Imamura Hitoshi

Imamura Hitoshi

Imamura Hitoshi ( Japanese 今 村 均 ; born June 28, 1886 in Sendai , Japan ; † October 4, 1968 ) was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army .

Life

Early career

Imamura Hitoshi was born in Sendai in 1886, the son of a judge. After graduating from the Army Officer School in Tokyo in 1907, he also graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army University in 1915 . After various posts and a promotion to captain in April 1917, he was sent to England as a military attaché the following year . In April 1927 he was reinstated as a military attaché and this time sent to British India . After being promoted to colonel in 1930, he was deployed to various staff positions before serving in the operational department of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff from 1931 to 1932 .

China

During the incidents of the First Battle of Shanghai he was sent to China as commander of the 57th Infantry Regiment, but was soon able to return to Japan, where he was in command of the Narashino Army School until 1935.

In March 1935 Imamura was promoted to major general ( 陸軍 少将 , Rikugun Shōshō ) and took over command of the 40th Infantry Brigade . In March 1936, he became deputy chief of staff of the Kwantung Army stationed in the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo . In 1937 he was called back to Japan to command the Toyama Army Infantry School there until March 1938.

After promotion to lieutenant general ( 陸軍 中将 , Rikugun Chūshō ) he was sent again to China, where the Second Sino-Japanese War had broken out in the meantime and took over command of the 5th Division there until 1940.

Subsequently he was Deputy Inspector General of Military Training until 1941, which at that time was one of the most influential posts in the Imperial Japanese Army. After the end of this activity he was briefly appointed commander in chief of the 23rd Army .

Pacific War

Shortly thereafter, however, Imamura was transferred to the 16th Army in November 1941 , which he commanded during the invasion of the Dutch East Indies . During the invasion, the transporter Ryujo-maru, on which Imamura was, was hit by a torpedo and sunk off Java in the course of the battle in the Sunda Strait . However, Imamura managed to swim ashore to save himself.

At the end of 1942 he took over command of the 8th Regional Army , where he was in command of the 17th Army and the 18th Army . During this time he was stationed in Rabaul . Due to his unusually mild treatment of the local population, there were frequent arguments between him and his superiors in the Southern Army and in the Imperial Headquarters during this time .

Despite these circumstances, Imamura was appointed a full general in 1943. In September 1945, together with Admiral Kusaka Jin'ichi , he signed the surrender of the Japanese troops in New Guinea and on the South Pacific islands still occupied by Japanese.

After the surrender, Imamura was interned in Rabaul because he and the troops under his command were charged with war crimes , including the execution of prisoners of war . In April 1946 he wrote to the Australian commander in chief of Rabaul asking him to bring proceedings against him quickly in order to expedite the prosecution of war criminals under his command. Imamura has been charged with accusingly neglecting control of his subordinates, which led them to perpetrate the most brutal war atrocities and other war crimes . The trial in Rabaul lasted from April 1 to April 16, 1947. Imamura was sentenced by the court to ten years in prison, most of which he served in Sugamo Prison in Tokyo until he was released in 1954.

literature

• Harry A. Gailey: Bougainville, 1943-1945: The Forgotten Campaign. University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, USA 1991, ISBN 0-8131-9047-9 .
• Saburo Hayashi, Alvin D. Cox: Kogun: The Japanese Army in the Pacific War. Marine Corps. Association, Quantico 1959.

Web links

• Imamura Hitoshi in the Database of Generals of World War II . Retrieved December 28, 2010.
• Imamura Hitoshi in a World War II database . Retrieved December 28, 2010.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ammenthorp, database of the generals of World War II
2. ^ Chen, World War II Database
3. ^ Budge, Encyclopedia of the Pacific War
4. ^ Document from the Australian War Memorial
5. ^ Trial of Tomoyuki Yamashita. Law Reports, UNWCC, 1948. Part VI ( Memento of the original dated December 8, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

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