Prince Tsuneyoshi Takeda

Author Sterling 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.According to Daniel Barenblatt, Takeda received, with Prince Mikasa, a special screening by Shirō Ishii of a film showing imperial planes loading germ bombs for bubonic plague dissemination over the Chinese city of Ningbo 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 in Morioka during a traveling exhibition on Shirō Ishii's experiments, that Takeda watched while outside poison gas tests were made on thirty prisoners near Anda.[5] Prince Takeda briefly served as the emperor's personal liaison to the Saigon headquarters of Field Marshal Terauchi Hisaichi, commander of the Southern Expeditionary Army Group.
Takeda with his wife, Princess Mitsuko, and their two eldest children in 1942
Japanese namesurnamePrince TakedaTakeda-no-miyaTsuneharu TakedaTsunekazu TakedaTsunehisa, Prince TakedaMasako, Princess TsuneImperial Japanese ArmyLieutenant-ColonelUnit 731Southern Expeditionary Army GroupKwantung ArmySecond Sino-Japanese WarSecond World Warcollateral branchJapanese Imperial FamilyPrince Takeda TsunehisaEmperor MeijiEmperor ShōwaGakushūinHouse of PeersImperial Japanese Army AcademycavalryBulgariaManchurialieutenantArmy War CollegeWorld War IIImperial Japanese Army General Stafflieutenant colonelSterling SeagraveVietnamFerdinand MarcosPrince MikasaShirō Ishiibubonic plagueNingboMoriokapoison gasPingfangManchukuoSaigonField MarshalTerauchi HisaichiRabaulGuadalcanalradio addresssurrender of JapanShinkyoAmerican occupation authoritiesChiba PrefectureracehorsesAmerican occupation of Japanequestrian1936 Summer OlympicsBerlinRotary ClubJapanese Olympic Committee1964 Summer Olympics1972 Winter OlympicsSapporoInternational Olympic Committeeheart failureKeio UniversityMitsubishi ShojiNezu KaichirōTobu RailwaysGrand Prince Hotel TakanawaPrince Fushimi KuniiePrince Kitashirakawa YoshihisaEmperor NinkōEmperor KōmeiNakayama TadayasuNakayama YoshikoPrincess Masako TakedaJuichi TsushimaHanji Aoki