Minister of the Army under Prime Minister Itō Hirobumi. Kodama retained the post and took on the concurrent roles of Minister of Home Affairs and Education under the following prime minister, Katsura Tarō. On 6 June 1904, Kodama was promoted to full general. However, he was asked by Marshal Ōyama Iwao to be Chief of General Staff of the Manchurian Army during the Russo-Japanese War. That was a demotion for him in terms of rank, but he nevertheless chose to take the position; the sacrifice elicited much public applause. Throughout the Russo-Japanese War, he guided the strategy of the whole campaign, as General Kawakami Sōroku had done in the First Sino-Japanese War ten years earlier. The postwar historian Shiba Ryōtarō gives him complete credit for Japan's victory at the Siege of Port Arthur, but there is no historical evidence for that, and Kodama kept quiet about his role in the battle. After the war, he was named Chief of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff but died soon afterwards. Kodama was raised in rapid succession to the ranks of danshaku (baron) and shishaku (viscount) under the kazoku peerage system, and his death in 1906 of a cerebral hemorrhage was regarded as a national calamity. Legacy Following a petition by Kodama's son, Hideo, the Meiji Emperor elevated Hideo to the title of hakushaku (count). Kodama later received the ultimate honor of being raised to the ranks of Shinto kami. Shrines to his honor still exist at his hometown in Shūnan, Yamaguchi Prefecture, and on the site of his summer home on Enoshima, Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture. Honours With information from the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia Peerages Baron (20 August 1895) Viscount (11 April 1906) Order of precedence Senior seventh rank (March 1874) Senior sixth rank (28 May 1880) Fifth rank (18 April 1883) Fourth rank (27 September 1889) Senior fourth rank (26 October 1894) Third rank (8 March 1898) Senior third rank (20 April 1901) Second rank (23 April 1906) Senior second rank (23 July 1906; posthumous) Decorations Japanese Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure (27 December 1899; Second Class: 26 December 1894) Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun (27 February 1902; 2nd Class: 20 August 1895; 3rd Class: 7 April 1885; 4th Class: 31 January 1878) Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun with Paulownia Flowers (1 April 1906) Grand Cordon