Okamura Yasuji

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Okamura Yasuji

Okamura Yasuji ( Japanese 岡村 寧 次 ; * May 15, 1884 in Tokyo ; † September 2, 1966 ibid) was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army . From November 1944 until the end of the Pacific War he was in command of the China Expeditionary Army .

biography

Education and early career

Okamura was born in Tokyo and attended Sakamachi Elementary School, then Waseda University Middle School . In 1898 he enrolled in the Tokyo Cadet School ( 陸軍 幼年 学校 , rikugun yōnen gakkō ), which he graduated a year later. He then attended the Army Officer's School , where he belonged in 1904 together with the later generals Itagaki Seishirō , Doihara Kenji and Andō Rikichi to the 16th grade . He began his career as a lieutenant in the 1st Infantry Regiment of the Imperial Japanese Army.

In 1910, Okamura enrolled in the 25th grade of the Army University . Soon after graduating in 1913, he was promoted to captain . During and after World War I he held various positions on the General Staff of the Imperial Japanese Army . In the early 1920s, he briefly served as a military advisor to a warlord in the Chinese Civil War . From 1928 to 1929 he was a member of the secret society Futabakai, which consisted of members of the Imperial Japanese Army .

From 1932 to 1933 Okamura was deputy chief of staff of the Shanghai Expeditionary Army , which was under the command of the Kwantung Army . According to Okamura's own memoir, he played a role in the recruitment of forced prostitutes from Nagasaki Prefecture as " comfort women " in Shanghai military brothels. From 1933 to 1934 he was a military attaché in Manchukuo .

In 1936 Okamura was promoted to Lieutenant General and was given command of the 2nd Division of the Imperial Japanese Army .

In the Second Sino-Japanese War

A year after the Marco Polo Bridge incident in 1938, Okamura was assigned as Commander in Chief of the 11th Army , which participated in various battles of the Second Sino-Japanese War , including the battles of Wuhan , Nanchang and Changsha . According to the historians Yoshiaki Yoshimi and Seiya Matsuno , the Shōwa-Tennō gave Okamura permission to use chemical weapons during these battles.

In April 1940 Okamura was promoted to general , in July 1941 he was appointed commander in chief of the Northern China Regional Army .

In December 1941, Okamura received Order No. 575 from the Imperial Headquarters ( Daihon'ei ), which included the policy of triple annihilation ( Chinese  三光 政策 , Pinyin sānguāng zhèngcè , English Three Alls Policy  - "burn down, slaughter and pillage everything", Japanese 燼滅 作 戦 , jinmetsu sakusen , "Operation Incineration and Extermination") in northern China and primarily intended to break the resistance of the Red Army . The scorched earth tactic now practiced cost the lives of over 2.7 million Chinese, according to some historians.

In 1944, Okamura, as commander in chief of the 6th Regional Army, directed the successful " Operation No. 1 ", which was to conquer airfields in southern China in several major battles and establish a land connection to French Indochina . A few months later he was appointed commander in chief of the China Expeditionary Army. In January 1945, he still believed in Japan's victory over China.

When Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945, Okamura represented the Japanese Army in the China Burma India Theater (CBI) against the Allies. The official surrender took place on September 9, 1945 in Nanjing .

post war period

In July 1948, the Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal proved him guilty of war crimes against civilians. This tribunal was set up by the nationalist government under Chiang Kai-shek . Despite this judgment, he was not convicted of his war crimes on personal orders from Chiang Kai-shek . Okamura remained in China as a military advisor to the Kuomintang . In 1949 he returned to Japan, where he died in 1966.

literature

  • Herbert B. Bix: Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan . Harper Perennial, 2001, ISBN 0-06-093130-2 .
  • Trevor N. Dupuy : Encyclopedia of Military Biography . IB Tauris & Co Ltd, 1992, ISBN 1-85043-569-3 .
  • Richard Fuller: Shokan: Hirohito's Samurai . Arms and Armor, London 1992, ISBN 1-85409-151-4 .
  • Saburō Hayashi, Alvin D Cox: Kogun: The Japanese Army in the Pacific War . The Marine Corps Association, Quantico, VA 1959.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Budge, The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia
  2. ↑ Ammenthorp, The Generals of World War II
  3. ^ Chen, World War II Database
  4. ↑ Yoshimi and Matsuno, Dokugasusen Kankei Shiryo II (Material on Toxic Gas Warfare), Kaisetsu, 1997, p. 25-29
  5. ↑ Himeta, Mitsuyoshi ( 姫 田 光 義 ) ( 日本 軍 に よ る 『三光 政策 ・ 三光 作 戦 を め ぐ っ て』) ( Concerning the Three Alls Strategy / Three Alls Policy By the Japanese Forces ), Iwanami Bukkuretto, 1996, Bix, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, 2000
  6. ^ Budge, The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia
  7. ^ Herbert Bix, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan , 2000, p.594
  8. ↑ Kent G. Budge: Okamura Yasutsuga (1884-1966) . Pacific War Online Encyclopedia.
Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Okamura is the family name, Yasuji the first name.
personal data
SURNAME Okamura, Yasuji
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 岡村 寧 次 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese general
DATE OF BIRTH May 15, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Tokyo , Japan
DATE OF DEATH 2nd September 1966
Place of death Tokyo , Japan