Kimura Heitaro

Kimura Heitaro

Kimura Heitarō ( Japanese : 木村 兵 太郎 ; * September 28, 1888 in Saitama Prefecture ; † December 23, 1948 in Tokyo ) was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army , who was among other things commander of the 32nd Division between 1939 and 1940 and from 1940 and in 1941 was Chief of Staff of the Kwantung Army . In World War II he was from 1944 to 1945 during the Burma campaign and in the Battle of Meiktila and Mandalay, commander in chief of the regional army Burma . He was in the International Military Tribunal for the Far East on November 12 in 1948 for numerous war crimes sentenced to death and at December 23, 1948 executed .

Life

Officer training and time until World War II

Kimura Heitarō grew up in Hiroshima Prefecture and completed an officer training at the Army Officer School , which he graduated in 1908. He then became an officer in the Imperial Japanese Army and, after attending the Army College in 1916, became an artillery officer . After his promotion to captain in July 1918, he took part in the Siberian Intervention between 1918 and 1919 , in which he supported the White Movement against the Bolshevik Red Army . In the following years he worked as a military attaché at the embassy in Germany and was promoted to major in August 1923 . In October 1925 he became a trainer at the Army Officer School and was promoted to lieutenant colonel in March 1928 . After he was seconded to the Artillery Inspectorate from July 1928 to June 1929, he was initially an instructor at the Field Artillery School between June and September 1929 and was then seconded to the Army General Staff from September to November 1929.

Subsequently, Kimura Heitarō was between November 1929 and August 1, 1931 member of the Japanese delegation to the London Disarmament Conference and in the negotiations that led to the signing of the London Naval Treaty on October 27, 1930. After being promoted to colonel on August 1, 1931, he was in command of the 22nd artillery regiment from August 1, 1931 to August 8, 1932. He was then again an instructor at the field artillery school between August 8, 1932 and August 1, 1934, and from August 8, 1932 to August 1, 1934, a staff officer in the technical headquarters of the army. After he was posted to the coastal artillery school between August 1, 1934 and March 15, 1935, he was head of the control department of the Department of Economic Mobilization of the Army Ministry from March 15, 1935 to August 1, 1936 . After his promotion to major general on August 1, 1938, he was head of the artillery department of the Army Ministry between August 1, 1936 and March 9, 1939 and at the same time head of the field artillery in the Imperial from November 20, 1937 to March 9, 1939 Headquarters.

World War II, General and conviction as a war criminal

The defendants in the Tokyo trial for war crimes in World War II

Kimura Heitarō during the Tokyo trials

On March 9, 1939 Kimura Heitarō was promoted to lieutenant general and acted as such from March 9, 1939 to October 22, 1940 as commander of the 32nd Division . The 32nd Division was shipped to the theater of the Second Sino-Japanese War in May 1939 after being deployed . There it was used mainly in the south of the Shandong Province as a garrison unit in the hinterland to fight partisans and was subordinate to the 12th Army . On October 22, 1940, Lieutenant General Ide Tetsuzō was his successor as commander of the 32nd Division. He himself then replaced Lieutenant General Iimura Jō as Chief of Staff of the Kwantung Army under Commander-in-Chief General Umezu Yoshijirō on October 22, 1940 and remained at this post until April 10, 1941, whereupon Lieutenant General Teichi Yoshimoto succeeded him.

After his return to Tokyo Lieutenant General Kimura was between April 10, 1941 and March 11, 1944 Vice Minister of the Army and thus Deputy Minister of the Army Tōjō Hideki . He was then from March 11, 1944 to August 30, 1944 both a member of the Supreme War Council and head of the army artillery in the administrative headquarters. Most recently, he took over during the Burma campaign on 30 August 1944 by General Masakazu Kawabe the post of commander in chief of the regional army Burma and held this post until the final surrender of Japan on September 12, 1945. As such, he commanded the Japanese forces during the Battle of Meiktila and Mandalay (February to March 1945) and was promoted to general on May 7, 1945 .

In the Tokyo trials , Kimura Heitarō was one of the main defendants for numerous war crimes . He was charged with participating as a leader, organizer, instigator or accomplice in planning or executing a joint plan or conspiracy to wage wars of aggression and war or wars that violated international law, for waging an unprovoked war against China , a war of aggression against the United States , a war of aggression against the British Commonwealth and a war of aggression against the Netherlands, and the ordering, authorization and permission to inhumane treatment of prisoners of war and others, and the willful and ruthless neglect of the duty to take reasonable steps to prevent atrocities, and thus in seven of the ten counts found guilty.

On November 12, 1948, he was sentenced to death for this and executed by hanging on December 23, 1948 .

literature

• Richard Minear: Victors' Justice: the Tokyo War Crimes Trial. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-64613-8 .

Web links

• Entry in generals.dk

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