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Tsuneyoshi Takeda
Prince Takeda
In office 23 April 1919 – 14 October 1947
Head ofTakeda-no-miya
In office 23 April 1919 – 11 May 1992
Personal details
Born	(1909-03-04)4 March 1909 Tokyo,Japan
Died	11 May 1992(1992-05-11) (aged 83)
Spouse	Mitsuko Sanjo
Children	Tsunetada Takeda Motoko Takeda Noriko Takeda Tsuneharu Takeda Tsunekazu Takeda
Parents	Tsunehisa, Prince Takeda (father) Masako, Princess Tsune (mother)
Military career
Allegiance	Japan
Service/ branch	Imperial Japanese Army
Years of service	1930–1945
Rank	Lieutenant-Colonel
Unit	Unit 731 Southern Expeditionary Army Group Kwantung Army
Battles / wars	Second Sino-Japanese War Second World War

Prince Tsuneyoshi Takeda (竹田宮恒徳王,Takeda-no-miya Tsuneyoshi-ō, 4 March 1909 – 11 May 1992) was the second and last heir of theTakeda-no-miyacollateral branch of theJapanese Imperial Family.

Prince Takeda Tsuneyoshi was the only son ofPrince Takeda Tsunehisa andMasako, Princess Tsune (1888–1940), the sixth daughter ofEmperor Meiji. He was, therefore, a first cousin ofEmperor Shōwa.

Prince Tsuneyoshi became the second head of theTakeda-no-miya house on 23 April 1919. After being educated at theGakushūin Peers' School, and serving for a session in theHouse of Peers, he graduated from the 32nd class of theImperial Japanese Army Academy in July 1930, and received a commission as a sub-lieutenant in thecavalry.

On 12 May 1934, Prince Takeda married Sanjo Mitsuko.^[1] She was the youngest daughter of PrinceSanjo Kimiteru, with whom he had five children (3 sons and 2 daughters):

1. Prince Tsunetada Takeda (恒正王), born on (1940-10-11)11 October 1940 (age 84)^[1]
2. Princess Motoko Takeda (素子女王), (b. 1942)
3. Princess Noriko Takeda (紀子女王), (b. 1943)
4. PrinceTsuneharu Takeda (恒治王) (b. 1944) Japanese ambassador toBulgaria^[2]
5. Tsunekazu Takeda (竹田恒和), (b. 1947)

The Prince served a brief tour with a cavalry regiment inManchuria, and rose to the rank oflieutenant in August 1930 and captain in August 1936. He then graduated from the 50th class of theArmy War College in 1938 as the build-up toWorld War II was beginning. He was promoted to the rank ofmajor in August 1940, and attached to theImperial Japanese Army General Staff inTokyo, where he headed the Personnel Department. He becamelieutenant colonel in August 1943. AuthorSterling Seagrave contends that between 1940 and 1945 Prince Takeda oversaw the looting of gold and other precious items in China, Hong Kong,Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Burma, Malaya, Singapore, Sumatra, Java, Borneo and the Philippines.^[3] Seagrave says that most of this loot was stored in 175 vaults located in the Philippines, and that considerable amounts have since been recovered by former Philippine PresidentFerdinand Marcos and others.

Prince Takeda held executive responsibilities overUnit 731 in his role as chief financial officer of theKwantung Army. Unit 731 conducted biological weapons research on human subjects with a variety of bacterial cultures and viruses duringWorld War II. According to Daniel Barenblatt, Takeda received, withPrince Mikasa, a special screening byShirō Ishii of a film showing imperial planes loading germ bombs forbubonic plague dissemination over the Chinese city ofNingbo in 1940.^[4]

Moreover, historian Hal Gold has alleged in his work "Unit 731 Testimony" that Prince Takeda had a more active role as "Lieutenant Colonel Miyata" – an officer in the Strategic Section of the Operations Division. Gold reports the testimony of a veteran of the Youth Corps of this unit, who testified in July 1994 inMorioka during a traveling exhibition on Shirō Ishii's experiments, that Takeda watched while outsidepoison gas tests were made on thirty prisoners nearAnda. After the war, a staff photographer also recalled the day the Prince visited Unit 731's facility atPingfang,Manchukuo and had his picture taken at the gates.^[5]

Prince Takeda briefly served as the emperor's personal liaison to theSaigon headquarters ofField MarshalTerauchi Hisaichi, commander of theSouthern Expeditionary Army Group. During that assignment, he observed first-hand the desperate conditions of the Japanese forces atRabaul,Guadalcanal, and inLuzon. After his return, he was then assigned to the Kwantung Army headquarters. After Emperor Shōwa'sradio address announcing thesurrender of Japan on 15 August 1945, he went toShinkyo inManchukuo to ensure the Kwantung Army's compliance with the surrender orders.^{[citation needed]}

With the abolition of the collateral branches of the imperial family by theAmerican occupation authorities on 14 October 1947, Prince Tsuneyoshi and his family became commoners. Initially, he retired to his estate inChiba Prefecture to raiseracehorses, thus escaping the financial hardship many of his cousins experienced during theAmerican occupation of Japan.

Takeda turned his attention to promoting and developing amateur and professional sports. As a participant inequestrian events as part of Japan's delegation to the1936 Summer Olympics inBerlin, he already had a reputation as the "sports prince". He became president of theJapan Skating Association in 1948 and a member of the north TokyoRotary Club. He became president of theJapanese Olympic Committee in 1962 and was an important figure at the Organizing Committees of the1964 Summer Olympics inTokyo and the1972 Winter Olympics inSapporo. He was also a member of theInternational Olympic Committee from 1967 to 1981, during which he was director of its executive board for five years.

In 1987, the former Prince published a volume of autobiographical essays entitled "Kumo no ue shita: Omoide-banashi" (Above and Below the Clouds: Remembrances).

The former prince died ofheart failure on 12 May 1992, at the age of 83.The current heir to the Takeda-no-miya family is Prince Tsuneyoshi's eldest son, Tsunetada Takeda (b. 1940), a graduate of the Gakushuin andKeio University, with a degree in economics, and formerly employed byMitsubishi Shoji. He married Kyoko Nezu, the third daughter ofNezu Kaichirō, former chairman ofTobu Railways, and has a son, Tsunetaka Takeda (b. 1967), and daughter, Hiroko Takeda (b. 1971).

The former Takeda palace and a portion of its gardens in Tokyo survives as a part of theGrand Prince Hotel Takanawa, and is open to the public.

^[6][7]

• Dower, John W.Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II. W. W. Norton & Company (2000).ISBN 0-393-32027-8
• Gold, Hal,Unit 731 Testimony, Tuttle, 2003.ISBN 0-8048-3565-9
• Harries, Meirion.Soldiers of the Sun: The Rise and Fall of the Imperial Japanese Army. Random House; Reprint edition (1994).ISBN 0-679-75303-6
• Nihon Gaiji Kyōkai. (1943).The Japan Year Book. Tokyo: Foreign Affairs Association of Japan.OCLC 1782308
• Williams, Peter and Wallace, David.Unit 731. The Japanese Army’s Secret of Secrets. New York: Free Press, 1991.ISBN 0-340-39463-3

• 1909 births
• 1992 deaths
• Japanese princes
• Imperial Japanese Army personnel of World War II
• Takeda-no-miya
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• Olympic equestrians for Japan
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• Japanese human subject research
• Japanese war criminals
• Equestrians at the 1936 Summer Olympics
• Members of the House of Peers (Japan)
• Recipients of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers
• 20th-century Japanese sportsmen

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