| Tomoyuki Yamashita | |
|---|---|
| 8 November 1885 - 23 February 1946 | |
 General Tomoyuki Yamashita |
|
| Nickname | The Tiger of Malaya |
| Place of birth | Kōchi prefecture, Japan |
| Place of death | Manila, Philippines |
| Allegiance | Empire of Japan |
| Service/branch |  Imperial Japanese Army |
| Years of service | 1905 -1945 |
| Rank | General |
| Commands | IJA 4th Division, IJA 25th Army, IJA 1st Army, IJA 14th Area Army |
| Battles/wars | Second Sino-Japanese War World War II |
- This is a Japanese name; the family name is Yamashita.
General Tomoyuki Yamashita (山下 奉文 Yamashita Tomoyuki?, 8 November 1885 - 23 February 1946) was a general of the Japanese Imperial Army during the World War II. He was most famous for conquering the British colonies of Malaya and Singapore, earning the nickname The Tiger of Malaya.
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Biography
Early life and career
Yamashita was born the son of a local doctor Osugi Mura, in what is now part of Ōtoyo village, Kōchi prefecture on the Japanese island of Shikoku. He attended military preparatory schools as a youth. After graduating from the 18th class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1905, he attended the 28th class of the Army War College between 1913 and 1916. Between 1919 and 1921, as a Captain, Yamashita was posted to Berlin and Bern as military attaché. On his return to Japan, he was posted to administrative departments within the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff, where he unsuccessfully promoted a military reduction plan. Despite his ability, Yamashita fell into disfavor as a result of his involvement with adverse political factions within the Japanese military. As a leading member of the "Imperial Way" group, he became a rival to Hideki Tojo and other members of the "Control Faction". After the February 26 Incident of 1936, he also fell into disfavor with Emperor Hirohito due to his appeal for leniency toward the rebel officers involved in the attempted coup.
Early war years
Yamashita insisted that Japan should end the conflict with China and keep peaceful relations with the United States and Great Britain, but he was ignored and subsequently assigned to an unimportant post in the Kwantung Army. From 1938 to 1940, he was assigned to command the IJA 4th Division which saw some action in northern China against Chinese insurgents fighting the occupying Japanese armies. In December of 1940, Yamashita was sent on a clandestine military mission to Germany and Italy, where he met with Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
Malaya and Singapore
On 6 November 1941, Yamashita was put in command of the Twenty-Fifth Army. On 8 December, he launched an invasion of Malaya, from bases in French Indochina. In the campaign, which concluded with the fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942, Yamashita's 30,000 front-line soldiers captured 130,000 British, Indian and Australian troops, the largest surrender of British-led personnel in history. He became known as the "Tiger of Malaya". The campaign and the subsequent Japanese occupation of Singapore included war crimes committed against captive Allied personnel and civilians, such as the Alexandra Hospital and Sook Ching Massacres. Yamashita's culpability for these events remains a matter of controversy, as some argued that he had failed to prevent them, though he had the officer who instigated the hospital massacre and some soldiers caught looting executed for these acts, and he personally apologied to the surviving patients.[1]
Manchuria
On 17 July 1942, Yamashita was reassigned from Singapore to far-away Manchuria, again having been given a post in commanding the Japanese First Army, and was effectively sidelined for a major part of the Pacific War. It is thought that Prime Minister Tojo was responsible for his banishment, taking advantage of Yamashita's gaffe during a speech made to Singaporean civilian leaders in early 1942, when he referred to the local populace as "citizens of the Empire of Japan". This was considered embarrassing for the Japanese government, who officially did not consider the residents of occupied territories to have the rights or privileges of Japanese citizenship.
The Philippines
In 1944, when the war situation was critical for Japan, Yamashita assumed the command of the Fourteenth Area Army to defend the Philippines. The U.S. Army landed on Leyte on October 20, only ten days after Yamashita's arrival at Manila. On 6 January 1945 the Sixth U.S. Army landed at Lingayen Gulf in Luzon. Yamashita commanded approximately 262,000 troops in three defensive groups. He tried to rebuild his army but was forced to retreat from Manila to the mountains of northern Luzon. Yamashita ordered all troops, except those tasked with security, out of the city. Almost immediately, Rear Admiral Sanji Iwabuchi re-occupied Manila with 16,000 sailors, with the intent of destroying all port facilities and naval storehouses. Once there, Iwabuchi took command of the 3,750 Army security troops, and against Yamashita's specific order, turned the city into a battlefield.[1] The actions of the Japanese garrison resulted in the deaths of more than 100,000 Filipino civilians, in what would be later known as the Manila Massacre, during the fierce street fighting for the capital which raged from February 4 to March 3. Yamashita used delaying tactics to maintain his army in Kiangan, (part of the Ifugao Province), until 2 September 1945, after the surrender of Japan. His forces, by then numbering less than 50,000, surrendered to Allied Generals Arthur Percival and Jonathan Wainwright. Although Yamashita might have been expected to commit suicide prior to this surrender, he reportedly explained his decision not to kill himself by saying that if he did "someone else will have to take the blame."[2]
Trial and controversy
From 29 October to 7 December 1945, an American military tribunal tried General Yamashita for war crimes relating to the Manila Massacre and sentenced him to death. This case has become a precedent regarding the command responsibility for war crimes and is known as the Yamashita Standard. During his trial, the defense attorneys who challenged Douglas MacArthur deeply impressed General Yamashita with their dedication to the case, and reaffirmed his respect for his former enemies. American lawyer Harry E. Clarke, Sr., then a U.S. Army colonel, served as chief counsel for the defense, even going so far as to appeal the decision of the military commission to the U.S. Supreme Court, which affirmed the conviction by a vote of 7-2, with Justices Frank Murphy and Wiley Blount Rutledge each writing strong dissenting opinions. The legitimacy of the hasty trial was questioned by many at the time, including U.S. Supreme Court Justice Murphy, who protested various procedural issues, the inclusion of hearsay evidence, and the general lack of professional conduct by the prosecuting officers. The considerable body of evidence that Yamashita did not have ultimate command responsibility over all military units in the Philippines (such as the Imperial Japanese Navy units at the Battle of Manila) was not allowed in court. [3]
Death
Following the Supreme Court decision, an appeal for clemency was made to U.S. President Harry S. Truman. The President, however, declined to act and thereby left the matter entirely in the hands of the military. In due time, General MacArthur announced that he had confirmed the sentence of the Commission. On 23 February 1946, at Los Banos Prison Camp, 30 miles south of Manila, Tomoyuki Yamashita was hanged. After climbing the steps leading to the gallows, he was asked if he had a final statement. To this Yamashita replied through a translator:
| “ | As I said in the Manila Supreme Court that I have done with my all capacity, so I don't ashame in front of the Gods for what I have done when I have died. But if you say to me `you do not have any ability to command the Japanese Army' I should say nothing for it, because it is my own nature. Now, our war criminal trial going on in Manila Supreme Court, so I wish to be justify under your kindness and right. I know that all your American and American military affairs always has tolerant and rightful judgment. When I have been investigated in Manila court I have had a good treatment, kindful attitude from your good natured officers who all the time protect me. I never forget for what they have done for me even if I had died. I don't blame my executioner. I'll pray the Gods bless them. Please send my thankful word to Col. Clarke and Lt. Col. Feldhaus, Lt. Col. Hendrix, Maj. Guy, Capt. Sandburg, Capt. Reel, at Manila court, and Col. Arnard. I thank you. | ” |
Yamashita was an imposing figure, with a prominent part of his uniform being a pair of black riding boots with spurs cast from gold. On the day he was sentenced to death, General Yamashita presented them to his American attorney, Major George F. Guy, as a gift. His chief of staff in the Philippines, Akira Mutō, was executed on December 1948 after having been found guilty of war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.
Personal life
Yamashita married the daughter of Japanese General Nagayama in 1916. They did not have any children. He enjoyed fishing, music and despite numerous opportunities, decided not to learn how to drive an automobile, preferring to ride instead.
Events named after Yamashita
References
- ^ John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire 1936-1945, Random House, 1970, p. 677
- ^ General Tomoyuki Yamashita, page 3, Nat Helms, originally in World War II Magazine, February 1996, verified 2006-09-16
- ^ Barber, The Yamashita Trial Revisited
- CASE NO. 21; TRIAL OF GENERAL TOMOYUKI YAMASHITA; UNITED STATES MILITARY COMMISSION, MANILA, (8TH OCTOBER-7TH DECEMBER, 1945), AND THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES (JUDGMENTS DELIVERED ON 4TH FEBRUARY, 1946). Source: Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals. Selected and Prepared by the United Nations War Crimes Commission. Volume IV. London: HMSO, 1948. Document compiled by Dr S D Stein, Faculty of Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences University of the West of England
- Aubrey Saint Kenworthy, The Tiger of Malaya: The story of General Tomoyuki Yamashita and "Death March" General Masaharu Homma, Exposition Press, 1951
- Reel, A. Frank. The Case of General Yamashita. The University of Chicago Press, 1949.
- Taylor, Lawrence. A Trial of Generals. Icarus Press, Inc, 1981.
- Yoji, Akashi. 'General Yamashita Tomoyuki: Commander of the 25th Army', in Sixty Years On:The Fall of Singapore Revisited. Eastern Universities Press, 2002.
Further reading
- The Defense of General Yamashita by George F. Guy, one of the defenders of General Yamashita
- WW2DB: Tomoyuki Yamashita with a private collection of photographs of Yamashita
- Last Words of the Tiger of Malaya, General Yamashita Tomoyuki by Yuki Tanaka, research professor at the Hiroshima Peace Institute (Tanaka's commentary is followed by the full text of Yamashita's statement).
- Laurie Barber The Yamashita War Crimes Trial Revisited from Issue 2, Volume 1, September 1998 The Electronic Journal of Military History within the History Department at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
