The japanese general who invaded China, Kano Uemura, as the commander of the Fifth Infantry Brigade of the Third Division of the Japanese Army, led his troops to participate in the "Battle of Wuhan", "Battle of Suizao" and "Battle of Changsha", and then as the commander of the Fifty-seventh Division of the Kwantung Army and the commander of the Fourth Army, led his troops to garrison the Qiqihar region of northeastern China, and led the units of the Fourth Army of the Kwantung Army to engage the Soviet Red Army.
Kano Uemura
Born in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, Uemura Kano (1892-1946) was a native of Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, attended the Hiroshima Army Infant School and the CSKA Early School, graduated from the 24th Infantry Section of the Army Non-Commissioned Officer School in May 1912, and was assigned to serve in the 11th Infantry Regiment of the 9th Brigade regiment of the Fifth Division, and was promoted to second lieutenant at the end of that year.
On December 11, 1918, Kano Uemura was admitted to the 33rd class of the Army Academy with the rank of lieutenant, and worked with Haruyoshi Hyakutake, Jiro Togawa, Toshiro Sumita, Hoshiro Iimura, Toshiro Kawabe, Takuma Shimoyama, Satoshi Sato, Yoshiharu Takeshita, Saburo Isoda, and others, and graduated on November 28, 1921 as an instructor at the Army Infantry School, during which he worked in Germany for more than two years, and after returning to Japan, he served in the Army Education Directorate.
After that, Uemura served as the commander of the 4th Guards Infantry Regiment of the 2nd Guards Infantry Regiment of the Guards Division, and returned to the Army University School for one year of further study in December 1930, after which he remained at the Army University School as an instructor, and then served as a staff officer at the Headquarters of the Guards Division and the Headquarters of the Taiwan Army, and then returned to the Army University School as an instructor on August 1, 1936.
Flag presentation ceremony of the Guards Infantry Regiment
Shortly after Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China, Kano Uemura was transferred to the Japanese Army in Korea as the commander of the 76th Infantry Regiment of the 38th Brigade of the 19th Division, and on July 15, 1938, when he was promoted to major general of the Army, he succeeded Riichiro Katayama as the commander of the 5th Brigade of the Third Division, which had the 6th Infantry Regiment of Kawakami and the 68th Infantry Regiment of Kato Kyohei, and the 3rd Division at this time was directly under the command of the Central China Dispatch Army, and Uemura Kano had only been in office for more than a month. The Third Division was included in the combat sequence of the Second Army of the Central China Dispatch Army and was stationed in the Yingshan and Xinyang areas.
Uemura Kano led the 5th Infantry Brigade regiment and participated in the operation in the direction of Huangchuan in the "Battle of Wuhan" with the 3rd Division, after which the 3rd Division was transferred to the japanese 11th Army combat sequence, and participated in the "Battle of Suizhao" Suixian Operation, and served in the "First Battle of Changsha" in the direction of the West Road.
Japanese troops on the move
On March 9, 1940, Uemura was transferred to Taiwan as chief of staff of the Japanese Army in Taiwan, during which time he also served as the chief of staff of the Taiwan Army, during which time he also served as the director of the Taiwan Army, and during his tenure he assisted the commanders of Ushijima Shitoshi and Honma Masaharu, assisting in the construction and development of the Taiwan Army, and a year later he was transferred back to Japan as the commander of the 64th Independent Infantry Regiment, and was promoted to lieutenant general on August 25, 1941, and shortly after the outbreak of the Pacific War, he was appointed as the chief of the Japanese Army's Prisoner of War Intelligence Bureau.
On March 11, 1943, Uemura was transferred to the Japanese Kwantung Army, succeeding Miyamoto Shitaka as the commander of the 57th Division, which was a three-group division formed in July 1940 based on the 8th Division's left-behind division, under the jurisdiction of the 52nd Infantry Regiment, the 117th Infantry Regiment, the 132nd Infantry Regiment and the 57th Field Artillery Regiment, and on July 24, 1941, it was transferred to the Northeast China Garrison and was incorporated into the combat sequence of the Third Army of the Kwantung Army. By the time Uemura arrived in northeast China as commander of the Fifty-seventh Division, the division was already part of the fourth army of the Kwantung Army.
Japanese Kwantung Army
On March 23, 1945, Kano Uemura succeeded Nishihara Kanji as commander of the Fourth Army of the Kwantung Army, and his chief of staff was Major General Takejo Ohno, who had the 119th Division of Kiyoshi Shiozawa, the 123rd Division of Sadaharu Kitazawa, and the 149th Division of Sasaki to 1, as well as the 90th Independent Mixed Brigade Regiment, the 131st Independent Mixed Brigade Regiment, the 135th Independent Mixed Brigade Regiment, and the 136th Independent Mixed Brigade Regiment, which served as a garrison in the Qiqihar area and belonged to the combat sequence of the Third Front Army of the Kwantung Army.
At this time, although the Kwantung Army was still relatively intact, it had been reduced to a third-rate unit, because its elite divisions were all transferred to the Pacific Theater, and after the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, Uemura Kano also reluctantly led the troops of the Fourth Army to resist, and finally ushered in the unconditional surrender of Japan in Harbin.
The Red Army liberates Harbin
Uemura, along with other senior officers of the Kwantung Army, was taken to the Khabarovsk (i.e., Boli) prisoner-of-war concentration camp in the Soviet Union and engaged in heavy manual labor like ordinary soldiers, and these once arrogant senior generals were also tortured by heavy labor, and Uemura Kano could not bear such humiliation that he committed suicide on March 23, 1946, and was awarded a gold medal of the second class during his lifetime.