Adachi Hatazō

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Adachi Hatazō 1945

Adachi Hatazō ( Japanese 安達 二十 三 ; born June 17, 1890 in Tokyo , † September 10, 1947 in Rabaul ) was a lieutenant general in the Imperial Japanese Army . As a general, he commanded troops in the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War, where he made a name for himself as a commander who was very concerned about the welfare of the soldiers under him. After the surrender of Japan , he was interned and charged as a war criminal in 1947. After assuming responsibility for war crimes committed by troops under his command, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in July 1947. Before he could be transferred to a war crimes prison in Japan, he hanged himself in his cell in Rabaul in September 1947, according to his farewell letters from feelings of guilt towards the soldiers who died under his command.

Life

Origin and education

Adachi was born the fifth of six sons into an impoverished samurai family in Tokyo. He also had seven sisters. His year of birth, 1890, was the 23rd year of Tennō Meiji's reign , which is why his father chose the Kanji for 23 for the first name of his son, Hatazō, similar to his five brothers. After the demise of the samurai, Hatazō's father took up a position as a career officer, but was retired and dismissed from service after suffering from tuberculosis , which led to long-lasting financial difficulties for the family. The father raised all his sons very strictly and was careful to teach them the traditional values ​​of the samurai, such as loyalty, bravery and self-sacrifice. Through this upbringing, Adachi decided early on to pursue a military career and tended to join the Navy . However, since the Navy recruited its officer cadets exclusively from middle school graduates and the Adachis did not have enough money to send their sons to one, he decided to join the army instead. This recruited about a third of its cadets from the graduates of their own cadet schools, at which the training was free. He passed the entrance exams for one of the 300 places a year as 21st and was accepted at the cadet institute in Tokyo. Since his father was a former officer, he only had to pay a reduced school fee for Hatazō, which made the training possible in the first place. At these cadet institutions, in addition to hard physical training and punishment, emphasis was placed on cultural training in order to train the officers in dealing with higher strata of the population. This training aroused a strong interest in tanka and calligraphy , which Adachi practiced throughout his life. In addition, he developed a passion for horse riding. In 1906 he graduated from the cadet school and switched to the Army Officer School in Tokyo, which increased the number of admissions due to a planned expansion of the Army to 25 divisions. The training during this time, immediately after the end of the Russo-Japanese War, was considered particularly tough as many of the instructors were veterans of the war, who wanted to eradicate the weaknesses of the army that had occurred during the conflict through hard training and demanding training. In 1910 Adachi completed the 22nd year at the Army Officer School together with 720 other prospective officers and received the rank of lieutenant. Like most of the graduates, he decided to serve in the infantry , where he was able to take up a post in the 1st Guard Regiment of the 1st Division of the Imperial Guard due to his height of 1.78 m and his good degree . In this unit Adachi provided the usual service of professional officers who sought a rapid rise through the ranks such as taking on increasingly larger commands, drill and staff training. After three years, which was a normal period of time, he was promoted to first lieutenant in December 1913, followed by captain in April 1920. With almost seven years between promotions, Adachi did this about a year later than usual, with no known reasons such as misconduct or the like. In March 1926, again after the usual time, he was promoted to major .

During his time in the Imperial Guard, Adachi developed a close relationship with the soldiers who were subordinate to him, which was later often cited as indicative of his leadership style. At that time it was common among officers to use ordinary soldiers only for themselves and not be interested in their interests. In contrast, Adachi concentrated on setting a good example himself and being such a role model for his men. In addition, during the frequent outings enjoyed by officers of the Imperial Guard, he developed a fondness for warm sake . Although this led to frequent drunkenness, Adachi was considered prudent and not neglecting service even in this state. The most lasting impression he made during his time with the 1st Guard Regiment was that he made reading popular among its officers for the purpose of further training and broadening their horizons.

In 1920 Adachi passed the entrance exams for the Imperial Army University and was trained there until November 1922. He graduated as the 21st of 67 graduates. After a compulsory year as a company commander in the Imperial Guard, he was transferred to the General Staff and served in various positions there. This included, among other things, a short-term employment with the Naval General Staff. In 1927 he received a twelve-month scholarship for research at the Army University, which he used to research rail logistics during the war. As a result of his research work, he subsequently received various posts in the Naval General Staff, in which he dealt with the topics of mobilization and allied operations. After a promotion to lieutenant colonel in 1930, he left the naval general staff in September 1932 and went on a six-month trip to Europe to study the railway systems there. After his return he was transferred to the post of officer responsible for the railway systems in the Kwantung Army in April 1933 , where he took over the coordination of the military and civilian requirements for the railway. Due to his good performance in this position, he was promoted to colonel in August 1935 and was transferred as chief of staff to the Department of Railways and Shipping in the General Staff in Tokyo. At the time of this command, there was an attempted coup on February 26, 1936 in Tokyo, in which Adachi, who was not considered to be interested in the various political factions of the military at the time, was not involved.

In December 1936, Adachi took command of the 12th Infantry Regiment of the 11th Division , which was a unit trained for amphibious assaults and part of a rapid reaction force of the army.

Second Sino-Japanese War

After his promotion to colonel in 1934, Adachi took over his first command of the 12th Infantry Regiment in December 1936. During the Battle of Shanghai in the Second Sino-Japanese War, which had just broken out, he made a name for himself by leading his troops in the most contested section from the front lines. His regiment suffered in the fighting, as did the 11th Division transferred to him, whose losses in the Battle of Shanghai were around 65%. As Adachi advanced further inland, he suffered injuries to his face, neck and thighs from shrapnel while on patrol in September. The wounds permanently restricted the mobility of his right leg.

In March 1938, Adachi was promoted to major general and served for a period in the Kwantung Army. In November of that year he took over the command of the 26th Infantry Brigade with which he proceeded against mainly communist guerrilla units in northern China. Along with the promotion to lieutenant general in August 1940 he became commander in chief of the 37th division, which also took action against communist units in Shanxi . With this division he took part in the Battle of South Shanxi . From November he was chief of staff of the Northern China Regional Army for 12 months until November 1942 . During his time in northern China, the scorched earth tactic reached its peak there. An attempt was made to starve the Chinese Red Army, which was fighting with guerrilla tactics, through excessive destruction of infrastructure and agricultural production facilities .

Pacific War

On November 6, 1942, Adachi became commander in chief of the newly formed 18th Army , which was subordinate to the Southern Army , which was responsible for the Southeast Asian theater of war . Adachi's area of ​​command was on the north coast of New Guinea . On the same day he received news of the death of his wife after a long illness. Since he made his way directly to his area of ​​command, he did not take part in the funeral ceremony and only visited his eldest daughter on November 9th, who was in a Tokyo hospital with tuberculosis which later became fatal . At the end of November he arrived in Rabaul and reported to General Imamura Hitoshi, who was above him . Since this Adachi did not want to send on immediately to the combat area where the Allies carried out heavy counter-attacks, he initially exercised his command from Rabaul. During this time, the important Japanese bases Buna , Gona and Sananda as well as the surrounding areas were largely lost. In January 1943 he flew from Rabaul to Lae , next to Salamaua one of the places to which his troops had withdrawn, and inspected his troops. His personal physician had advised him to calm down due to an amoebic dysentery disease , which he had suffered from since his time in China, which Adachi refused because of the catastrophic condition of his troops in his eyes. During the move of the 51st Division to Lae in March, Allied planes attacked the convoy and sank eight of the transport ships. Adachi and the staff of the 18th Army were on one of the escorting destroyers, which was itself damaged, and initially retreated to Rabaul. The attack took place in the course of the battle in the Bismarck Sea . Over 3,000 soldiers died and all equipment of the 51st Division was lost.

Since further reinforcements were not in prospect for the time being and an aggressive defense had been ordered, Adachi gathered his troops scattered over about 650 kilometers in width at Salamaua in June 1943 to protect Lae. After the Allied landings at Lae and the destruction of almost all Japanese aircraft still operating in the region, he ordered the approximately 8,000 men who remained there to retreat deeper into the hinterland and concentrated on keeping Finschhafen on the Huon Peninsula . By mid-December, the Finschhafen defending 20th Division had lost about 5,700 men or 45% of its manpower and withdrew to Sio on Adachi's orders . After a series of further setbacks caused by the Allies intercepting the Japanese radio, the latter captured Hollandia, the most important Japanese supply base in New Guinea, at the end of April 1944, and cut off around 60,000 Japanese soldiers from the Japanese front lines in the eastern part of the island. Adachi decided to carry out an attack on the Allied troops at Aitape and put his troops on the march. The poor supply situation forced him to cut the rations to two thirds. Adachi, now suffering from a hernia, again led his troops on the march from the front.

The Japanese attack on July 10th initially put the Allied troops in distress, but from the beginning of August it was clear that the breakthrough would not be successful and the Japanese troops broke out of the impending encirclement. Over 10,000 Japanese fell in the battle, and the surviving troops withdrew inland. In October 1944, Adachi issued an order that field executions were permitted to maintain order. Due to the increasingly scarce rations he lost almost 40 kg of body weight and all of his teeth. From March 1945 he prepared a last attack in which as many enemies as possible should be killed. Your own troops should be forbidden from being captured. The last attack was still being planned when the news of Japan's surrender came in. At that time, 10,000 of the 140,000 Japanese soldiers sent to eastern New Guinea were still alive. An Australian plane picked up Adachi from the interior of the island and brought him to Cape Wom, where he signed the surrender of his troops to Major General Horace Robertson after pacing an honorary formation .

Major General Horace Robertson of the Australian Army accepts the sword and with it the surrender of Adachi Hatazōs and his troops

War Crimes Trial and Death

After his surrender, Adachi was charged as a war criminal by the Australian government . He was accused of inhuman treatment and arbitrary execution of prisoners of war and local residents. He is also said to have forced Indian prisoners of war to serve in the 18th Army. Although he had not personally ordered the crimes of which he was charged, he had not prevented them and therefore, as Commander-in-Chief, took responsibility for the deeds of his subordinates. On July 12, 1947, a military tribunal sentenced him to life imprisonment . On September 10, 1947, after all war crimes trials against members of his subordinate troops were over, he committed suicide in the war crimes prison on the island of Manus . He used a paring knife for this and wrote several farewell letters beforehand.

One of these letters was addressed to the soldiers of the former 18th Army interned with him in Rabaul:

“It was a great honor for me to take command in November 1942 at a time when the orders were clearly given and of strategic importance, at a time when the luck of the war was on our side. I was grateful for my calling. Still, although my officers and men did their best under the circumstances, overcoming all difficulties, and my subordinates supporting me as best they could, the end sought could not be achieved because of my ineptitude. With this I paved the way for my country in the current dilemma. This is a crime that must be punished with death. During the past three years of service, more than 100,000 young and promising officers and soldiers have died, most of them dying of malnutrition. When I think about this, I don't know how to justify myself to Her Majesty the Emperor and I feel that I am crushed with shame myself […] I have expected perseverance far beyond what is humanly possible from my officers and men already exhausted and emaciated from the ongoing operations and lack of supplies. Still, my officers and men all followed my orders in silence and without complaint and, when exhausted, died like flowers falling in the wind. God knows how I felt when I saw her die, my heart is full of compassion for her, but it was only for her country and they dedicated their life to it. At that moment I made the decision not to set foot on the shores of my country again, but to become a lump of earth in the South Seas like my 100,000 officers and soldiers, even if a time came when I was able, in triumph to return to my country. "

literature

  • Edward J. Drea: Adachi Hatazo: A Soldier of His Emperor. In: Edward J. Drea: In the Service of the Emperor: Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army. Bison Books, 2003, ISBN 978-0-8032-6638-4 , pp. 91-109.
  • Richard Fuller: Japanese Generals 1926–1945. 1st edition. Schiffer Publishing Ltd., Atglen, PA 2011, ISBN 978-0-7643-3754-3 .
  • Saburō Hayashi and Alvin D. Coox: Kōgun: the Japanese army in the Pacific War. Greenwood Press, 1978, ISBN 978-0-313-20291-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Edward J. Drea: Hatazō Adachi: A Soldier of His Emperor. In: In the Service of the Emperor: Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army. 2003, pp. 91-92.
  2. ↑ Adachi graduated from the Army Officer School as the 66th of his year and was thus among the top 15% of graduates.
  3. ↑ a b Edward J. Drea: Hatazō Adachi: A Soldier of His Emperor. In: In the Service of the Emperor: Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army. 2003, pp. 93-94.
  4. ↑ a b c d e Edward J. Drea: Adachi Hatazo: A Soldier of His Emperor. In: In the Service of the Emperor: Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army. 2003, pp. 95-96.
  5. ↑ a b Edward J. Drea: Hatazō Adachi: A Soldier of His Emperor. In: In the Service of the Emperor: Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army. 2003, pp. 97-98.
  6. ^ Edward J. Drea: Adachi Hatazo: A Soldier of His Emperor. In: In the Service of the Emperor: Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army. 2003, pp. 99-100.
  7. ^ Edward J. Drea: Adachi Hatazo: A Soldier of His Emperor. In: In the Service of the Emperor: Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army. 2003, p. 102.
  8. ^ Edward J. Drea: Adachi Hatazo: A Soldier of His Emperor. In: In the Service of the Emperor: Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army. 2003, pp. 102-103.
  9. ^ Edward J. Drea: Adachi Hatazo: A Soldier of His Emperor. In: In the Service of the Emperor: Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army. 2003, p. 104.
  10. ^ Edward J. Drea: Adachi Hatazo: A Soldier of His Emperor. In: In the Service of the Emperor: Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army. 2003, p. 105.
  11. ^ Edward J. Drea: Adachi Hatazo: A Soldier of His Emperor. In: In the Service of the Emperor: Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army. 2003, p. 106.
  12. ^ Edward J. Drea: Adachi Hatazo: A Soldier of His Emperor. In: In the Service of the Emperor: Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army. 2003, pp. 107-108.
  13. ^ Edward J. Drea: Adachi Hatazo: A Soldier of His Emperor. In: In the Service of the Emperor: Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army. 2003, p. 108.
  14. ^ Edward J. Drea: Adachi Hatazo: A Soldier of His Emperor. In: In the Service of the Emperor: Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army. 2003, pp. 108-109.
  15. ^ Long, Gavin, Volume VII - The Final Campaigns (1st edition), Chapter 15 TAZAKI AND SHIBURANGU, page = 386-387 in the series Australia in the War of 1939-1945.
Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus, Adachi is the family name, Hatazō the first name.
personal data
SURNAME Adachi, Hatazō
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 安達 二十 三 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Lieutenant General of the Imperial Japanese Army
DATE OF BIRTH June 17, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Tokyo
DATE OF DEATH September 10, 1947
Place of death Rabaul