10 Facts About Hisakazu Tanaka

Hisakazu Tanaka was a lieutenant general in the Imperial Japanese Army, and governor of Japanese-occupied Hong Kong in World War II.

Hisakazu Tanaka graduated from the 22nd class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1910 and after serving as a junior officer with the IJA 37th Infantry Regiment, he attended the Army's Toyama School and subsequently graduated from the 30th class of the Army Staff College in 1918.

Hisakazu Tanaka served in various bureaucratic staff positions within the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff from 1919 to 1920, and was sent as a military attache to the United States from 1923 to 1924.

Hisakazu Tanaka was promoted to major general at the end of 1937, and briefly assigned as Chief of Staff of the Taiwan Army in 1938.

However, with the increase in military activity in China due to the Second Sino-Japanese War, Hisakazu Tanaka was quickly reassigned to become chief of staff of the newly-formed Japanese Twenty-First Army from 1938 to 1939.

Hisakazu Tanaka was transferred to command the IJA Twenty-Third Army in China from March 1943.

Concurrently, from February 1945 to the end of the war, Hisakazu Tanaka was Governor-General of Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation.

Hisakazu Tanaka was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging.

Hisakazu Tanaka was publicly shot in Canton on 27 March 1947.

Hisakazu Tanaka was buried in Guangzhou and his remains were repatriated back to Japan in 1972.