Kazuo Kikuchi
Kazuo Kikuchi | |
|---|---|
 Kikuchi during a visit to Teisui Cafe, 1976 | |
| Born | 12 February, 1920 Takena, Dayashina |
| Died | 25 August, 2006 Nakazara, Dayashina |
| Allegiance |  Imperial Dayashina |
| Service/ | Imperial Dayashinese Army |
| Years of service | 1939-1946 |
| Rank | Rikugun-Tai-i |
| Unit | 3rd Mountaineer Regiment |
| Battles/wars | Pan-Septentrion War {Khalistan campaign) |
| Awards | Order of the Sacred Treasure, 1st Class |
| Other work | Inazuma Group Founder and CEO Hasunohana Foundation Founder |
Kazuo Kikuchi was a Dayashinese businessman and political activist who is best known for his role in the development and expansion of nationalist and anti-communist sentiment in Dayashina and Hanhae. He served in the Imperial Dayashinese Army, specifically in the Dayashinese Imperial Special Operations Group, within the period of 1939 and 1946, where he reached the rank of Rikugun-Tai-i (Captain) and experienced years of combat in the War in Khalistan. Returing to Dayashina following the end of the war, he completed his tertiary education in philosophy and business at Shizuna University, where he came to develop his nationalist and anti-communist political views. Using his service history and connections with participants in the Hanhae War, Kikuchi was a ;eading figure in gathering support to form the East Hemithean Volunteers in the North Abyaalan War, which saw thousands of former Dayashinese and Hanhaean servicemembers departing to the Federated Fire Territories to assist them in their war against communist forces in Leoterra. From these volunteers, Kikuchi jointly founded the Inazuma Group, a private military company which would go on to become the largest of its kind in both Dayashina and Hanhae. In his later years, Kikuchi started and directed the Hasunohana Foundation, a venture capital establishment with a dedicated mission to providing sustained investment and capital to small businesses in underpriveleged or financially unstable rural and suburban Dayashinese communities.
Early life and military academy
Kazuo Kikuchi was born into an upper-class family of industrial magnates in Takena, Dayashina on 12 February, 1920. He completed his primary and secondary education in a prestigious independent school in Anglia and Lechernt as a legacy student, attending the same school that his father did in years past. In his time between Dayashina and Anglia, Kazuo picked up an interest in long-distance running and spent much of his free time doing this. Dayashina had declared war on Anglia in 1937 over the Divine Island Chain, but Kikuchi was able to remain in Anglia to complete his secondary education. When he reached the age of 18 in 1938, his parents demanded he remain in Anglia until the conflict passed, which by their estimation, would be quickly. Simultaneously, Kikuchi was in contact with Dayashinese authorities who were recommending that he return to Dayashina to enlist as an officer, with associates of Yutaka Ueda placing him on a list of high-interest recruits. At the dismay and horror of his parents, Kazuo was eventually convinced to return to Dayashina and joined the Takena Region Military Academy, where he would receive training as an officer and eventually be given his first command.
Military career
Early Khalistan offensives
Kikuchi had quickly risen the ranks to Rikugun-Tai-i (Captain) in 1939, being given command of a company by the time of his deployment to Khalistan in 1939. Here, Kikuchi distinguished himself in command during Yutaka Ueda's offensive campaign in Khalistan, especially during the Siege of Lahore, where his company repeatedly undertook high-intensity infiltrations inside the layered defenses of the city, successfully relaying precise locations of large hidden troop formations for Menghean and Dayashinese artillery and aircraft and drawing troops away from chokepoints to allow for more threatening overall posture. This, and a few noteworthy exploits by infantry under his command, would earn him recognition by Ueda, and subsequently would make his unit among the first ever selected to form the Dayashinese Imperial Special Operations Group, an irregular warfare detachment formed by Ueda with the intention of addressing and combating increasing raids by Anglian commandos in Khalistan.
The Mountain War
After official selection, the unit would be placed under the 3rd Mountaineer Regiment, which incorporated distinguished infantry units alongside trained Khalistani trackers and hunters. They deployed into the mountains of Khalistan in 1940 with the objective of locating Anglian commando units to force combat with them and interrupt raiding, and furthermore conduct raids of their own on enemy supply chains and logistics.