Rennosuke Isogai (1886-1967) was a lieutenant general of the Imperial Japanese Army, born in Hyogo Prefecture on 3 September 1886 and a graduate of the Army Academy and the Army War College; he served long spells in China as an intelligence and staff officer and was regarded as one of the army's four leading China hands. He held senior command posts in the 1930s, took command of the 10th Division in 1937, and in 1938 fought at Taierzhuang and in the Battle of Xuzhou before becoming chief of staff of the Kwantung Army; the 10th Division's failure at Taierzhuang, where it suffered more than ten thousand casualties, marked a turning point in his career. After Japan seized Hong Kong on 25 December 1941 the colony was first run by a military administration under Takashi Sakai; on 20 February 1942 a Governor's Office was set up and Isogai, then a lieutenant general on the reserve list, became the first Governor of occupied Hong Kong, with its headquarters in the HSBC building in Central, controlling civil, financial and police affairs under the direct authority of imperial headquarters in Tokyo. His rule was military government in the fullest sense: military scrip replaced the Hong Kong dollar, rice was rationed, goods and expression were controlled, Japanese-language education and renaming were imposed, and a repatriation policy deported large numbers of residents, cutting the population from about 1.6 million before the war to roughly 600,000 afterwards. He also had the statue of Queen Victoria in Statue Square removed and shipped to Japan. Under his administration prices soared, food was scarce and daily life was hard, with many residents deported or forced into the mainland. As the war turned against Japan he was transferred to Taiwan on 24 December 1944, Hisakazu Tanaka succeeding him. After the war the Nanjing military tribunal tried him as a war criminal, sentenced him to life imprisonment on 22 July 1947, moved him to Sugamo Prison in February 1949 and released him on parole in August 1952; he died on 6 June 1967.
Isogai's three-year rule cut Hong Kong's population from about 1.6 million to roughly 600,000, one of the sharpest demographic collapses in the city's history; military scrip, rationing and repatriation reshaped its economy and society long into the post-war rebuild.
Achievements
- 1938 · Led the Japanese 10th Division in the Battle of Xuzhou, including the fighting at Taierzhuang.
- 1942 · Became the first Governor of occupied Hong Kong on 20 February, imposing military scrip, rationing and repatriation.
- 1947 · Sentenced to life imprisonment by the Nanjing military tribunal, moved to Sugamo Prison in 1949 and paroled in 1952.