Japanese Villains of WW2

We have a thread about Japanese heroes of WW2 who fought well for their country in an honorable manner, not committing war crimes, etc. Might as well have one about Japanese bad boys of WW2 who were executed or imprisoned for war crimes and/or atrocities. Many aren't as well-known as the German scuzzballs are, so let's present a little skinny about them.

First, some juries are still out on Hirohito as th whether he was a hero or villain. While he did nothing to prevent the war nor try to end it til Japan was being crushed, nor did he try to prevent the war against China, he did try to caution the militants against starting it with the US & Britain. When Tojo became Premier, & was preparing for war, he recited a poem to him & the military brass composed by his grandfather Meiji: "It is our hope That all the world’s oceans Be joined in peace, So why do the winds and waves Now rise up in angry rage? " (One of Meiji's some 100K traditional Waka poems he wrote) And he ordered Japan's surrender, still unsure of his own fate. And his cooperation with Mac Arthur & the occupying US forces is a matter of public record.So, I rate him a hero, given the fact that surrender was against almost all Japanese culture.
Now for the villains. Let's start at the top:
GENERAL(LATER PREMIER) HIDEKI TOJO (1884-1948) premier of Japan during much of WW2. A stern, humurless man, he said his only hobby was his work. He fathered 6 children, but refused to have anything to do with their upbringing, considering it womans' work & a distraction for him. He routinely slapped subordinates' faces while he was a general. In 1922, he took a train ride across the US while heading home from germany, & concluded Americans were a soft, hedonistic people. This led to his later desiring war with the US. And he was greatly offended by a 1924m US law banning all Asiatic immigration into the US.

despite his harshness, Tojo often visited his men & assisted with personal problems, including lending money & not asking for it back, thus endearing him to many officers & enlisted men alike. he became head of the Kenpeitai, the Japanese equivalent to the nazi Gestapo. After a 1936 coup attempt by some army officers, he had them rounded up & executed.

He became Chief of Staff for the Kwangtung Army in China in 1937, expanding their activity against China. But he did one commendable thing: he received & protected Jewish refugees fleeing the fighting in Manchukuo despite German protests.

When Prince Fumimaro Konoe became Prime Minister, he called upon Tojo to be Army Minister, a post he held til Konoe's govt. failed due to its impasse with the US who wanted a complete Japanese withdrawal from China. Hirohito appointed Tojo to replace him in October 1941, as he was completely loyal to Hirohito, & remained so til the end. He held the post til the loss of Saipan, also keeping the post of Army Minister.

Tojo was responsible for ordering the start of the war, and for perpetrating many atrocities against POWs & enemy civilians, particularly Chinese. He was affected badly by "Victory Disease" brought on by Japan's string of uninterrupted victories from Dec. 7. 1941 thru early May 1942. He wanted Australia & India completely taken, as well as all of China & even some South American nations, & parts of the US & Canada. His staff reminded him that was impossible; Japan didn't have enough men nor resources to take either all of China or Australia, let alone India or anything else on his list.

He failed to provide any bureaucracy for administering the conquered territories, leaving governing up to local Army commanders. Thus, many of those commanders, adhering strictly to the Bushido warrior code, mistreated many of the conquered people under their rule. Tojo, of course , went along with them.

Tojo came under fire from the military's top brass as the war went against Japan, with their defeat in Saipan being the straw that broke the camel's back. While he then resigned, he was still a ganeral & was sometimes consulted.

After the surrender, MacArthur had him arrested. He cut his wrists & shot himself in the chest with a pistol, but missed his heart. US medics nursed him back to health, even making him a new set of dentures. He was tried in 1948 by the International Military tribune of the Far east & was found guilty of ordering aggressive unprovoked war & ordering, condoning, & contriving atrocities against POWs & civilians in nations conquered by Japan. He was hanged on Dec. 23, 1948.

Many Japanese still consider him a hero, however, & part of his ashes are enshrined at the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, where some 1068 convicted war criminals are honored, among some 2 million Japanese people & pets killed in various wars.

 

GENERAL MASAHARU HOMMA (1887-1946) was Commander of the Japanese 14th Army that invaded the Philippines. After advancing thru the ranks, he made Lieutenant general in 1938, & just before the war broke out, he was given command of the 14th Army & tasked with conquering the Philippines.

He was judged as not being aggressive enough to command an army, given his uninspiring Philippine performance, taking thru Apr. 1942 to win, despite having complete control of air & sea, with no supplies or reinforcements able to reach the Allies. He was removed from actual control of that army, being Commander in name only. However, while he was still Commander, the "Bataan Death March" was forced upon the Allied POWs, with some 5500 of them dying enroute. Homma was blamed for knowing about the weakened condition of most of his prisoners, but allowing the march anyway.

He was forced to retire from the army in 1943, & was arrested after the war for allowing the atrocities that occurred while he was in command. After a somewhat lengthy & controversial trial held at the High Commissioner's residence in Manila, he was found guilty, but not convicted of directly initiating any atrocities, even though he did nothing to prevent them while having knowledge of them. Thus, he was not sentenced to the dishonorable death of hanging, but to a "more-honorable" death by firing squad, which was carried out by Americans Apr. 3, 1946.

 

GEN. IWANE MATSUI (1878-1948)- This General had retired from active duty in 1935, but answered a call to return to command japanese troops in the Battle of Shanghai. He won that battle, then convinced the High Command to let him advance to Nanking, which he captured. His soldiers committed the notorious "Rape of Nanking", murdering many civilians & POWs. Matsui knew of this, & did nothing to stop it.

He retired from the service in 1938, but was arrested after the war & convicted of permitting the massacre in Nanking, & hanged Dec. 23, 1948.

 

GEN. HEITARO KIMURA(1888-1948) held, among other roles, the office of Commander-In Chief of the Burma-area armies of Japan. He was arrested after the war & charged with plotting aggressive war against Burma & allowing the murders of Allied POWs & Burmese & Chinese civilians in Burma. He was convicted & hanged Dec. 23, 1948.

 

GEN.SEISHIRO ITAGAKI(1885-1948) was Chief of Staff & later, Commander of the Kwantung Army in China. He served as War Minister 1938-39, then returned to China as Commander of the China Expeditionary Army until its crushing defeat by Soviet forces at Nomonhan in 1939, after which he was assigned to the "Chosen Army" in Korea, a backwater post. He & this army were sent to Singapore in 1945, where they later surrendered with all other Japanese forces in Southeast Asia to Lorf Louis Mountbatten, the Allied Commander-In Chief of that area.

He was arrested & charged with the seizure of Manchuria, escalating the war while war Minister, & for allowing the inhumane treatment of prisoners while in command in Southeast Asia. On that last charge, he was convicted & sentenced to death. He was hanged Dec. 23, 1948.


I hope these brief little write-ups of lesser-known Japanese war cdriminals are enlightening to history students. While some Axis members were executed for revenge, most were genuine war criminals who carried out , ordered, or permitted the murders or ill treatment of civilians & POWs alike.

 

GENERAL HISAO TANI(1882-1947)

Along with Gens. Matsui & Cho, he was responsible for the nanking massacre. He was extradited to China after the war, tried, & found guilty. He was shot by a firing squad in 1947.

GEN. ISAMU CHO (1895-1945)

was also responsible for the Nanking massacre. He escaped justice(at least on earth) for his crimes, as he was 2nd-in-command on Okinawa, & committed seppuku with the commander, Gen. Ushijima, when the battle was lost & almost-over.

 

DR. SHIRO ISHII(1892-1959)

Was a notorious war criminal who "got away with it.". He was head of "Unit 731", a group in China with the Kwantung Army that carried out biological experiments, deliberately infecting Chinese prisoners with diseases including bubonic plague, anthrax, & cholera, before becoming Japan's Surgeon General.
While arrested after the war, he convinced American authorities to grant him immunity from war crime prosecution in exchange for full disclosure of the results of his experiments, which actually led to more-positive combatting several dangerous bacterial diseases. He dropped out of sight after concluding his disclosures & being freed. He resurfaced in 1958 to deliver a farewell speech to a meeting of former Unit 731 members, as he was dying of laryngeal cancer. He died in 1959.

 

While most of the guilty Japanese commanders were prosecuted, most of the common soldiers who actually committed the crimes were not. While the US & Japan have had good relations since the war ended, it's very doubtful there'll be any more apologies from one of them to the other. For example, some japanese want a US apology for the A-bombs & the firebombing of their cities, while some Americans want a Japanese apology for the POW situation. It's simply not gonna happen!

The late Gen. LeMay once said that if they'd lost the war, he & Gen. Kenney would've been tried as war criminals, as would many Americans who incinerated Japanese with flamethrowers on some of the Pacific islands without giving them any chance to surrender. (Even though it's likely most would not have surrendered.) And on the other side of the world, British "Bomber" Harris planned & ordered the air raids against German population centers harris, LeMay, & Kinney are heroes

Gen. Sherman was correct in saying "War is hell". In any war, crimes & atrocities are committed by both sides. War criminals are chosen by the winners, simple as THAT.

 

I believe just over 1K Japanese were executed by the other nations for WW2 crimes, with The Netherlands leading the way with 232 executions. Surprisingly, China & Australia didn't execute more, especially China, as they suffered more at Japan's hands than any other nations. (I believe Chiang was more-concerned with Mao than in getting revengs against the Japanese.)

However, to this day, there's some resentment in China & both Koreas against Japan over the war.