Two Enemies Who Saved Each Other

The picture above shows Manuel Roxas of the Philippines and Colonel Nobuhiko Jimbo of the Imperial Japanese Army who was part of the forces that occupied The Philippines during the Second World War. These two men began and ended the conflict on opposite sides and yet each man owed the other his life. Manuel Roxas was a prominent leader in The Philippines before the war, serving for twelve years as the Speaker of the House of Representatives. When the United States of America agreed to grant independence to The Philippines, Roxas served in the convention to draw up the constitution for the new country and he served as Secretary of Finance along with other positions and was a brigadier general in the Filipino army. Elected to the Senate, he was unable to take his seat because of the outbreak of war and when Japanese forces attacked the Philippines he was made liaison officer between the armies of the Commonwealth of the Philippines and the United States of America. Eventually, of course, the American and Filipino forces were defeated by the Japanese troops under the noble General Masaharu Homma and finally surrendered. Roxas was among those taken prisoner.

This was a time of great pain and suffering. General Homma gave orders to treat the Filipinos as brothers and forbid any acts of cruelty, however, there were others who were hate-filled and who did horrible things, sometimes on orders they had forged in General Homma's name. Whenever the general found out about such things, he had the guilty officers reprimanded. A few weeks after the surrender, General Manuel Roxas was taken prisoner and the local Japanese commander, General Torao Ikuta, received an order to execute him. General Ikuta was also an honorable man and was greatly distressed at being given such an order. He sent the order on to a subordinate officer, Colonel Nobuhiko Jimbo. As it happened, Colonel Jimbo was another example of an upright officer. He was also a Catholic, the same as Roxas, and was disgusted by the very idea of murdering him, regardless of military orders which seemed to be genuine. He struggled with his conscience as he was transporting the prisoners.

Roxas and a local governor were both taken by Colonel Jimbo to be executed but the governor pleaded for his life and Colonel Jimbo bravely determined that he could not and would not execute the two men. He went personally to General Ikuta to urge him to spare the two men, regardless of what orders had been issued. It would be barbaric and such orders, he reasoned, had to be some sort of mistake. General Ikuta quickly agreed and had the prisoners hidden away. However, an officer soon arrived from Manila demanding that the executions be carried out and that Colonel Jimbo be court-martialed for his efforts to save their lives. Again, showing great courage and character, Colonel Jimbo was still not prepared to give up and traveled to Manila himself to confront General Homma directly. General Homma was not in his office when Jimbo arrived but he spoke to Homma’s chief of staff who could not believe that the general would give such an order. Jimbo handed him the document which the Chief of Staff suspended and immediately and then confronted the junior general he suspected of being responsible for the false order.

When General Homma returned to his headquarters and learned of the whole situation, he immediately countermanded the execution of Roxas and personally thanked Colonel Jimbo for his brave stand in the cause of justice and humanity. He told the colonel that he would be sure to mention his actions when he returned home and gave his report to the Emperor. Roxas would go on to be the first President of The Philippines after the war. General Homma, however, was not allowed to make his report to the Emperor as his enemies within the army succeeded in having him relieved of command and sent home. Not being allowed to report to the Emperor, as was customary, was done as a sign of his semi-disgrace. He was an unjust action for a general so talented, dedicated and honorable as General Homma. Worse was to come, however, as after the war, General Homma was returned to The Philippines where he was convicted and executed as a war criminal; a case so blatantly unjust that even a number of very prominent Americans spoke out against it and harshly condemned their own countrymen for participating in such a disgraceful act.

The upright Colonel Nobuhiko Jimbo almost suffered a similar fate. He had been transferred to China and was himself arrested at the end of the conflict as a potential "war criminal". In 1946, Filipino President Roxas, however, learned that Colonel Jimbo was being held in prison in northern China awaiting trial and he acted to return the favor the colonel had done in saving his life. Roxas wrote personally to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, explaining the situation and asking that Colonel Jimbo be given amnesty. The Chinese leader agreed and the following year Colonel Jimbo was released and returned to Japan. He had survived but only because of the timely intervention of the man whose life he had saved. If Roxas had not found out about Jimbo in time, he mostly likely would have been executed in the wave of anti-Japanese hysteria in China in the aftermath of the war. These two men, one Filipino, one Japanese, had started and ended the war on opposite sides and yet each had saved the life of the other. While many seem to enjoy remembering only the cruel and sad events of the war, more emphasis should be given to remembering those like Colonel Jimbo Nobuhiko who risked everything to save the life of one man.

General Kuribayashi Tadamichi 栗林忠道

The man who led one of the most iconic and fierce struggles in the latter days of the Empire of Japan was General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, an accomplished soldier, writer and diplomat who had a level of understanding of the enemy Japan faced that most of his fellow officers did not. He was born on July 7, 1891 in Hanishina District, Nagano Prefecture to an old samurai family. Given his family background, a military career was only natural for Kuribayashi, though in his early days at school he was most known for literary talents as a writer of speeches, poetry and inspirational works. He was also known for being somewhat rebellious and was almost expelled from school for organizing a students strike. In fact, he had initially planned on becoming a journalist but was finally persuaded by his instructors to attend the Imperial Japanese Army Academy after graduating from Nagano High School in 1911. He graduated in 1914 as a cavalry officer and went on to the Army Cavalry School in 1918 to further perfect his skills. He showed such promise that he went on to the Army War College and had an outstanding record, graduating in 1923 with high praise and receiving the coveted military saber from His Majesty the Taisho Emperor of Japan.

In 1928 Kuribayashi was sent as a deputy military attaché to the United States in Washington DC and during his two year stay in America he studied at Harvard University. He gained a valuable perspective there and was most impressed by the massive economic and industrial strength of the United States. He later said that, in his travels around the country, “…I knew the close connections between the military and industry. I saw the plant area of Detroit, too. By one button push, all the industries will be mobilized for military business.” Later he held a similar post in Canada but it was his time in the United States that gave him a first-hand understanding of the enemy Japan would ultimately face in World War II. He was one of the few Japanese military figures who understood just how massively outmatched Japan would be in any war with the United States and hoped that such a thing could be avoided. After returning from Canada, he served on the General Staff in Tokyo, continued to do some writing and by 1940 had been promoted to major general. When war broke out in December of 1941 he was serving as chief of staff of the 23rd Army tasked with the conquest of Hong Kong.

When the war came, Kuribayashi was one of the few men in the Japanese military who understood what the consequences would be. On numerous occasions he had said to his family that, “America is the last country in the world Japan should fight”. This, combined with his occasional remarks supportive of a negotiated peace, led some of the more radical militarists to accuse him of being a defeatist and lacking in support for the Japanese war effort. However, Kuribayashi was as loyal and committed a soldier as Japan ever had and his views were based on his understanding of American military might. He knew that it was a war that would be virtually impossible for Japan to win given the overwhelming American superiority in resources, manpower, economic and industrial output compared to Japan. Others had the bare facts but Kuribayashi had actually seen it for himself and fully grasped just how massive the imbalance was between Japan and America and he did not want to see the Empire of Japan wiped out in a war in which there was practically no chance of success. Nonetheless, once that decision was made, he was absolutely committed to doing his duty and would fight the Americans with the utmost of his abilities.

During the war, General Kuribayashi gained the reputation of being a ‘soldier’s general’. He visited his wounded men in the hospital, something which was rare at the time, showed great concern for keeping his troops properly supplied and was determined not to waste their lives needlessly. In 1943 he was promoted to lieutenant general and given command of a training division with the Imperial Guard and the following year was given the field command of the 109th Division. A few days later he was informed that he would be tasked with the defense of the island of Iwo Jima and was even granted an imperial audience before being flown to the island to assume command. When Kuribayashi arrived on Iwo Jima he already had a plan in mind for how to inflict a costly defeat on the Americans. However, he had been kept in the dark about the overall strategic situation for Japan and did not know, at the time, that he was essentially being sent to certain death with the assignment. The plan Kuribayashi had was of a type that would have been familiar to someone like American General George Patton. His idea was to set up a defense in-depth in the interior of Iwo Jima to lure in as many Americans as possible and pin them down with withering fire at which time the Imperial Japanese Navy Combined Fleet would swing in from the sea and Kuribayashi and the navy would crush the Americans between them.

After arriving, Kuribayashi told Major Yoshitaka Horie, “When the enemy comes here, we can contain him, and then our Combined Fleet will come to slap his face. That is to say, our role here is a massive containing action.” However, Horie then informed him of recent events that Kuribayashi did not know about. The Combined Fleet had been practically annihilated at the Battle of the Philippine Sea only ten days before and the Imperial Japanese Navy would never launch a major offensive operation again. Additionally, Japanese naval air power had been wiped out as well with over 5-600 aircraft destroyed. Kuribayashi had been unaware of any of this and only upon learning of it did he realize that there was practically no hope for a Japanese victory on Iwo Jima. Still, it was his duty to try and that is what he would do. He inspected the defenses of the island himself, laid out new defensive positions and determined to fight on Iwo Jima regardless of the odds against him and to kill as many Americans as possible. His only hope was that if he could inflict horrendous losses on the American forces, the public in the United States might lose morale and be more agreeable to abandoning the war and making peace with Japan.

This was the only option Kuribayashi had and his reasoning was sound. However, the nature of World War II in the Pacific for the United States meant that it would not work. This, after all, is something that would happen to American overseas conflicts yet to come and which most people today are familiar with. However, this is partly exactly why President Roosevelt was adamant that Japan strike the first blow in bringing the United States into the war. That event galvanized the public and ensured that the mentality of the American people would be different than it would be in later conflicts such as the war in Vietnam for example. In a war that America chose to fight, even for laudable reasons, extreme loss of life could be enough to cause public support for the war to drop and force the government to pull out and end hostilities. However, in this case, because Japan had attacked American territory, regardless of the reasons, that was not going to happen in World War II. Losses in the Pacific islands campaign would be extreme for the United States but support for the war would never drop but a greater ferocity encouraged. That is not to say though that General Kuribayashi was wrong in his decision. Under the circumstances there was no other decision he could make other than to surrender without fighting at all.

Any Japanese strategy in the island campaigns were crippled from the outset by American naval superiority. Even if Japan had inflicted devastating losses on American forces, even to the extent of forcing the enemy off of an island like Iwo Jima, would have been only temporary setbacks for the United States which could have simply bypassed such islands, keeping them from being re-supplied until the Japanese garrison was forced to surrender or die of starvation. This was similar to the strategy used by General Douglas MacArthur of bypassing strong points and attacking weak points, leaving heavily fortified areas to wither in isolation. Unlike warfare on land, when it came to the Pacific islands, everything depended on maintaining naval superiority which, in turn, also guaranteed air superiority so that there was no way an island garrison could fight a war of attrition against an enemy that controlled the seas and skies around the combat area. Kuribayashi surely understood this but he was determined to do the best he could in an extremely difficult situation. As long as the Americans were intent on taking Iwo Jima he could at least delay the American offensive and buy time for the major, most heavily populated Japanese home islands. Every day he held out was one more day before American forces could invade Honshu or increase the bombing of the Japanese heartland.

General Kuribayashi made the best of a bad situation and learned from previous Japanese defeats to mount a more successful defense. Accepted thinking, in resisting an amphibious assault, was to put your strength up front and try to stop the enemy on the beaches when they were the least organized and the most vulnerable. However, General Kuribayashi decided against this. On Saipan, Guam and Tinian he had seen this tactic fail because of American naval superiority. Anything he placed on the beaches would be pulverized by the American battleships offshore so, instead, he placed his men farther inland in an intricate network of underground fortifications. Taking those fortifications would be a long, bloody and frustrating affair for the attacking Americans. Kuribayashi also knew that he could expect no help from Japan and he had to use his men and supplies conservatively. Lack of food, water and the prevalence of sickness because of a lack of proper supplies was a major problem for the Japanese from the outset. On February 19, 1945 the first elements of the U.S. Marines began landing on Iwo Jima. Because of the great care and preparations taken by General Kuribayashi, it would be a grueling affair for the American forces, lasting five weeks and ultimately costing the American forces over 6,000 killed and over 19,000 wounded. The Japanese garrison of just over 22,000 men generally fought to the death with only 216 being captured.

General Kuribayashi ordered his men not to fire on the Americans as they came ashore but to draw them in close and then fight fiercely to the last man and urged his troops to set as their goal to kill at least 10 Americans before giving up their life. Given the popular perception of the war in the Pacific, it is important to note that General Kuribayashi did not favor what Americans called the “banzai charge”. The aggressive temperament of Japanese warriors repeatedly led them, in other battles, to launch suicidal charges when the situation became desperate. However, this meant that they would be out in the open and thus easily wiped out by superior American firepower. What Kuribayashi did was far more effective, urging his men to stay in their defensive positions and force the Americans to expose themselves to danger in trying to pry them out of their holes and earthworks one by one. Marine General Holland Smith noticed this and paid his enemy a typically Marine style of compliment saying of General Kuribayashi, “I don’t know who he is, but the Japanese General running this show is one smart bastard.” The Japanese resisted fiercely and took a heavy toll on the attacking Marines as the fight for Iwo Jima dragged on for days and weeks. General Kuribayashi was among the last still holding out.
Knowing that the end was near, he wrote,

“The battle is entering its final chapter. Since the enemy's landing, the gallant fighting of the men under my command has been such that even the gods would weep. In particular, I humbly rejoice in the fact that they have continued to fight bravely though utterly empty-handed and ill-equipped against a land, sea, and air attack of a material superiority such as surpasses the imagination. One after another they are falling in the ceaseless and ferocious attacks of the enemy. For this reason, the situation has arisen whereby I must disappoint your expectations and yield this important place to the hands of the enemy. With humility and sincerity, I offer my repeated apologies. Our ammunition is gone and our water dried up. Now is the time for us to make the final counterattack and fight gallantly, conscious of the Emperor's favor, not begrudging our efforts though they turn our bones to powder and pulverize our bodies. I believe that until the island is recaptured, the Emperor's domain will be eternally insecure. I therefore swear that even when I have become a ghost I shall look forward to turning the defeat of the Imperial Army to victory. I stand now at the beginning of the end. At the same time as revealing my inmost feelings, I pray earnestly for the unfailing victory and security of the Empire. Farewell for all eternity.”

General Tadamichi Kuribayashi died on or around March 26, 1945. As there were virtually no survivors, the exact nature of his death has been subject to some speculation. Some accounts say he was killed in action during an attack on an enemy camp, others say he committed seppuku near his headquarters after facing north and bowing three times toward the Imperial Palace after which his assistants shot themselves after burying him. Whatever the exact circumstances were, General Kuribayashi had died like a hero and more than fulfilled his duty to resist and defend Iwo Jima to the very end. He had taken a heavy toll on the U.S. Marines and Iwo Jima was the only battle in which total American casualties were greater than total Japanese casualties. He had also earned the respect of his enemies, Marine General Holland Smith wanted to give Kuribayashi a proper burial with military honors but his body could not be found. In his memoirs, General Holland wrote, “Of all our adversaries in the Pacific, Kuribayashi was the most redoubtable.” And, while public support for the war certainly did not fall off because of the battle, the staunch resistance of Kuribayashi did have an impact as many in the United States later questioned suffering such heavy losses to capture an island that was not very strategically significant. General Kuribayashi had been tasked with fighting a hopeless battle but he fought that battle with the greatest skill and heroism possible, accomplishing as much as could have been accomplished in such a situation. He stands as a figure worthy of the utmost respect and admiration.

HIH Prince Yasuhiko Asaka of Japan (朝香宮鳩彦王)

One of the more interesting but also controversial members of the Imperial Family in the latter days of the Empire of Japan was HIH Prince Yasuhiko Asaka. He was born on October 20, 1887 in Kyoto, the eighth son (out of roughly eighteen children) of Prince Kuni Asahiko (a former Buddhist priest). His mother was the lady Tsunoda Sugako and his father was the adopted son HM Emperor Ninko, father of HM Emperor Komei and grandfather of HM Emperor Meiji. This made Prince Yasuhiko a member of one of the four main collateral branches of the Japanese Imperial Family, eligible for a place in the imperial succession. One of his nieces, a daughter of one of his half-brothers, was Princess Nagako who would eventually become Empress Kojun as consort to HM the Showa Emperor. As a prince of the Imperial Family, during the Meiji era, he was always expected to be a soldier. He went to school at Gakushuin Peers’ School, where the Japanese nobility and Imperial Family were educated before going on to the Central Military Preparatory School to begin the foundational training for a military career.

On March 10, 1906 HM Emperor Meiji granted him the title of Prince Asaka and gave him permission to start his own branch of the Imperial Family as had been done by his father before him. Still, for Prince Yasuhiko, responsibility came first and he carried on with his education, attending the Imperial Japanese Army Academy, graduating on May 27, 1908, receiving his commission as a second lieutenant on December 25. With his education completed, the following year he married HIH Nobuko, Princess Fumi, the eighth daughter of Emperor Meiji, on May 6, 1909. Eventually the couple would have four children; two girls (the eldest and youngest) and two boys. Outside of the domestic setting, Prince Yasuhiko continued with his military career, proving himself an intelligent and determined officer and he was promoted to full lieutenant by the end of 1910. In 1913 he earned promotion to captain, in 1918 to major and in 1922 to lieutenant colonel. Part of that time was spent far away from his home and family as from 1920 to 1923 the Prince, along with a brother and cousin, went to study at the famous French military academy at Saint-Cyr, a school founded by Napoleon and which is still the preeminent French military academy.

Prince Asaka studied tactics and did quite well but had a brush with death, being severely injured in a car accident while traveling in Normandy in which his cousin, Prince Kitashirakawa, was sadly killed. Princess Asaka rushed to France to be at his side and care for her husband herself and while he did recover the Prince would walk with a limp for the rest of his life. After leaving France, the Prince and Princess Asaka traveled to the United States. He was greatly impressed by the industry and technology of America, as well as the architecture as, upon returning to Japan, he had a new home built for his family in Tokyo in the Art Deco style that was all the rage in America (this home later became the official residence of the prime minister and today houses the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum) in 1925. Sadly, not long after his grand, new home was finished in 1933 Princess Asaka died at only 42-years old. A devoted and compassionate woman, not a few have wondered if the life of the Prince would have unfolded the same way had her presence not been deprived from him and her family.

Grieved, Prince Asaka threw himself totally into his military career. A colonel in 1925, by 1929 he was a major general and the following year became an instructor at the Army Staff College. In 1931 he was promoted to lieutenant general and given command of the prestigious First Imperial Guards Division. In 1935, in recognition of his achievements and how much his advice was valued, he was given a seat on the Supreme War Council by HM the Showa Emperor. However, the trust the Emperor had in him was shaken by the events of the February 26 Incident. This was an attempted coup led by a faction of young officers called the “Righteous Army” whose stated goal was to get rid of the politics and corruption they felt was restricting the government, purge all western influences and have the Emperor take personal control of things in a “Showa Restoration” (assuming of course the Emperor would pursue the course they thought best). However, the coup attempt did not go totally as planned, the Prime Minister survived the assassination attempt and when HM the Emperor was presented with the demands of the plotters, all that mattered was that discipline and order had been violated and His Majesty ordered the uprising suppressed firmly and swiftly. When Prince Asaka showed some support for the young officers by advising the Emperor to accede to their wishes and form a new government, this attitude was noted.

Because he was seen as being partial to the politics of the right-wing, which the Emperor viewed as somewhat improper for a member of the Imperial Family, the trust that had existed between the two was somewhat diminished. Yet, while some factions, like those involved in the February 26 Incident, did have some radical ideas included in their manifesto, few could doubt that had the best interests of their country and people at heart. In any event, because of his perceived political ties, Prince Asaka was ordered out of Tokyo and transferred to the Japanese Central China Area Army in 1937. It is important to remember, in light of later events, that most viewed this as something of a ‘step down’ and was therefore, a sort of disciplinary action for straying into the political realm. Fortunately for Japan, Prince Asaka was a skilled soldier, unfortunately, his greatest success would be followed by a scandal that has haunted his country ever since. The army was, at that time, engaged in a fierce battle against the nationalists of the Republic of China who were fighting in front of their capital city, the city of Nanking. The commander of the army, General Matsui Iwane, was old and in poor health and relinquished command to his deputy, Prince Asaka who directed the final attack that saw the Chinese forces broken and the Japanese conquest of Nanking.

Everyone is probably familiar with at least some version of the story about what happened next. To this day the “Rape of Nanking” is a cornerstone of anti-Japanese sentiment in Communist China, however, their claims are undoubtedly immensely exaggerated. It seems clear that some terrible atrocity did happen in Nanking but the accounts vary wildly and in subsequent studies a great deal of the supposed “evidence” has been found to have been fabricated or tampered with. In the end, General Matsui was executed for the crime by the Allies after the war, however, in spite of, or perhaps even because of that, some have since argued that Prince Asaka was the one responsible for what did (or did not) happen when the Japanese occupied Nanking. This is not the place to go into the details of that whole controversy, however, as it concerns Prince Asaka himself, it must seem extremely improbably to any dispassionate observer that the Prince would actually order any such act of brutality. People have pointed to his far-right political ties (real or perceived) as evidence to condemn him but, actually, this shows how unlikely it is that the Prince would commit such a crime. After all, he was in China in the first place because he was, effectively, being punished and pushed out of the imperial inner-circle because of those right-wing ties. For someone who was, effectively, “on probation” one might say, ordering such an atrocity, especially at that particular time, would seem impossible to believe. Setting morality aside for the moment, simple self-interest would suggest that the Prince had the most reason to deplore such a violation of discipline and the code of military justice.

In any event, both General Matsui and Prince Asaka were recalled to Japan in the aftermath of the incident and while he remained on the Supreme War Council and was promoted to full general in 1939, he never held an active military command again. Still, his devotion to the august Emperor and Empire of Japan never wavered and as the war dragged on Prince Asaka showed himself willing to cross into the political realm if he felt the survival of the country depended on it. This happened in 1944 when Prince Asaka, along with three others, worked together to bring down the war-time government of Prime Minister and former General Hideki Tojo on the basis that Japan was clearly losing the war. Nonetheless, after the war Prince Asaka was interrogated by the American forces, mostly regarding the events at Nanking, but he was not brought to trial, General Matsui instead being tried and executed. Some have since accused General MacArthur of covering up for the Prince because he was a member of the Imperial Family but, in fact, it would have been very difficult to hold Prince Asaka to blame in any event based on the precedent already set by the Allied forces in the immediate post-war military trial of General Yamashita who was held to blame for crimes committed without his orders and without his knowledge by troops under his command (as ridiculous as that still sounds). So, General Matsui, even if he was absent during the event, would still have had to be executed or else it would have highlighted what a gross injustice the execution of General Yamashita had been. These arguments also take for granted the guilt of Prince Asaka when, in fact, there is no evidence that he ordered any acts of brutality and he had absolutely no motive to do so, in fact, he had every motivation to avoid such a thing.

However, Prince Asaka was punished anyway in a manner of speaking. According to new rules handed down by the American occupation regime, all collateral branches of the Imperial Family were stripped of their status and HIH Prince Yasuhiko Asaka became, legally, a simple commoner. He was banned from holding any public office or taking part in politics, all of his property was confiscated and of course he no longer had a career in the army as the Imperial Japanese Army was totally disbanded and remains so to this day. Yet, in spite of all this, Prince Asaka did not resort to bitterness or xenophobic hatred. On the contrary, he turned his thoughts to more spiritual matters and, undoubtedly to the surprise of a great many people, converted to Christianity and became the first member of the Japanese Imperial Family to be baptized into the Roman Catholic Church on December 18, 1951. When not attending mass his leisure time was spent focused on a new hobby. He became an avid golfer and dabbled in designing golf courses, one of his designs being the Plateau Golf Course in the beautiful Hakone area. For a man who had survived a tumultuous political climate, a deadly car accident and the battlefields of China, he lived a long life in his retirement. He died at home of natural causes at the age of 93 on April 13, 1981. Unfortunately, he remains a controversial figure but I have no doubt that his soul was in better standing that those who would be his judges in the end.

General Homma Masaharu

General Masaharu Homma, known as "the Poet" is most remembered as the conqueror of The Philippines as commander of the Fourteenth Imperial Japanese Army. He had a long record of distinguished military service. In World War I he served in France with the British Expeditionary Force, was an aide to HIH Prince Chichibu and commanded a division in the early days of the Second Sino-Japanese War but was made commander of the Army of Taiwan after speaking out that hostilities with China should be ended as quickly as possible following the Japanese capture of the Chinese capital of Nanking. After the outbreak of war with the United States he was given command of the XIV Army and tasked with the conquest of The Philippines, landing on December 10, 1941. This military operation was a complete success and it was probably that success, more than anything else, that led to his execution after the war on trumped-up charges of "war crimes" mostly because of the mistreatment of American prisoners of war. However, it was a complete injustice as was the case with other top Japanese generals executed quickly after the war was over. There were real instances of mistreatment of prisoners but General Homma was certainly not to blame for them, he never ordered such a thing as he was clearly singled out mostly because he had been a very successful general, the man who had conquered the largest and primary American "colony" in East Asia.

Far from being cruel, General Homma gave strict orders to his men that the Filipinos were to be treated as friends rather than enemies and he did his best to take precautions against any misbehavior by his soldiers. In fact, others tried to thwart him and hurt his career because they thought he was being entirely too kind and lenient toward the enemies of Japan. Whenever he found out about this, such as a plan to assassinate a leading Filipino politician, he acted quickly to stop such activity and punish the perpetrators according to the strict regulations of the Imperial Japanese Army. As for the treatment of American prisoners, particularly the "Bataan Death March" -he had nothing to do with it. General Homma was a careful commander and one who put his troops first. He did not want to waste the lives of his men and because of this cautious approach, some in the high command thought he lacked aggression and so they effectively replaced him just after the fall of Corregidor, the last offensive that knocked out the final Filipino-American resistance. So, even though at the time the prisoners on Bataan were taken and moved, General Homma was listed still as commander of the XIV Army, in fact, he was not and he had nothing to do with the mistreatment of prisoners. In fact, all such activities were done in violation of his clear orders that surrendered troops were to be well treated.

Forced to retire in 1943, partly because of his very humanitarian policies, it was the height of injustice that, when the war was over, he was singled out for prosecution as a "war criminal". Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Frank Murphy even protested the verdict, saying that it was completely unjust and amounted to nothing more than an act of vengeance. He was prosecuted not because of anything he did wrong but because he had made the U.S. Army look bad by conquering The Philippines which they thought would be easily defended against Japan. General Douglas MacArthur had a long relationship with the Philippines and had been humiliated as "Dugout Doug" by the battle and his escape from the Philippines (on presidential order) in a submarine to escape the victorious Japanese forces under General Homma. This was the real, underlying reason for his prosecution. A number of fair-minded Americans protested the "guilty" verdict and his wife pleaded with General MacArthur to show mercy to her husband. However, this was not done, the only courtesy given to him being that he was executed by firing squad like a soldier rather than hanged like a common criminal as was usually the case. He was executed on April 3, 1946.

General Homma was certainly not a "war criminal" by any means. He was an honorable and upright commander and a very successful war hero that Japan should be proud of.

General Yamashita Tomoyuki 山下 奉文

When one thinks of the great military figures of World War II, the names most likely to come to mind are, naturally, those from the winning side; names like General Eisenhower, General Patton, General MacArthur or Field Marshal Montgomery. Some, even at the time, did also point out the military talent employed by the Axis forces and names like Manstein, Model and Rommel are remembered as well. Not as often remembered is the name of General Yamashita of the Japanese Imperial Army. Yet it was General Yamashita, nicknamed the “Tiger of Malaya” who inflicted the most stunning defeat ever suffered by the forces of the British Empire. One would think the man who accomplished what so many at the time considered absolutely impossible, the capture of the British fortress-city of Singapore, would be better known. It was possibly the most astounding single victory of the entire war and yet, while the fall of Singapore has certainly not been forgotten, little is ever said about the man who carried it out. There are presumably a number of reasons for this, but it may also be possible that part of the reason is that the fate of General Yamashita after the war must stand as one of the great injustices of the period which the presiding Allied powers would prefer to be forgotten.

Yamashita Tomoyuki was born on November 8, 1885 in Osugi village (today Otoyo village) in Kochi prefecture on Shikoku. His father was the town doctor but Yamashita was trained for a military career from early in life, his family sacrificing to send him to military school and finally to the Imperial Japanese Army Academy from which he graduated, a respectable eighteenth place in 1905. Promoted in the following years, Yamashita saw his first combat as a junior officer in World War I in the capture of the German colony in Shantung, China in 1914. Promoted to captain, he graduated from the Army War College, sixth in his class, in 1916. That same year he married the daughter of a veteran, retired general. From World War I and into the following years Yamashita became known as an expert on Germany. He was posted to Switzerland and Germany in those years before returning to Japan in 1922, was promoted to major and served at the Staff College and the Imperial high command. He earned further promotion but his career suffered due to the political intrigues within the Imperial Japanese Army.

As part of the “Imperial Way Faction”, Colonel Yamashita was part of the group that wanted to return to ancient Japanese values, eradicate all western influences, socialism, capitalism, bureaucrats and political parties. They imagined having a “Showa Restoration” that would restore the Emperor to total, direct power over the government and then wage a climactic fight to the death against the emerging power of the Soviet Union. However, opposing them was the “Control Faction” led by General Hideki Tojo, composed of more mainstream conservatives who favored a more cautious and defensive approach to national expansion. They also tended to favor more industrialization and technological developments in weaponry over spiritual purity and the samurai warrior code (and the big business capitalists would be key to funding that) while keeping politics centralized and apart from the person of the Emperor. When General Tojo and the “Control Faction” gained ascendancy Colonel Yamashita and his compatriots were moved out of the way and he was transferred to Austria in 1928, though still promoted to full colonel the next year.

Fortunately for Yamashita, his talent continually allowed him to escape from difficult situations brought on by his nationalist political beliefs. In 1930 he was given the very prestigious command of the third infantry regiment of the Imperial Guard. By the summer of 1934 he had achieved the rank of major general. However, on February 26, 1936 a group of young army officers attempted a coup. Part of the plan included the assassination of the prime minister and taking control of the Imperial Palace. They were unsuccessful and Yamashita had no part in it, however, he asked for leniency toward the perpetrators and because of that earned the disapproval of the Emperor who was appalled by such a breakdown of discipline. In the aftermath of this incident, Yamashita changed his politics somewhat and became increasingly alarmed by the belligerency of many of those in power. He opposed expanding the war with China, in fact he favored ending it completely as Yamashita viewed it as a drain on the Japanese army with little to gain from it. He also opposed those in power who advocated a war against the United States and Great Britain. This was not a total break from the past, however, as the Imperial Army in general and the faction Yamashita had been associated with in particular had always focused on the Soviets as the real threat Japan faced while the Imperial Navy tended to favor a focus on southeast Asia which would have meant war with Britain and America.

After good service fighting insurgents in northern China as commander of the Fourth Division, General Yamashita was given command of the 25th Army in November of 1941, part of the Southern Expeditionary Army Group in what was then French Indochina (Vietnam). After the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the outbreak of war between Japan, the United States and Great Britain, General Yamashita launched the invasion of British-held Malaya on December 8, 1941. This would prove to be the high point of his military career and he performed his assigned duties brilliantly, defying the odds and astonishing military experts around the world. Thanks to careful study beforehand and the assistance of Malaysians opposed to British colonial rule, General Yamashita had far more information on his enemy than they had on his forces. Undermanned to begin with, the British forces suffered a setback at the start when Japanese air forces (operating out of French bases in Saigon) managed to destroy most British warplanes on the ground, giving them almost uncontested control of the skies over the battlefield. With initial attacks coming overland from Thailand and from amphibious landings by the sea, the British were pressed on multiple fronts and had to fall back. However, most expected that the rough terrain and dense jungles of the Malaysian peninsula would force the Japanese advance to be painfully slow and that the British would have plenty of time to counter them.

However, General Yamashita surprised everyone with the speed of his advance, making use of light tanks (British forces in the region had none) and most famously bicycles which allowed his men to move quickly through narrow jungle paths. When necessary the Japanese could also be picked up on the coast and moved by sea around impenetrable areas of the jungle. Troops brought in from India were soon defeated by the more experienced Japanese and as the British retreated, moving European residents to safety, many Malaysians felt themselves abandoned and began to turn against the British. On January 11, 1942 the Imperial Japanese Army marched unopposed into the capitol of Kuala Lumpur. This was blitzkrieg Asian style and observers were astonished by the speed and strength of General Yamashita’s advance. The 11th Indian Division offered stout resistance at Kampar, holding up the Japanese advance for a few days, but with control of the coastal seas, General Yamashita was able to outflank them with an amphibious landing and resume his advance southward. British imperial forces (mostly Indian troops) fell back to the Slim River where General Yamashita launched a daring nighttime attack that utterly devastated two Indian brigades and which prompted the top British commander, General Arthur Percival to replace the Indian Division with Australian troops.

At Johor, the British forces made their ‘last stand’ as it were on the Malaysian peninsula and the defending Australian troops made a ferocious and determined defense which held up the Japanese advance and inflicted heavy casualties. Again, General Yamashita moved to outflank the strong point and, unfortunately for the British, the west coast was defended by an Indian brigade that was inexperienced and poorly trained. The Japanese forces easily defeated them and the supporting Australian units also suffered heavy casualties before being cut off and forced to withdraw. However, their determination had bought time for the bulk of the British colonial forces to retreat. However, there was no real safe place for them to retreat to as General Percival had not allowed the construction of any defensive fortifications on the grounds that these would be bad for morale! Such an attitude, not uncommon amongst American forces at the beginning of the war either, can only be attributed to a (probably racist) over-confidence and underestimation of the military prowess of the Japanese. By January 31, 1942 the last of the British forces had left the Malaysian peninsula and blown up the causeway connecting Johor and Singapore. General Yamashita had conquered Malaysia and done it with greater speed and ease than anyone had thought possible.

Singapore was the great British bastion of the region, known as the “Gibraltar of the Far East” it had long been deemed an impregnable fortress by military experts. Yet, the British had never expected an Asian power to attack from the mainland and the fortifications of Singapore were built to withstand an attack from the sea by rival colonial powers from Europe. Still, they were fighting a defensive battle from a fortified base against an enemy they had outnumbered to a considerable extent. Nonetheless, General Yamashita knew he had the momentum of his offensive behind him. Already he was being called the “Tiger of Malaya” for his rapid advance and he kept up the pressure, doing all in his power to give the British the impression of having an irrepressible force. To an extent, the battle came down to nerve and General Yamashita successfully gambled that the British were already beaten in their minds. When the British requested a truce to discuss terms, General Yamashita executed a perfect bluff, giving the impression that Singapore was already at his mercy and that the garrison could be crushed swiftly and easily. The ferocity of his repetitive attacks, combined with his confident attitude made it all work perfectly. General Arthur Percival believed he was totally outmatched and on  surrendered Singapore and his entire garrison to General Yamashita on February 15, 1942. The most formidable British military base in Asia had fallen to a Japanese force of only about 30,000 that, by that time, were practically out of ammunition. In the whole campaign over 100,000 British and Commonwealth troops had been captured and the fall of Singapore marked the largest mass surrender of British troops in history.

General Yamashita became an instant hero in Japan and British morale suffered with Prime Minister Churchill calling the loss of Singapore the worst disaster in British military history. However, Yamashita still had enemies in high places and his success worked against him. Not long after his greatest triumph, General Hideki Tojo had Yamashita reassigned to a relatively unimportant command in the Empire of Manchukuo. He did not return to front-line duty until 1944 when, after Tojo and his government had fallen due to the worsening war situation, he was assigned to the Japanese forces defending The Philippines. Unfortunately for the general, he had little time to organize things as American forces began landing only ten days after his arrival. The fighting was brutal and ugly but General Yamashita performed with his old brilliance. Against impossible odds he maintained a slow, fighting withdrawal that inflicted heavy losses on the Allies. He was still holding out, his army reduced to around 50,000 men, when the Emperor announced the unconditional surrender of Japan. Upon learning of this, General Yamashita surrendered his army to Allied forces led by U.S. General Wainwright and British General Percival, the same man who had surrendered Singapore to him.

What happened next was a disgraceful display of injustice by the victorious Allied nations. Rather than wait for a full, formal trial, General Yamashita was accused of war crimes and brought before an American military tribunal in Manila. A full re-telling of the complete travesty of justice that was the “trial” of General Yamashita would be extensive but, in brief, he was being held responsible for atrocities carried out without his orders and, indeed, without even his knowledge. Even a number of American personnel were outraged by the treatment of General Yamashita and warned their countrymen to consider the possibility that someday that same measure of justice might be employed against their own generals. Their championing of his case, though futile, was enough to impress General Yamashita who, despite having every justification for feeling nothing but hatred toward the United States, came away impressed with the integrity of those who defended him so vigorously even if unsuccessfully. As expected, he was swiftly condemned and ordered to face execution, yet even at the end, General Yamashita had nothing but kind words for the Americans who had argued his case saying, “I don’t blame my executioner. I’ll pray the gods bless them.”

Just to be clear, not only was General Yamashita not guilty of wrongdoing, he had displayed his honorable and upright attitude as a soldier on many occasions. For example, after the fall of Singapore, a small group of Japanese soldiers massacred most of the staff and patients at Alexandra Hospital. When he learned of this, General Yamashita had the officer in charge executed and he personally apologized to the survivors for what had happened. In the aftermath he had several Japanese soldiers executed for looting and unlawful killings. The larger atrocities for which he was blamed occurred in the Philippines but the truth is that Yamashita had not known of these events, he certainly had not ordered them and he was not even in a position to have stopped them had he known as he was not the senior officer present. It was Rear Admiral Sanji Iwabuchi who had taken command and decided to make a fight in Manila, an operation General Yamashita had opposed as futile and wasteful. However, Admiral Iwabuchi was not available for punishment as he had killed himself with a hand grenade just before Manila fell to the American forces. General Yamashita was made to become a scapegoat and it also helped that he had been responsible for one of the worst defeats the Allies had suffered in World War II.

General Tomoyuki Yamashita was hanged on February 23, 1946 at Laguna Prison Camp, 30 miles south of Manila. His lawyers appealed his case to the U.S. Supreme Court which upheld the decision (not surprisingly as few would even think of sparing so prominent a Japanese general in the aftermath of World War II) but the two justices who dissented from the decision, for the first time, spoke of international human rights and called the entire trial “a miscarriage of justice, an exercise in vengeance, and a denial of human rights”. Nonetheless, the precedent set by the trial of General Yamashita remains in effect to this day. It is only fortunate for the Allies, particularly the Americans, that they have never yet suffered a defeat which placed any of their commanders in the position of being held responsible for the crimes of others even if they had no knowledge of them whatsoever. What should be perfectly clear is that General Yamashita was not a war criminal. He was an honorable man, one of the most successful commanders the Imperial Japanese Army has ever had and a commander who won a campaign and a battle that must stand as one of the most astounding in military history.