19 Facts About Yasuji Okamura

Yasuji Okamura was a general of the Imperial Japanese Army, and commander-in-chief of the China Expeditionary Army from November 1944 to the end of World War II.

Yasuji Okamura was tried but found not guilty of any war crimes by the Shanghai War Crimes Tribunal after the war.

Yasuji Okamura entered the 16th class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1899 and graduated in 1904.

Yasuji Okamura's classmates included the future generals Itagaki Seishiro, Kenji Doihara and Ando Rikichi.

Yasuji Okamura was commissioned a second lieutenant in the IJA 1st Infantry Regiment.

In 1910, Yasuji Okamura entered the 25th class of the Army War College, and was promoted to captain soon after graduation in 1913.

Yasuji Okamura served in a number of staff positions on the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff during and after World War I including an assignment to Beijing in June 1914.

Yasuji Okamura was assigned to China in 1923, and served as a military advisor to Chinese warlord general Sun Chuanfang, in this capacity, he gathered many vital information and war maps, which later were used in the military operations of the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Yasuji Okamura was promoted to colonel in July 1927 and returned to Japan to command the IJA 6th Infantry Regiment.

From August 1929, Yasuji Okamura was appointed as Assistant Director of Human Resources Bureau in the Ministry of the Army.

From 1932 to 1933, Yasuji Okamura was Deputy chief-of-staff of the Shanghai Expeditionary Army under the aegis of the Kwantung Army.

Yasuji Okamura served as military attache to Manchukuo from 1933 to 1934, and played a role in the negotiations for the Tanggu Truce between Japan and China.

Yasuji Okamura was promoted to lieutenant general in 1936, and assigned command of the IJA 2nd Division.

In 1938, a year after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, Yasuji Okamura was assigned as the commander in chief of the Japanese Eleventh Army, which participated in numerous major engagements in the Second Sino-Japanese War, notably the Battles of Wuhan, Nanchang and Changsha.

In December 1941, Yasuji Okamura received Imperial General Headquarters Order Number 575 authorizing the implementation of the Three Alls Policy in north China, aimed primarily at breaking the Chinese Red Army.

In 1944, Yasuji Okamura was overall commander of the massive and largely successful Operation Ichigo against airfields in southern China, while retaining personal command of the Japanese Sixth Area Army.

The Nationalist regime of Chiang Kai-Shek intervened to protect Yasuji Okamura from repeated American requests that he testify at the Tokyo war crimes trial.

Yasuji Okamura remained as an advisor to the Nationalist government until he was decommissioned in January 1949 and returned to Japan.

Yasuji Okamura was active in the post-war era as advisor to the National Bereaved Family Support Association and formed a group of retired military officers with Chinese experience called the "Paidan", which continued to provide informal support for the Chinese Nationalist government until his death in 1966.