Tanaka Giichi Baron , GBE , KCMG , was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army , politician , and the 26th Prime Minister of Japan from 20 April 1927 to 2 July 1929 . Early life and military career . Tanaka was born to a " samurai " family in Hagi , Nagato Province ( modern day Yamaguchi Prefecture ) , Japan . He graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy and the 8th class of the Army War College in 1892 , and served in the First Sino - Japanese War . After the end of the war , he was sent as a military attaché to Moscow and Petrograd , and was in Russia at the same time as Takeo Hirose of the Imperial Japanese Navy , with whom he became close friends . Tanaka was fluent in the Russian language , which he learned while attending mass every Sunday at a Russian Orthodox church , which enabled him to practice his Russian at church social events , although it is uncertain if he ever actually converted to Christianity . Later in the Russo - Japanese War , he served as aide to General Kodama Gentarō in Manchuria . In 1906 , Tanaka helped draft a defense plan which was so highly regarded by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff and General Yamagata Aritomo that it was adopted by as basic policy until World War I . He was also awarded the Order of the Golden Kite ( 3rd class ) in April 1906 . In 1911 , Tanaka was promoted to major general , and was made director of the Military Affairs Bureau at the Army Ministry , where he recommended an increase in the strength of the standing army by two additional infantry divisions . He was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure ( 1st class ) in September 1918 . Promoted to full general in 1920 , he served as War Minister under Prime Ministers Hara Takashi ( 1918 – 21 ) and the 2nd Yamamoto administrations ( 1923 – 24 ) , during which time he backed the Siberian Intervention . He was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun ( 1st class ) in September 1920 . After retiring from the army , he was invited to accept the post of party president of the " Rikken Seiyukai " political party in 1925 , and was made a member of the House of Peers . He was later elevated to the title of " danshaku " ( Baron ) under the " kazoku " peerage system . Tanaka had been scheduled to be promoted to the rank of Field Marshal at the time of his retirement . However , when news reached the ears of the Army Ministry of a 3 million Yen bonus that Tanaka received on agreeing to join the " Rikken Seiyukai " , the promotion was denied . As Prime Minister . Tanaka became Prime Minister of Japan on 20 April 1927 , during the Shōwa financial crisis , serving simultaneously as the Foreign Affairs Minister . He later added the posts of Home Minister ( 4 May 1928 to 23 May 1928 ) , and Colonial Affairs Minister ( 10 June 1929 to 2 July 1929 ) to his portfolio . On the domestic front , Tanaka attempted to suppress leftists , Communists and suspected Communist sympathizers through widespread arrests ( the 15 March incident of 1928 , and the 19 April incident of 1929 ) . In foreign affairs , he continued the aggressive interventionist policies he began as a military officer in China , Manchuria and Mongolia . On three separate occasions in 1927 – 1928 he sent troops to intervene militarily in China to block Chang Kai - shek ’ s Northern Expedition to unify China under Guomindang rule , in what became known as the Jinan Incident . Tanaka came into office even as forces were already beginning to converge that would draw Japan into World War II . In 1928 , however , the machinations of the ultranationalist secret societies and the Kwantung Army resulted in a crisis : the assassination of the Manchurian warlord Zhang Zuolin and the failed attempt to seize Manchuria . Tanaka himself was taken by surprise by the assassination plot , and argued that the officers responsible should be publicly court - martial ed for homicide . The military establishment , from which Tanaka was by now estranged , insisted on covering up the facts of the incident , which remained an official secret . Bereft of support , and under mounting criticism in Diet and even from Emperor Hirohito himself , Tanaka and his cabinet resigned en masse on 2 July 1929 . Tanaka was succeeded by Hamaguchi Osachi , and died a few months later after his resignation . He was awarded the Order of the Paulownia Flowers on his death . His grave is at the Tama Cemetery in Fuchū , Tokyo . The Tanaka Memorial . In 1929 , China accused Tanaka of having authored the " Tanaka Memorial Imperialist Conquest Plan " , which advocated the conquest of Manchuria , Mongolia , and eventually the whole of China . He was alleged to have presented the plan to the Emperor in 1927 . The plan was presented as fact in the wartime propaganda movies " Why We Fight " , which also claimed that plan envisaged the conquest of America after East Asia . In a memoir published in the mid - 1950s , a Japanese - born Taiwanese businessman Tsai Chih - Kan , claimed that he had personally copied the " Plan " from the Imperial Library on the night of 20 June 1928 , in a covert action assisted by several of Japan ' s leading pre - war politicians and officers who were opposed to Tanaka . Per this account , many Chinese history textbooks consider the document as authentic . Today , most Japanese and western historians regard the document as a forgery . Awards and Decorations . " From the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia "