Ayabe Kitsuju

General Ayabe

Ayabe Kitsuju ( Japanese 綾 部 橘 樹 ; born April 18, 1894 in Ōita Prefecture ; † February 14, 1980 ) was a lieutenant general in the Imperial Japanese Army .

Early career

Ayabe graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Cavalry School in October 1917 with the rank of sub-lieutenant and was then assigned to the 12th Cavalry Regiment. From August 1918 to July 1919 he participated in the Siberian Intervention . In 1924 he attended the Imperial Japanese Army University , which he left with the rank of captain. He then served in various staff positions before he was sent to Poland and the Soviet Union as a military attaché from August 1928 to November 1930 . Back in Japan, he was promoted to major and, in 1934, to lieutenant colonel .

China and the Pacific War

From 1935 to 1937 Ayabe served in the maneuvering department of the Kwantung Army and from 1937 to 1939 as commander of the 1st Department for Organization and Mobilization of the Imperial Japanese General Staff . During this period, however, he remained stationed in the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo and saw the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War there .

From 1939 to 1940 he was the commander of the 25th Cavalry Regiment stationed in China. Subsequently, he was briefly deputy commander of the 3rd Japanese Army. Between 1940 and 1941 he traveled to Europe, where he visited Berlin and Rome to coordinate cooperation between Japan and the other Axis powers .

Back in China, Ayabe was deputy commander of the Kwantung Army in Manchuria from July 1941 to July 1942 and from July 1942 commander of the First Regional Army, which was also stationed in Manchuria.

After his promotion to Lieutenant General in October 1943, he was transferred to Singapore , where he became Deputy Chief of Staff of the Southern Army . After this was transferred to the Seventh Regional Army in early 1944, Ayabe was given the post of Chief of Staff. After being seriously wounded in a plane crash in February 1944, he was ordered back to Tokyo , where he served on the General Staff until Japan's surrender .

At the end of the war, he was released from military service. From 1955 to 1970 he worked as a consultant at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries .

Remarks

1. ↑ Ammenthorp, The Generas of World War II
2. ^ Budge, Pacific War Online Encyclopedia

literature

• Saburo Hayashi: Kogun: The Japanese Army in the Pacific War . The Marine Corps Association, 1959.

Web links

• Steep Ammentorp: Ayabe, Kitsuju . In: The Generals of World War II . Retrieved November 11, 2010.
• Kent Budge: Ayabe, Kitsuju . In: The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia . Retrieved November 11, 2010.

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Ayabe is the family name, Kitsuju the first name.