Tanabe Moritake

Lieutenant General Tanabe Moritake

Tanabe Moritake ( Japanese : 田辺盛武 * 26. February 1889 in Ishikawa Prefecture , Empire of Japan ; † 11. July 1949 in Medan , North Sumatra , Dutch East Indies ) was a lieutenant general of the Imperial Japanese Army , among others, during the Second Sino-Japanese War between 1937 and 1938 Chief of Staff of the 10th Army and between 1939 and 1941 Commander of the 41st Division (River Division) . During the Second World War he served from 1941 to 1943 as Vice Chief of the General Staff of the Imperial Japanese Army and from 1943 to 1945 commander of the 25th Army deployed on the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra . After the Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945, he was convicted of war crimes was sentenced to death and on 24 July 1949 executed .

Life

After attending the Matsuyama Middle School, Tanabe Moritake began officer training at the Army Officer School and after graduating in March 1910, he became a lieutenant in the 49th Infantry Regiment. After various uses, he completed his training at the Army University in November 1918 . Afterwards he was an officer and staff officer in the general staff , in the staff department of the 16th Division (fence division) , in the military attaché staff at the embassy in France , as commander of a battalion of the 61st Infantry Regiment. From June 27, 1932 to August 1, 1933 he was senior staff officer of the control department of the maintenance department of the Army Ministry and, after his promotion to colonel on August 1, 1933, was an instructor at the Army Infantry School between August 1, 1933 and September 1, 1934. He then acted from August 1, 1934 to March 7, 1936 as head of the mobilization department of the Economic Mobilization Department of the Army Ministry and between March 7, 1936 and August 2, 1937, commander of the 34th Infantry Regiment.

After his promotion to major general on August 1, 1937, Tanabe Moritake was commander of the Army Infantry School in Toyama between August 2 and October 20, 1937 and then chief of staff from October 20, 1937 to February 14, 1938 during the Second Sino-Japanese War the 10th Army (Dai-jū-gun) stationed in Shanghai , which took part in the Battle of Nanking (December 1 to 13, 1937) and was then involved in the Nanking massacre . After his return, he was in command of the tank school from February 15, 1938 to October 2, 1939 and, after being promoted to Lieutenant General on October 2, 1939, took over from October 2, 1939 until his replacement by Lieutenant General Shimizu Tsunenori on March 1, 1941 Post as commander of the 41st Division (River Division) . He then acted between March 1 and November 6, 1941 as Chief of Staff of the Northern China Regional Army (Kita Shina hōmengun) .

During the Second World War , Lieutenant General Tanabe took over from Lieutenant General Tsukada Osamu on November 6, 1941, the post of Vice-Chief of the General Staff of the Imperial Japanese Army and held this position until April 8, 1943, after which Lieutenant General Hata Hikosaburō succeeded him. At the same time he acted between November 9th and December 22nd, 1942 as acting head of the 3rd department of the general staff. Most recently, he succeeded Lieutenant General Saitō Yaheita on April 8, 1943, as commander of the 25th Army (Dai-nijūgo-gun) deployed on the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra and held this position until the surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945. During this Time it came to Operation Crimson on July 25, 1944, a sea-based, Allied air raid under British leadership on July 25, 1944 on the Japanese-occupied Sabang during the Pacific War . After the war ended, he was arrested in 1945 and charged with war crimes. He was sentenced to death and executed in Medan on July 24, 1949.

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 Tanabe is the family name, Moritake the first name.