Ushijima Mitsuru
Ushijima Mitsuru ( Japanese 牛 島 満 ; * July 31, 1887 in Kagoshima , † June 22, 1945 in Okinawa ) was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army in the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War . He commanded the 32nd Army in the Battle of Okinawa . He committed seppuku and was posthumously promoted to general .
Military career
His father was a samurai in the service of the Satsuma Domain and later a career officer in the Imperial Japanese Army. He was the fourth son in the family. One of his older brothers later served as governor of Ibaraki Prefecture . The family moved to Tokyo, but when his father died shortly after Ushijima was born, his mother moved the family back to Kagoshima. He graduated with honors and decided to follow in his father's footsteps and pursue a military career. Ushijima graduated from the 20th grade of the Army Officer School in 1908 with distinction. He was known for his mastery of Japanese swordsmanship . In 1916 he graduated from the 28th grade of the Army University . His classmates were the later generals Yamashita Tomoyuki and Tanaka Shizuichi .
He was on the staff of the Siberian Intervention during the Russian Civil War in August 1917 . His job was to coordinate the dispatch of troops and organize the transport of supplies. He was promoted to captain later that year. On his return to Japan he was awarded the Order of the Golden Dragon, 5th grade. In September 1932, he was appointed head of the teaching department at Toyama School, an elite army school, and was promoted to colonel. He stayed at the school until March 1933. At the time, the young officers were increasingly influenced by the right-wing writings of Kita Ikki and often talked about politics. Ushijima urged instructors and students to focus on military service and publicly denounced Kita Ikka. From March 1933 to July 1936, Ushijima served as Supreme Adjutant within the Army Ministry. It was during this period that political fractionalism was greatest within the Japanese army. Ushijima tried to avoid affiliation with any faction. At the time of the attempted coup in Japan on February 26, 1936 , he was on a trip to China and only returned after the rebellion had been put down. He was selected to command the disgraced 1st Infantry Regiment that was sent to northern Manchukuo as punishment for his role in the uprising . He commanded the unit from March 1936 to March 1937.
At the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War in March 1937, Ushijima was appointed commander of the 36th Infantry Brigade and promoted to major general. The 36th Brigade left Kagoshima in early August 1937 and took up positions at the Shanhai Pass in northern China. He was ordered to advance against the three divisions of the Chinese 14th Army and to destroy these elite units, as they threatened the Japanese positions near Badaling. Although Ushijima's formations were heavily outnumbered, he fought a series of skirmishes between August 30 and September 13, breaking through the Chinese lines. His troops reached the outskirts of Shijiazhuang by October 14, suffering heavy losses. Ushijima became known for leading from the front lines regardless of personal risk. His 36th Brigade then helped break the impasse in Shanghai. She captured large numbers of Chinese soldiers who were trying to flee the city to Nanjing . In December, the brigade took Wuhu , where they wintered. From July 1938, the brigade took part in the Battle of Wuhan . He relinquished command in December 1938 and became commander of the Army Toyama School that same month through September 1939. From December 1939 to October 1941 he commanded the 11th Division in Manchukuo. In 1940 he was awarded the Order of the Holy Treasure and the Order of the Golden Dragon, second class, for his work with the association . From October 1941 to April 1942 he was in command of the Army NCO School.
The attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 took Ushijima by surprise. He spoke out loudly against a war against the United States. In his view, this would only prolong the war in China and weaken Japan against what he believed to be Japan's real enemy, the Soviet Union. He was removed from office in April 1942 because it was feared that he would influence his soldiers with ideas that ran counter to official government policy. However, Ushijima was reinstated as the commander of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy, largely on the recommendation of Doihara Kenji and Yamada Otozo , who shared his concerns about the Pacific War. Believing that the Army College students became arrogant and victorious after the fall of Singapore, Ushijima warned its students prophetically not to underestimate the abundant natural resources and industrial capacity of the United States. Despite his avowed wish to remain at the Academy, he was ordered in September 1944 to take command of the newly formed 32nd Army, which was 120,000 strong and tasked with defending the Ryukyu Islands against the American invasion. Of him was in 1944 Order of the Rising Sun awarded.
His predecessor Masao Watanabe had begun implementing a plan to evacuate Okinawa civilians to mainland Japan and Taiwan . The arrival of Ushijima with a large number of reinforcements made evacuation difficult, as many civilians got a false sense of security. During the sinking of the Tsushima Maru , over 1,600 civilians, including many children, were killed in an American submarine attack. Still, Ushijima managed to evacuate 80,000 people from Okinawa and about 30,000 people from the Yaeyama Islands before the American invasion. However, he was less successful in his efforts to evacuate the remaining civilian population to the largely uninhabited northern half of the island. There was a shortage of food, malaria broke out and many civilians in good physical shape were drafted to help build trenches, bunkers and other defenses. Ushijima was promoted to lieutenant general on June 20, 1945 .
After the US landing, he carried out a clever defense of the island, which was based on a deeply staggered defense planned by his chief of staff, Colonel Hiromichi Yahara. However, his leadership was constantly undermined by the disobedience of his second highest in command, General Chō Isamu , who pursued a more aggressive leadership with mass attacks encouraged by the General Staff of the Army in Tokyo. After an offensive action forced by Chō through the superior American firepower led to a near-massacre of the attacking Japanese troops and the American forces broke the Shuri line, Ushijima led a successful withdrawal of its troops to the extreme south of the island. Here fragmented formations could only occupy isolated defensive positions. Ushijima and Cho retired to Hill 89 on the south coast. The command and control of the remnants of the 32nd Army quickly deteriorated as communications with the last of the defense positions were cut. First there was a large number of Japanese soldiers; many of them were Okinawan volunteers or conscripts. Ushijima refused a personal request from American General Simon B. Buckner Jr. for surrender. Instead, when Ushijima and General Chō heard the sounds of the systematic destruction of the nearby positions on Hill 89, they committed seppuku .
Colonel Yahara was the most senior officer captured by American forces and the most senior officer to survive the battle. Yahara had asked Ushijima for permission to commit suicide, but the general declined his request, saying, “When you die, there will be no one left who knows the truth about the Battle of Okinawa. Bear the temporary shame, but endure it. This is an order from your army chief. ”Yahara later wrote a book called The Battle of Okinawa , in which he describes the last moments of Ushijima. The bodies of Ushijima and Chō were buried by US military personnel on June 27, 1945 near the cave where they died in the final hours of the fighting on Okinawa.
literature
- George Feifer: The Battle of Okinawa: The Blood and the Bomb . The Lyons Press, 2001, ISBN 1-58574-215-5 .
- Fuller, Richard (1992): Shokan: Hirohito's Samurai. London: Arms and Armor. ISBN 1-85409-151-4 .
- Hayashi, Saburo; Cox, Alvin (1959): Kogun: The Japanese Army in the Pacific War. Quantico, VA: The Marine Corps Association.
- Toland, John (1970): The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire 1936-1945. Random House. ISBN 0-8129-6858-1 .
- Fukagawa, Hideki (1981): (陸海軍 将官 人事 総 覧 (陸軍 篇)) Army and Navy General Personnel Directory (Army) . Tokyo: Fuyo Shobo. ISBN 4829500026 .
- Dupuy, Trevor N. (1992): Encyclopedia of Military Biography. IB Tauris & Co Ltd. ISBN 1-85043-569-3 .
- Hata, Ikuhiko (2005): (日本 陸海軍 総 合 事 典) Japanese Army and Navy General Encyclopedia. Tokyo: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 4130301357 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Feifer, George (2001). The Battle of Okinawa: The Blood and the Bomb. The Lyons Press.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ushijima, Mitsuru |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | 牛 島 満 (Japanese) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Japanese general |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 31, 1887 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kagoshima |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 22, 1945 |
| Place of death | Okinawa |