Shiba Gorō (柴 五郎, June 21, 1860 – December 13, 1945) was a samurai of Aizu Domain and later a career officer and general in the Meiji period Imperial Japanese Army.

During the siege of Aizuwakamatsu Castle, his grandmother, mother, and two sisters committed suicide so that the men in the family could do battle without distractions.

[1] The ex-samurai of Aizu were exiled by the Meiji government to the newly-created Tonami Domain, located in far northeastern Aomori Prefecture.

After inspecting training camps in Chattanooga, Tennessee, he landed in Cuba with the American Army and was present throughout the Siege of Santiago and subsequent attack on Puerto Rico.

He served with distinction during that campaign, aided by his prior knowledge of Beijing and by a large network of local spies.

After serving as commander of the IJA 2nd Heavy Artillery Brigade in August 1909, he returned to Beijing as an envoy of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff in December 1911.

This assignment was considered a demotion, possibly because Shiba had never graduated from the Army Staff College, or because of his Aizu background; however in May 1914, he was given command of the IJA 12th Division.

In the 1963 film 55 Days at Peking about the siege of international legations he is a supporting character, played by future director Juzo Itami.

His brother, Shiba Shirō, under the pen name Tokai Sanshi, was also famous during the mid-Meiji period, as the author of "Chance Encounters with Beautiful Women" (Kajin no Kigu), a fictionalized account of his time as a student at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.