General Okamura Yasuji

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Okamura Yasuji (岡村 寧次) was a general of the Imperial Japanese Army, commander-in-chief of the China Expeditionary Army from November 1944 to the end of World War II, and appointed to surrender all Japanese forces involved in the China Burma India theater. He was tried but found not guilty of any war crimes by the Shanghai War Crimes Tribunal after the war. As one of the Imperial Japanese Army's top China experts, General Okamura spent his entire military career on the Asian mainland.

Born in Tokyo in 1884, Okamura enrolled in Sakamachi Elementary School and graduated eight years later. In 1897, he entered Waseda Junior High School. In 1898, he was transferred to Tokyo Junior Army School, and was transferred to Army Central Junior School later. Okamura entered the 16th class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1899 and graduated in 1904. His classmates included the future generals Itagaki Seishiro, Kenji Doihara and Ando Rikichi. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the IJA 1st Infantry Regiment. In 1907, he was promoted to lieutenant and was assigned to the Army Academy to assist with the training of cadets from China.

In 1910, Okamura entered the 25th class of the Army War College, and was promoted to captain soon after graduation in 1913. He served in a number of staff positions on the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff during and after World War I including an assignment to Beijing in June 1914. From June to December 1921, he was sent as a military attache to the United States and Europe. While at Baden-Baden in Germany, he met with Tetsuzan Nagata, Toshiro Obata and Hideki Tojo, laying the foundation for the Tōseiha political clique within the Japanese Army. On his return to Japan, he was assigned to the 14th Infantry Regiment.

He was assigned to China in 1923, and served as a military advisor to Chinese warlord general Sun Chuanfang, in this capacity, he gathered many vital information and war maps, which later were used in the military operations of the Second Sino-Japanese War.[2] He was promoted to colonel in July 1927 and returned to Japan to command the IJA 6th Infantry Regiment.

From August 1929, Okamura was appointed as Assistant Director of Human Resources Bureau in the Ministry of the Army. He was involved in the March incident, a failed coup d'etat attempt to establish a military dictatorship headed by General Kazushige Ugaki, but received no punishment.

The same year on 31 May, he reached the conclusion of the Heiwa and Tanggu Agreement, which was the plenipotentiary of the National Government Army.

From 1932 to 1933, Okamura was Deputy chief-of-staff of the Shanghai Expeditionary Army under the aegis of the Kwantung Army. According to Okamura's own memoirs, he played a role in the recruitment of comfort women from Nagasaki prefecture to serve in military brothels in Shanghai.

He served as military attaché to Manchukuo from 1933 to 1934, and played a role in the negotiations for the Tanggu Truce between Japan and China.

Okamura was promoted to lieutenant general in 1936, and assigned command of the IJA 2nd Division.

Unit - First Infantry Regiment

Commands

China Expeditionary Army

Northern China Area Army

Eleventh Army

2nd Division

Conflicts

Russo-Japanese War

World War I

Siege of Tsingtao

Jinan incident

January 28 incident

Inner Mongolian Campaign

Defense of the Great Wall

Second Sino-Japanese War

Battle of Wuhan

Battle of Nanchang

Battle of Suixian–Zaoyang

Battle of Changsha (1939)

Winter Offensive (1939-1940)

Battle of Changsha (1944)

Battle of Guilin–Liuzhou

Battle of West Hunan

World War II

Pacific War

Chinese Civil War

First Taiwan Strait Crisis

Second Taiwan Strait Crisis

Awards

Order of the Sacred Treasure First Class

Order of the Golden Kite First Class

Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun

Victory Medal

Military Medal of Honor

Other work

military advisor, veteran Association, author