Tetsuzan Nagata

Tetsuzan Nagata (1885-1935) was a Imperial Japanese Army officer, influential in the development of military-dominated politics before World War II. In 1921, while military attache, he was one of the Three Crows, or the core of the military modernization movement, attaches who met in Germany.

Born to a doctor who was able to recommend him for the Military Academy, he was second in his class, and graduated from the Staff College with highest honors in 1911. In 1920, he was given open-ended leave "to travel in Europe." Hideki Tojo was his protege and friend.

In 1926, he became the first Mobilization Chief of the Development Bureau of the War Ministry in 1926. After holding posts such as Chief of the Army Affairs Section of the Military Affairs Bureau and Chief of the Second Department of the General Staff Office, he became the Director of the Military Affairs Bureau in 1934.

When he took the powerful Military Affairs Bureau, he had become the central figure of the Toseiha (Control faction). Lieutenant Colonel Saburo Aizawa of the Kodoha (Imperial Way faction) assassinated him in 1935.