Shozo Yokogawa

Japanese: 横川省三 - よこがわ・しょうぞう

Year of death: April 21, 1904 (Meiji 37)
Year of birth: 4/4/1865 (4/28/1865)
A Meiji-era newspaper reporter and special mission officer during the Russo-Japanese War. The third son of Mitamura Katsue, a samurai of Morioka Domain. Adopted by the Yokokawa family. A devout Christian. In 1884, he went to Tokyo and entered the Yuichikan, but was imprisoned for two years for harboring people involved in the Kabasan Incident. After being released from prison, he participated in the Freedom and People's Rights Movement to petition the Three Major Incidents. In 1890, he became a reporter for the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun, and wrote articles such as "A Record of the Short Boat Expedition," in which he accompanied Captain Gunji Shigetada on his expedition to the Kuril Islands. He left the newspaper in 1904. In 1909, he accompanied envoy Uchida Yasuya to China. When diplomatic relations between Japan and Russia were severed in 1912, he volunteered for a special mission and attempted to blow up a railway bridge near Flargi Station on the Chinese Eastern Railway with Oki Teisuke and others, but was discovered and captured by Russian troops, and was shot to death along with Oki on the outskirts of Harbin. After the war, he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, 5th Class, and in 1915, he was enshrined at Yasukuni Shrine. <References> Tatsuzo Idogawa, "The Story of the Patriots Who Martyred in the Russo-Japanese War," Hiroshi Hamamoto, "Passionate People: Shozo Yokokawa" (Shincho, no. 580)

(Masaya Kishimoto)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：明治37.4.21(1904)
生年：慶応1.4.4(1865.4.28)
明治時代の新聞記者,日露戦争時の特殊任務従事者。盛岡藩士三田村勝衛の3男。横川家の養子となる。熱心なキリスト教徒。明治17(1884)年上京して有一館に入門したが加波山事件関係者をかくまい2年間入牢。出獄後,自由民権派の三大事件建白運動に参加。23年『東京朝日新聞』の記者となり,郡司成忠大尉の千島探検に同行した「短艇遠征記」などの記事を書いた。29年退社。34年内田康哉公使に従って中国に渡った。37年日露の国交が断絶すると特別任務班に志願,沖禎介らと東清鉄道フラルギー駅付近の鉄橋爆破を企図したがロシア軍に発見されて捕らえられ,ハルビン郊外で沖と共に銃殺された。戦後勲5等を授けられ,40年靖国神社に合祀された。<参考文献>井戸川辰三『日露戦役殉国志士事蹟』,浜本浩「情熱の人々・横川省三」(『新潮』580号)

(岸本昌也)

出典　朝日日本歴史人物事典：（株）朝日新聞出版朝日日本歴史人物事典について　情報

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