1. Masaharu Homma was a lieutenant general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.
23 Facts About Masaharu Homma
1. 2.
Masaharu Homma was born on Sado Island, in the Sea of Japan off Niigata Prefecture.
3.
Masaharu Homma graduated in the 14th class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1907, and in the 27th class of the Army Staff College in 1915.
4.
Masaharu Homma had a deep respect for, and some understanding of, the West, having spent eight years as a military attache in the United Kingdom.
5.
From 1930 to 1932, Masaharu Homma was again sent as a military attache to the United Kingdom, where his proficiency in the English language was useful.
6.
Masaharu Homma was assigned to be part of the Japanese delegation to the Geneva Disarmament Conference in 1932 and served with the press section of the Army Ministry from 1932 to 1933.
7.
Masaharu Homma was given a field command again, as commander of the IJA 1st Infantry Regiment from 1933 to 1935, and was promoted to command the IJA 32nd Infantry Brigade from 1935 to 1936.
8.
In 1937, Masaharu Homma was appointed aide-de-camp to Prince Chichibu, a brother of the Emperor.
9.
Masaharu Homma then served as the commander of the Taiwan Army of the Imperial Armed Forces, and composed the lyric of the military song "Taiwan Army".
10.
Masaharu Homma was promoted to lieutenant general in July 1938.
11.
Masaharu Homma was removed from his position at the front lines, and reassigned to become commander in chief of the Taiwan Army District from 1940 to 1941.
12.
Masaharu Homma ordered his troops to treat the Filipinos not as enemies but as friends, and respect their customs and religion.
13.
Masaharu Homma failed to give credence to the possibility that a retreat into the Bataan Peninsula by Filipino-American forces might succeed in upsetting the Japanese timetable.
14.
Masaharu Homma became known as the Beast of Bataan among Allied soldiers.
15.
The New York Times erroneously reported prior to the fall of Bataan that Masaharu Homma was replaced by General Yamashita, and that Masaharu Homma had committed suicide.
16.
Masaharu Homma retired from the military and lived in semiseclusion in Japan until the end of the war.
17.
Masaharu Homma was arraigned on December 19,1945, and the trial was held at the High Commissioner's Residence, Manila, between January 3 and February 11,1946.
18.
Masaharu Homma publicly stated that the POWs would be treated fairly.
19.
On February 11,1946, Masaharu Homma was convicted of all counts and sentenced "to be shot to death with musketry", which is considered to be more honorable than a sentence of death by hanging.
20.
Masaharu Homma's wife visited Douglas MacArthur to urge a careful review of her husband's case.
21.
MacArthur affirmed the tribunal's sentence, and Masaharu Homma was executed by firing squad by American forces on April 3,1946, in Los Banos, Laguna, a few kilometers from the former internment camp at the University of the Philippines Los Banos.
22.
Various claims and charges have been lodged that Masaharu Homma's trial was unfair or biased and that his trial and execution served primarily to avenge Masaharu Homma's defeat of General MacArthur's forces.
23.
General Arthur Trudeau, a member of the five-member tribunal that condemned Masaharu Homma, said in a 1971 interview,.