He was born in Hirai village, Yoshiki District, Suō, the third son of the Chōshū samurai Utada Masasuke, and named Jusaburō. He later became heir to the Terauchi family of his mother's younger brother and took the Terauchi name. Late-Edo Chōshū was at the center of fierce conflict, and the boy would enter the world of battle early.
He joined one of the Chōshū militia units, such as the Kiheitai, in his case a unit made up mainly of samurai. He later moved to another unit, where he learned to handle Western guns and studied National Learning. Though still in his early teens, he trained as a soldier amid an age when the whole domain stood against the shogunate.
In the war when the shogunate attacked Chōshū, he joined the defense of the Ozegawa front on the border with Aki. It was his first battlefield, at an age when he could still be called a boy. He went on to fight across the country in the Boshin War and served in the Battle of Hakodate in Hokkaidō, fighting to the end as part of the new government's army.
After studying French-style military science in Kyoto, he became a non-commissioned officer and was promoted to captain. He studied the language in hopes of going to France, but the chance did not come at once. That year he entered the Army Toyama School, which trained officers, and after graduating took a post supervising cadets at the newly founded Army Academy.
When the Satsuma Rebellion broke out, he volunteered to fight at the front and joined the Battle of Tabaruzaka, considered the fiercest of the war. There he was shot and lost the free use of his right hand, and he never again directly commanded troops in battle. Thereafter he followed the path of military administration and education.
He went to France attending Prince Kan'in Kotohito, and from the following year stayed several years as military attaché. His long-held wish to study in France was finally fulfilled, and he learned the workings of European armies. After returning he served as head of the Army Academy among other posts.
In the First Sino-Japanese War he was in charge of transport and communications, moving soldiers and supplies and keeping lines open. Rather than fighting at the front, he showed his strength in supporting the army from behind. He later served as inspector general of military education and vice chief of the General Staff, and went to China when the Boxer Rebellion broke out.
He became army minister in the first Katsura cabinet and ran the army throughout the Russo-Japanese War, credited with contributing to victory. He continued as army minister in later cabinets, becoming a powerful figure in the line of Yamagata Aritomo among Chōshū-born soldiers. For his war service he was made a viscount.
After Itō Hirobumi was killed, he became resident-general of Korea while remaining army minister, and with the annexation of Korea that year he became the first governor-general of Korea. He tried to keep order by having the military police also serve as the regular police, and his rule by force was later called military rule and criticized.
Made a field marshal, he resigned as governor-general of Korea and became prime minister. Because the shape of his head resembled the then-popular Billiken doll, and as a pun mocking a non-constitutional cabinet that did not rely on parties, it was called the Billiken cabinet. His government came in the midst of World War I.
In response to the revolution in Russia, he declared the Siberian Intervention. Around the same time, the price of rice soared and the rice riots spread nationwide, and his cabinet resigned en masse taking responsibility. He was succeeded by the party leader Hara Takashi, opening the era of true party cabinets.
Already often ill toward the end of his premiership, he died at the age of sixty-seven from worsening heart disease and diabetes. Prime Minister Hara Takashi and others attended his funeral. In his home of Yamaguchi he had founded a private library of books on Korea and other subjects, and its books are still kept by a university today.
Yamagata AritomoItō HirobumiHara TakashiKatō Tomosaburō
Saionji KinmochiYamamoto GonbeeTakahashi KorekiyoInukai TsuyoshiHara TakashiOzaki YukioKatō TakaakiKatō Tomosaburō
People of the Taishō period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.