Tomoyuki Yamashita
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Tomoyuki Yamashita, 1945 |
General
Tomoyuki Yamashita (山下 奉文
Yamashita Tomoyuki) (
November 8 1885 –
February 23 1946) was a general of the
Japanese Army during the
World War II era. He was the most famous for conquering the British colonies of
Malaya and
Singapore, earning the nickname "The Tiger of Malaya".
Yamashita was born in the small village of Osugi Muraon on the Japanese island of Shikoku on
8 November 1885. After passing the
Cadet's Academy in 1905, he attended the military staff college bhuhetween 1913 and 1916. In the War Ministry, he promoted an unsuccessful military reduction plan. Between 1919 and 1921, then Captain Yamashita worked in the defense attache offices in
Berlin and
Bern,
Switzerland.
Despite his ability, Yamashita received cold treatment in the 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
Hideki Tojo and his reasoning. 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 commanded the 4th Infantry Division and 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.
On
November 6,
1941 Yamashita was placed in the command of the
Twenty-Fifth Army. He became known as the "Tiger of Malaya", as the sweeping invasion from Japanese bases in
Thailand, down the
Malayan peninsula, to
Singapore took only two months. In this Malayan campaign, lasting from
December 8,
1941 to
February 15,
1942, his 30,000 front line soldiers
captured or killed around 130,000
Indian,
Australian and British troops before and during the
Fall of Singapore, the largest surrender of British military personnel in history.
On
July 17,
1942, Yamashita was sent 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, where he referred to the local populace as "citizens of imperial 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.
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General Tomoyuki Yamashita (left) with MP-Major Kenworthy (right) in Manila, 1945, after his surrender. |
In
1944 when the war situation was critical for Japan, General 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
January 6,
1945 the American
Sixth Army landed at Lingayen Bay in Luzon. Yamashita commanded around 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. Before they left, the Japanese garrison, in frustration and anger murdered 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 until Japan surrendered on 2 September
1945 in
Kiangan, part of the
Ifugao Province of the Philippines. His forces, numbering less than 50,000 troops surrendered to Allied Generals
Arthur Percival and
Jonathan Wainwright.
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General Tomoyuki Yamashita at his trial in Manila, November 1945 |
From
October 29 to
December 7,
1945, an American military commission tried General Yamashita for war crimes relating to the "Manila Massacre" and sentenced him to death. Regarding the command responsibility in
war crimes this case has become a precedent and is known as the
Yamashita Standard. The legitimacy of the hasty trial has been called into question by many, as considerable evidence pointed to the fact that Yamashita was either not aware of the atrocities that were committed, or was unable to properly control his soldiers due to communication disruption caused by the U.S. Army during their offensive. (One of the atrocities in Manila was even carried out by a unit that disobeyed his orders to retreat.) Other war crimes were said to have occurred under Yamashita's command; in Singapore when troops had bayoneted hospital patients, (Yamashita promptly executed the officer directly responsible for this), and in the Philippines when Japanese Naval Forces (not under Yamashita's command) holed up in Manila massacred civilians. It is believed that the major reason for Yamashita's trial was General
Douglas MacArthur's desire to avenge the Japanese occupation of the Philippines during the war, although MacArthur's vengeance was misguided as Yamashita was not in charge of, nor present at the 1942 invasion.
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
George F. Guy, then a U.S. Army major served as
