World War II Database

Yasuji Okamura was born in Tokyo, Japan. He attended Waseda University in 1897, the Tokyo Junior Army School and Army Central Junior School in 1898, then the Japanese Army Military Academy from 1900 until 1904. He was posted to China as the vice chief of staff of the Shanghai Expeditionary Army and the Kwantung Army between 1932 and 1933, and played a direct role in recruiting Korean-Japanese women from Nagasaki Prefecture into military brothels in Shanghai, as noted in his memoirs. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general in 1936 with command over the Japanese 2nd Division. In 1938, as the commander of the 11th Army, he participated in a number of battles in China, including the key battles at Wuhan, Nanchang, and Changsha. In Apr 1940, he was promoted to the rank of a full general, followed by the appointment of the commander of the Northern China Area Force three months later. In Dec 1941, Okamura received and obeyed the scorched earth policies dictated by his superiors under army order number 575; his troops were responsible for the killing of over two million Chinese, mostly civlians in Hebei and Shandong, as the result of this order. the authorization for implementation of the sanko sakusen operation. In 1944, Okamura was the commander of Operation Ichigo in southern China with personal command of the 6th Army. Later in the same year he was appointed commander of the China Expeditionary Army. When Japan surrendered on 15 Aug 1945, Okamura represented Japan in the China-Burma-India Theater in the surrender ceremony in Nanjing on 9 Sep 1945. Despite his usage of chemical weapons during the war which was specifically banned by the Geneva convention and his indiscriminating killing of Chinese civilians, he was not charged with any war crimes. He acted as an adviser to the Nationalist Chinese military for 10 years before returning to Japan.

Yasuji Okamura Timeline

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Visitor Submitted Comments

1. Anonymous says:
   22 Jan 2012 11:03:29 AM
   
   it seems ironic that tha chinese nationalist allowed okamuro to be their adviser after what his men did to them.

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