Ōkido Sanji

Ōkido Sanji ( Japanese 大城 戸 三 治 ; * 1891 ; † 1976 in Tokyo Prefecture ) was a lieutenant general of the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II .

Life

Ōkido Sanji was accepted into the Imperial Japanese Army with the rank of lieutenant in December 1913 and graduated from the Army University in November 1924 . In December 1925, Ōkido was transferred to a post in the Army Ministry, where he remained until November 1931. He was then employed as a teacher at the Army University and was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in August 1932 , where he was transferred to the Imperial Army General Staff in Tokyo. In August 1936 he returned to a post in the Army Ministry and a few months later, in September 1936, was promoted to colonel , whereupon he was transferred to China . In China he served as a staff officer in the 3rd Division under General Teshima Fusatarō and was then transferred to Nanjing , where he served as a military attaché in the Japanese embassy. Until January 1938 he was employed in various staff positions, including the Northern China Regional Army and the Kwantung Army , before he took command of the troops of the 76th Regiment in February 1938. In 1939 he was promoted to major general and commanded the 29th Brigade before serving in Tokyo in the intelligence department of the Imperial Japanese Army until 1942 .

After a promotion to lieutenant general in March 1942, Ōkido was used as commander of the 22nd Infantry Division in China, and from November 1942 he was chief of staff of the Northern China Regional Army. There he planned Operation Ichi-gō in January 1944 , during which large parts of southern China could be conquered in autumn 1944. For these successes, Ōkido was promoted to professional marshal in March 1945 and served again in Tokyo with the military police. On September 2, 1945, Japan's surrender day , Army Minister Anami Korechika ordered him to immediately arrest all officers who did not surrender their weapons or who resisted the surrender. He was arrested as a war criminal by the American occupation forces , but found innocent in February 1946 and released in March. He died in Tokyo in 1967.

literature

• Richard Fuller: Japanese Generals 1926–1945. 1st edition. Schiffer Publishing Ltd., Atglen, PA 2011, p. 169, ISBN 978-0-7643-3754-3 .
• W. Victor Madej: Japanese Armed Forces Order of Battle, 1937-1945. 2 volumes, Game Marketing Co., Allentown 1981, Pennsylvania 1981.

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Ōkido is the family name, Sanji the first name.