppet state of
Manchukuo from 1932 to 1934. In 1934, Itagaki became Vice Chief of Staff of the Kwantung Army, and in 1936 was promoted to
Chief of Staff. From 1937 to 1938, Itagaki was commander of the
IJA 5th Division in China during the early stages of the
Second Sino–Japanese War, and his division took a leading part in the
Battle of Beiping–Tianjin,
Operation Chahar, and the
Battle of Taiyuan. However, in the
Battle of Xuzhou his forces were repulsed during the
Battle of Taierzhuang in the vicinity of
Linyi that prevented them from coming to the aid of
Rensuke Isogai's
IJA 10th Division. (right) and Navy minister
Mitsumasa Yonai (left, in black Navy uniform, standing on the rock) Itagaki was recalled to Japan in 1938, briefly serving as
War Minister from 1938 to 1939. On 6 December 1938, Itagaki proposed a national policy in accordance with
Hakko Ichiu (Expansion) at the Five Ministers Conference, which was the Japanese highest decision making council, and the council made a decision of prohibiting the expulsion of the
Jews in Japan,
Manchuria, and China as Japanese national policy. While Itagaki was commander of the Chosen Army, Japan began assembling its nuclear weapons program with the industrial site near the Chosen reservoir as its equivalent to the Oak Ridge laboratory for the United States'
Manhattan Project. As the war situation continued to deteriorate for Japan, the Chosen Army was elevated to the
Japanese Seventeenth Area Army in 1945, with Itagaki still as
commander in chief until 7 April 1945. Itagaki was then reassigned to the
Japanese Seventh Area Army in
Singapore and
Malaya in April 1945. Itagaki surrendered Japanese forces in
Southeast Asia to British Admiral
Louis Mountbatten in Singapore on 12 September 1945. ==Death==