Okamura Ningji was the main war faction of the invasion of China, and also one of the main decision-makers of the Japanese base camp to launch the war of aggression against China, and in the war of aggression against China, he practiced what he preached, successively serving as the supreme commander of the North China side of the Japanese invasion of China and the commander-in-chief of the Chinese dispatch army.
However, three and a half years after the Lugou Bridge Incident, he finally realized that Japan's war in China could not be won and would end in defeat.
What prompted him to have this "enlightenment"?
It was a great victory for Japan.
This great victory was the success of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
On December 7, 1941, more than 350 Japanese aircraft launched two waves of attacks on the US Naval Base in Pearl Harbor in the Pacific, blowing up more than 260 US aircraft and destroying more than 40 large and small warships, and achieving a major victory in the war against the United States. At the same time, Japanese aircraft bombed the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and other places.
This meant that the Pacific War had officially broken out.
At this time, Okamura Was commanding operations in China.
He did not know in advance that the Japanese were going to attack Pearl Harbor. The next morning, he received a telegram from the Japanese base camp on the order to launch a Pacific War operation, and thus learned about the Attack on Pearl Harbor. He was surprised.
Why?
The Pearl Harbor incident meant that Japan was at war against the United States, and he lacked confidence in whether the Japanese army could win the War against the United States.
However, as the commander of the North China Front of the Japanese army invading China, he was not good at telling others, so he had to hide this worry in his heart.
At this moment, a Japanese mage living in Peiping came to visit him.
According to Okamura's later memoirs, after the two men met, the mage unabashedly said to him, "After the outbreak of the Great East Asian War, I immediately took advantage of it, and as a result, I broke the omen. I wonder how the general's estimate of the future of this war is?"
This surprised Okamura Ningji even more, and his own ideas coincided with "Providence"!
However, he was reluctant to answer, and he avoided talking about his views on the development of this war.
Subsequently, the mage repeatedly asked, and Okamura Ninji had to say, "To conquer Singapore, this war must be stopped." This is the only time. However, it takes good politicians and diplomats. Is there such a character now? ”
He did not answer this question.
Subsequently, he saw China's tremendous reaction to the outbreak of the Pacific War, China officially declared that it would stand with the United States, Britain, and other countries and declare war on Japan, and the Chinese Communists also issued the "Declaration for the Pacific War." On the 12th and 28th, he wrote in his diary:
"In my spare time, I fall into contemplation, and I often think about how to adjust the foreign policy after the war in the south has come to an end, and I am even more eager to hope for a comprehensive peace with China."