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General Yamashita Tomoyuki (山下 奉文) was a general of
the Japanese Army.
He was born in
Kochi on
8 November
1885. After passing the Cadet's Academy in 1905, he attended to the
military staff college between 1913 and 1916. In the War Ministry, he
promoted an unsuccessful military reduction plan.
Despite his ability, Yamashita got cold treatment in his army. He fell
into disfavor with the
Showa Emperor when he took compassion on the rebel officers of the
February 26 Incident in 1936. He also clashed with
Tojo Hideki and his faction. Yamashita insisted that Japan should end
the conflict with China and keep peaceful relations with the U.S. and
Great Britain, but he was put to an unimportant post in the Kwantung Army.
In 1941 he was placed in the command of the Twentyfifth Army. In the
Malayan campaign, his 30,000 soldiers successfully forced British 10,000
enemies in Singapore to surrender. The national hero was, however, sent to
far-away Manchuria again.
In 1944 when the war situation was critical for Japan, General
Yamashita assumed the command of the Fourteenth Army Group to defend the
Philippines. The U.S. army landed Leyte only ten days after his arrival at
Manila. He trid to rebuild his army but was forced to retreat from Manila
to the mountains of northern Luzon. He used delaying tactics until
unconditional surrender in September 1945.
An American military commission tried General Yamashita and sentenced
him to death. He was hanged on February 23, 1946. The hasty trial is often
questioned about legitimacy. He was accused for his soldiers' crimes that
he had never ordered or did not even know mainly because of communication
disruption by the U.S. army. It is believed that the "scheduled" judgement
was General MacArthur's private revenge for the occupier of "his"
Philippines. In the meanwhile, the dedicated defenses, who challenged the
five-star dictator, deeply impressed General Yamashita and demonstrated
American diversity.
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