to break the German lines after the French had been
bled white from the Verdun clashes. His refusal to listen
to his colleagues and to see the true picture of the war
on the field, led to the debacle of the Nivelle Offensive.
Twenty years after his death, Nivelle’s memoirs were
published; they were translated into English as And Yet
France Smiled.
References: Spears, Sir Edward Louis, Bart., Prelude to
Victory (London: Jonathan Cape, 1939); Bongard, David
L., “Nivelle, Robert Georges,” in The Encyclopedia of
Military Biography, edited by Trevor N. Dupuy, Curt
Johnson, and David L. Bongard (London: I. B. Taurus,
1992), 547–548; Caddick-Adams, Peter, “Nivelle Offen-
sive,” in The Oxford Companion to Military History, edited
by Richard Holmes (New York: Oxford University Press,
2001), 648–649; Bruce, George, “Aisne II” and “Ver-
dun,” in Collins Dictionary of Wars (Glasgow, Scotland:
HarperCollins, 1995), 7, 259.
Nogi, Maresuke, Kiten (Count Maresuke Nogi)
(1849–1912) Japanese general
Maresuke Nogi was born in Edo, now Tokyo, in Yama-
guchi prefecture, Japan, in 1849. From an early age he
was involved in the military, and in 1868 he sided with
the new emperor, Mutsuhito, in fighting the shogunate
of Tokugawa Yoshinobu. During the reign of Mutsuhito,
also known as Meiji (1852–1912; reigned 1867–1912),
the old Japanese feudal society was destroyed, and Japan
was transformed into a growing world military and eco-
nomic power. This conflicted with the ideas of those
who followed Tokugawa Yoshinobu, and this led to
the Boshin War, or the War of the Year of the Dragon
(1868–69). Nogi fought in the army under the com-
mand of Aritomi Yamagata (1838–1922), a samurai
who was fundamental in the restoration of the Meiji
emperor. The war ended with Yoshinobu’s surrender and
the defeat of his forces in September 1868.
Nogi also helped to put down the rebellion led
by the samurai Saigo Takamori in 1877, known as the
Seinan War. He then went abroad, studying military
science in Germany before he returned to Japan and
became a farmer. However, in 1894, with the outbreak
of the Sino-Japanese War (1894–95), he was recalled to
service and saw action in the battles of Song-hwan (1
September 1894) and Ping-yang (15 September 1894).
The conflict ended with China signing the humiliating
Treaty of Simonoseki (March 1895). Afterward, Nogi
was named as a general in the Japanese army, and he
served as governor-general of Taiwan from 1895 to
1898.
With the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese war
(1904–05), Nogi was named as one of the command-
ers of Japanese forces, in conjunction with Admiral
Heiachiro togo, and together they soundly defeated
Russian forces at Port Arthur (8 February 1904). How-
ever, a closer examination of the battle shows that Nogi’s
command of the Third Japanese Army was not as com-
petent as often described, and that nearly 60,000 Japa-
nese soldiers were killed in the assault on Port Arthur.
It was a last-minute intervention by General Kodama
Gentaro that saved Nogi’s force. Following the surren-
der of the Russian general Stoessel, Nogi sent a telegram
outlining the points of capitulation: “The plenipotentia-
ries of both parties concluded their negotiations today at
4:30 o’clock. The Russian Commissioners accepted on
the whole the conditions stipulated by us and consented
to capitulate. The document has been prepared and
signatures are now being affixed. Simultaneously with
the conclusion of negotiations both armies suspended
hostilities.... It is expected that the Japanese Army will
enter the City of Port Arthur tomorrow.”
Nogi’s two sons died during the Battle of Muk-
den (21 February 1905), now called Shenyang, China.
Created a kiten, or count, in 1907, Nogi was named as
the director of the Peers’ School in Japan, where, writes
biographer Mark Peattie, “he fostered a stern regimen
of patriotism, austerity, and manly virtue.” On 30 July
1912, Emperor Mutsuhito died, ending the Meiji era.
Nogi, consumed by grief over the emperor’s passing and
steadfast in his loyalty to Mutsuhito, decided to end his
life as an act of devotion and allegiance. This act, called
junshi (“to follow one’s lord into death”), had been illegal
in Japan since the late 18th century and was part of the
old customs the emperor had sought to end. Nonethe-
less, on 13 September 1912, Nogi and his wife com-
mitted jumonji giri, or ritual suicide by disemboweling
themselves with a ceremonial knife.
Although still remembered in Japan for his loyal
suicide, Maresuke Nogi has been forgotten by military
strategists, even though he took part in the first majornogi, mAReSuke, kiten