Prince Yasuhiko Asaka

Yasuhiko Asaka
Prince Asaka
Reign10 March 1906 – 14 October 1947
Head of Asaka-no-miya
Reign10 March 1906 – 13 April 1981
Born(1887-10-20)20 October 1887
Kyoto, Japan
Died12 April 1981(1981-04-12) (aged 93)
Atami, Shizuoka, Japan
Spouse
(m. 1909; died 1933)
Issue
  • Kikuko Asaka
  • Takahiko Asaka
  • Tadahito Asaka
  • Kiyoko Asaka
FatherAsahiko, Prince Kuni
MotherSugako Tsunoda
ReligionCatholicism
Military career
Allegiance Empire of Japan
Service / branch Imperial Japanese Army
Years of service1908–1945
RankGeneral
CommandsImperial Guard
Shanghai Expeditionary Army
Battles / warsFirst World War
Second Sino-Japanese War
Second World War
AwardsGrand Cordon of the Order of the Chrysanthemum
Order of the Rising Sun, 1st Class
Order of the Golden Kite, 1st Class

Prince Yasuhiko Asaka (朝香宮鳩彦王, Asaka-no-miya Yasuhiko-ō, 20 October 1887 – 12 April 1981) was the founder of a collateral branch of the Japanese Imperial Family and a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during the Japanese invasion of China and the Second World War. He was the son-in-law of Emperor Meiji and uncle by marriage of Emperor Hirohito. As the commander of Japanese forces outside Nanjing in December 1937, Asaka presided over the mass murder of hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians in what came to be known as the Nanjing Massacre.

After Japan's defeat in World War II, General Douglas MacArthur granted immunity to the country's Imperial Family. As a result, Asaka was never tried for his involvement in the Nanjing Massacre by SCAP authorities. Nonetheless, by 1947, he and his children were stripped of their imperial status. He later converted to Catholicism and died of natural causes at the age of 93.