Nara Akira (1888-1964)

Nara Akira was a 1927 guest and graduate of the U.S. Army Infantry School. By the outbreak of the Pacific War, he was a lieutenant general in command of 65 Independent Mixed Brigade, a garrison formation composed of reservists intended for garrison duty in the Philippines. He considered his unit "absolutely unfit for combat." His unit was thrown into combat at Bataan and suffered heavily: Nara wanted three days to survey the area, but was told to attack at once (Morton 1952):

Imperfect maps were the greatest drawback as far as directing the battle was concerned.

Nara himself retired by the end of 1942 and survived the war. He has been accused of ordering a massacre of some 400 Filipino prisoners of war near Mariveles (Farolan 2011, Norman and Norman 2009) but was never brought to trial.

Toland (1970) describes Nara as "a stocky, middle-aged man".

Service record

References

Farolan (2011-5-11; accessed 2011-8-6)

Fuller (1992)

Generals.dk (accessed 2008-4-8)

Morton (1952; accessed 2011-8-6)

Norman and Norman (2009)

Toland (1970)

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