Tadaichi Wakamatsu

Last updated • 1 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Tadaichi Wakamatsu
Tadakazu Wakamatsu.jpg
Native name
若松 只一
Born(1893-03-08)8 March 1893
Fukushima prefecture, Japan
Died19 November 1959(1959-11-19) (aged 66)
AllegianceMerchant flag of Japan (1870).svg  Empire of Japan
Service / branchWar flag of the Imperial Japanese Army (1868-1945).svg  Imperial Japanese Army
Years of service1914–1945
Rank Lieutenant General
Battles / wars Second Sino-Japanese War
World War II

Tadaichi Wakamatsu (若松 只一, Wakamatsu Tadaichi, 8 March 1893 19 November 1959), also known as Tadakazu Wakamatsu, was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.

In 1935, Wakamatsu was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army General Staff. Under orders from Prince Kan'in Kotohito, Wakamatsu was sent to Berlin, where he was involved in the forging of the Anti-Comintern Pact. [1]

As a general, Wakamatsu served in various army and army group level staff officer positions until he was appointed as the Vice Minister of War in April 1945, during the last months of the Pacific War. In August 1945 he was involved in the Kyūjō incident and played a role in ensuring that the army followed Hirohito's orders to surrender. [2]

After the war Wakamatsu testified as a witness at the Tokyo Trials. [3]

In July 1948, he was arrested on suspicion of being involved in the mistreatment of Allied prisoners of war (POWs) on hell ships. After being tried as a Class B war criminal, he was found guilty and sentenced to prison. [4]

Related Research Articles

<i>Yomiuri Shimbun</i> Japanese newspaper

The Yomiuri Shimbun (讀賣新聞/読売新聞) is a Japanese newspaper published in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and other major Japanese cities. It is one of the five major newspapers in Japan; the other four are The Asahi Shimbun, the Chunichi Shimbun, the Mainichi Shimbun, and the Nihon Keizai Shimbun. It is headquartered in Otemachi, Chiyoda, Tokyo.

<i>The Asahi Shimbun</i> Japanese newspaper

The Asahi Shimbun is one of the five largest newspapers in Japan. Founded in 1879, it is also one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. Its circulation, which was 4.57 million for its morning edition and 1.33 million for its evening edition as of July 2021, was second behind that of the Yomiuri Shimbun. By print circulation, it is the second largest newspaper in the world behind the Yomiuri, though its digital size trails that of many global newspapers including The New York Times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gunichi Mikawa</span> Japanese admiral

Gunichi Mikawa was a vice-admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War II. Mikawa was the commander of a heavy cruiser force that defeated the U.S. Navy and the Royal Australian Navy at the Battle of Savo Island in Ironbottom Sound on the night of 8–9 August 1942.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Takahito, Prince Mikasa</span> Japanese prince (1915–2016)

Takahito, Prince Mikasa was a Japanese prince, the youngest of the four sons of Emperor Taishō (Yoshihito) and Empress Teimei (Sadako). He was their last surviving child. His eldest brother was Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito). After serving as a junior cavalry officer in the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II, Takahito embarked upon a post-war career as a scholar and part-time lecturer in Middle Eastern studies and Semitic languages; he was especially interested in Jewish studies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Surrender of Japan</span> End of World War II, 2 September 1945

The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, ending the war. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) was incapable of conducting major operations and an Allied invasion of Japan was imminent. Together with the United Kingdom and China, the United States called for the unconditional surrender of Japan in the Potsdam Declaration on 26 July 1945—the alternative being "prompt and utter destruction". While publicly stating their intent to fight on to the bitter end, Japan's leaders were privately making entreaties to the publicly neutral Soviet Union to mediate peace on terms more favorable to the Japanese. While maintaining a sufficient level of diplomatic engagement with the Japanese to give them the impression they might be willing to mediate, the Soviets were covertly preparing to attack Japanese forces in Manchuria and Korea in fulfillment of promises they had secretly made to the US and the UK at the Tehran and Yalta Conferences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ryūzō Sejima</span>

Ryūzō Sejima was a Japanese army officer and business leader.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kōji Wakamatsu</span> Japanese film director

Kōji Wakamatsu was a Japanese film director who directed such pink films as Ecstasy of the Angels and Go, Go, Second Time Virgin. He also produced Nagisa Ōshima's controversial film In the Realm of the Senses (1976). He has been called "the most important director to emerge in the pink film genre," and one of "Japan's leading directors of the 1960s".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hundred man killing contest</span> 1937 event during the Japanese invasion of China

The hundred man killing contest was a newspaper account of a contest between Toshiaki Mukai and Tsuyoshi Noda, two Japanese Army officers serving during the Japanese invasion of China, over who could kill 100 people the fastest while using a sword. The two officers were later executed on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their involvement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Torashirō Kawabe</span> Japanese general

Torashirō Kawabe was a general and Deputy Chief of Staff of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff during World War II. He was also the younger brother of General Masakazu Kawabe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seiichi Kuno</span>

Seiichi Kuno was a lieutenant general in the Imperial Japanese Army in the Second Sino-Japanese War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renya Mutaguchi</span> Japanese officer, 1888–1966

Renya Mutaguchi was a Japanese military officer, lieutenant general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II and field commander of the IJA forces during the Battle of Imphal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Air raids on Japan</span> Aerial bombing of Japan during World War II

During the Pacific War, Allied forces conducted air raids on Japan from 1942 to 1945, causing extensive destruction to the country's cities and killing between 241,000 and 900,000 people. During the first years of the Pacific War these attacks were limited to the Doolittle Raid in April 1942 and small-scale raids on military positions in the Kuril Islands from mid-1943. Strategic bombing raids began in June 1944 and continued until the end of the war in August 1945. Allied naval and land-based tactical air units also attacked Japan during 1945.

Yūto Yoshida was a Japanese novelist and member of the Japanese Communist Party. He has published under a variety of pen names, including Seiji Yoshida, Tōji Yoshida, and Eiji Yoshida. He wrote "My war crimes", which is the origin of a dispute over comfort women 30 years after World War II; he admitted that portions of his work had been made up in an interview with Shūkan Shinchō on May 29, 1996. Later, his fictional work was used by George Hicks in his "The Comfort Women: Japan's Brutal Regime of Enforced Prostitution in the Second World War".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kyūjō incident</span> Failed Japanese coup détat in August 1945

The Kyūjō incident was an attempted military coup d'état in the Empire of Japan at the end of the Second World War. It happened on the night of 14–15 August 1945, just before the announcement of Japan's surrender to the Allies. The coup was attempted by the Staff Office of the Ministry of War of Japan and many from the Imperial Guard to stop the move to surrender.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joichiro Sanada</span>

Jōichirō Sanada was a major general in the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kwantung Army</span> Group of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1919 to 1945

The Kwantung Army was a general army of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1919 to 1945.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taketora Ogata</span> Japanese journalist and politician

Taketora Ogata was a Japanese journalist, Vice President of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper and later a politician. During the war, he joined the Imperial Rule Assistance Association. After the end of the war, he was purged from public service. Later, he became the Chief Secretary of the 4th Yoshida Cabinet, Vice President and then President of the Liberal Party of Japan of Japan, but he died before becoming a prime minister.

Wakamatsu is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include:

Ichirō Banzai was a lieutenant general in the Imperial Japanese Army. He was involved in the Pacific War and the Second Sino-Japanese War. He was a recipient of the Order of the Rising Sun, first class, large cordon.

References

  1. Boyd, Carl (28 November 2008). "The Berlin–Tokyo Axis and Japanese Military Initiative". Modern Asian Studies. 15 (2): 311–338. doi:10.1017/S0026749X00007095. ISSN   1469-8099.
  2. Frank 1999, p. 317.
  3. Shanghai Jiaotong University Press. "检方证人若松只一出庭作证". tokyotrial.cn. Retrieved 2023-11-22.
  4. The Asahi Shimbun (July 28, 1953). "地獄船でB級公判". The Asahi Shimbun . p. 2.

Books