World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseHaruki Isayama was born in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan in 1894. He graduated from the Japanese Army Academy in 1915. In 1924, he completed his studies at the Japanese Army War College in Tokyo. He served the majority of his career as chief of staff to several regiment and army level formations, both in Japan and on foreign soil (French Indochina, Burma, China, Philippines, and Taiwan). His final major posting was in Taiwan, from Jul 1944 until the end of the war, during which he was Rikichi Ando's Chief of Staff for the Japanese Taiwan Army and then the Japanese 19th Area Army. After the end of the war, he accompanied Ando in the Japanese surrender ceremony in Taiwan; Isayama was the officer who handed the signed surrender document to the Chinese representative Chen Yi. He was arrested by the Chinese in Apr 1946 with the accusations of unlawfully ordering a Japanese military tribunal against captured American prisoners of war (though Isayama did not sign the Japanese military tribunal papers during the war), who were executed by men under Isayama's command. The Shanghai War Crimes Tribunal found him guilty in Jul 1946, and sentenced him to life imprisonment. He was given parole in Sep 1955. He later worked as the managing director of the automotive division of Fuji Heavy Industries, Ltd., which manufactured vehicles under the Subaru brand name. He passed away in 1990.

Haruki Isayama Interactive Map

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Haruki Isayama Timeline