Yamada Otozo (1881-1965)

Wikipedia Commons

Yamada Otozo graduated from the military academy in 1903 and joined the cavalry. Despite seeing no action in the Russo-Japanese War, he rose steadily and was Inspector of Military Training in 1940, making him one of the "Big Three" that controlled the Army. He supported the choice of Tojo as the new War Minister after the fall of the Hiranuma cabinet, believing Tojo could be relied on to take the Army's point of view. He was a full general commanding the General Defense Command of Japan at the outbreak of war. He later became a member of the Supreme War Council. He was given command of the Kwantung Army in July 1944, and bore responsibility for the operations of secret bacteriological warfare units.

Early in 1944 Yamada called up a quarter million Japanese militia in Manchuria. By June 1945 he was insisting to Tokyo that he could not hold the border with the forces that had been allocated to him. The response was to organize large numbers of poorly trained conscripts into eight new divisions and seven new brigades. When the Russians invaded, on 9 August 1944, his dire predictions came true: His army was shattered by 13 August.

He was captured by the Russians in Manchuria and sentenced to 25 years for war crimes, primarily for his involvement in bacteriological experimentation with live prisoners. He was released in 1956 due to ill health.

Yamada was a quiet, sober officer and, like many Japanese officers, a small man.

Service record

References

Fuller (1992)

Generals.dk (accessed 2008-4-4)

Hastings (2007)

Hayashi and Cox (1959)

Hoyt (1993)

Pettibone (2007)

The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007-2008, 2010-2011 by Kent G. Budge. Index

What's new

Comment on this article