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Washizu Shuhei: The second commander of the Fourth Army of the Japanese Kwantung Army

author:Frog in the woods

After Japan launched a full-scale war of aggression against China, he was stationed in North and Northeast China as commander of the 21st Division and commander of the Fourth Army, committing a series of war crimes, and finally surrendered to the US forces on the Japanese mainland as commander of the Nagoya Division.

Washizu Shuhei: The second commander of the Fourth Army of the Japanese Kwantung Army

Washizu Shuhei

Washizu was born on January 20, 1885, graduated from the 18th Infantry Section of the Army Non-Commissioned Officer School in November 1905, and classmates with Naosaburo Okabe, Bongfumi Yamashita, Keisuke Fujie, Masataka Yamawaki, Koji Anan, Fujiji Yasui and others, and was admitted to the 27th class of the Army University on December 13, 1912, and classmates with Hideki Tojo, Naosaburo Okabe, Jun Imamura, Masaharu Honma, Isamu Yokoyama, Ryōsuke Isoya, Shojiro Iida, Shozo Kawabe, Tatsumi Kusabura, Michitaro Komatsubara, Tokushige Numata and others. When he graduated on December 11, 1915, he entered the "Saber Division" with "honors" and was given a saber by Emperor Taisho.

Washizu Shuhei: The second commander of the Fourth Army of the Japanese Kwantung Army

Japanese Army University "Saber Group"

After graduating from the Army College, Washizu served at the General Staff Headquarters for a long time, and was sent to the United States on June 3, 1930 as a military attaché attached to the Japanese Embassy in the United States, and returned to the General Staff Headquarters after his term of office ended on May 28, 1932, and was promoted to Army Chief on August 8 of the same year as the commander of the 13th Infantry Wing of the 11th Brigade of the Sixth Division, when the division commander was Lieutenant General Masaemon Sakamoto and the brigade commander was Major General Kunizo Matsuda.

In December 1932, the Sixth Division of the Japanese Army was transferred to the Kwantung Army for rotation, and successively captured Mukden, Changchun and other places, and the commander of the Kwantung Army at the time, General Muto Nobuyoshi, was not satisfied with the Kwantung Army occupying only three northeastern provinces of China, so he began to plan to include Rehe Province in the territory of "Manchukuo".

Washizu Shuhei: The second commander of the Fourth Army of the Japanese Kwantung Army

Japanese troops attacking in the direction of Chifeng

On February 21, 1933, the Japanese Kwantung Army invaded Rehe Province in three ways, thus starting the "Battle of Rehe", the 6th Division and the puppet Manchukuo army Zhang Haipeng and Cheng Guorui formed the Northern Route Army, one of which set out from Tongliao and attacked the important towns of Kailu and Xinhui and Jianping in the north of Rehe, only taking Chifeng, and the other advanced west from Zhangwu and Dahushan to Chifeng, during which Kennosuke Motegi's 4th Cavalry Brigade coordinated with the 6th Division.

At this time, it was a cold day, the Mongolian steppe was often more than minus 30 degrees, and the officers and men from the southern part of Kyushu in Japan could not withstand the severe cold in northern Cyprus, and there was a situation of attrition due to frostbite.

Washizu Shuhei: The second commander of the Fourth Army of the Japanese Kwantung Army

Japanese troops attacking Chifeng

After the fall of Chifeng, the Sixth Division and other troops swung their divisions south to attack Chengde, the capital of Rehe Province, due to the demoralized Northeast Army retreating, the capital of Rehe Province Chengde was soon lost, and soon the entire territory of Rehe also completely fell, and the entire four northeastern provinces fell to the hands of the Japanese Kwantung Army.

After Japan occupied the four northeastern provinces of China, the ambition of the wolf son was not satisfied, and began to covet northern China, and deployed a large number of troops to directly take Peiping and Tianjin, in order to force the Chinese government to recognize "Manchukuo" and legitimize the international status of "Manchukuo"; of course, the Chinese government could not take the initiative to give up the sovereignty of northeast China, so it constantly transferred a large number of troops to the front line of the Great Wall of Shanhaiguan to deploy defense, and thus opened the prelude to the Great Wall War of Resistance.

Washizu Shuhei: The second commander of the Fourth Army of the Japanese Kwantung Army

Japanese troops on the line of the Great Wall

Sakamoto Masaemon led the 6th Division and the 1st Independent Garrison of the Kwantung Army as reinforcements, set out from Chifeng and arrived at the area north of Xifengkou and Lengkou on March 23, 1933, and on March 27 of the same year, the Japanese army began a full-scale attack on the passes of the Great Wall, and the 6th Division repelled the headquarters of Huang Guanghua of the 32nd Army of the Chinese defenders at Lengkou, and then crossed the Luan River defensive line, interspersed from the junction of Song Zheyuan's 29th Army and Wang Yizhe's 67th Army, and went around to the side of Xifengkou. The XXIX Army was pinched back and forth, and after several days of defense, the XXIX Army had to retreat westward.

Because the Japanese army was well-equipped and well-trained, constantly breaking through the defensive positions of the Chinese defenders, some important passes along the Great Wall were still lost one by one, causing the gate of the Pingjin area to be opened and plunged into crisis, forcing He Yingqin, the supreme leader of the Nationalist Government in North China, to send negotiator Xiong Bin to negotiate with Japanese negotiator Okamura Ninji, and signed the "Tanggu Armistice Agreement" on May 31, 1933, while the Japanese Sixth Division was stationed in Jinzhou and rested, and returned home in September of the same year.

Washizu Shuhei: The second commander of the Fourth Army of the Japanese Kwantung Army

The negotiation scene of the "Tanggu Armistice Agreement"

On August 1, 1934, Washizu was promoted to major general and transferred to the Japanese Army in Korea, where he served as the commander of the 39th Infantry Brigade of the 20th Division, which was under the command of the 77th Infantry Wing and the 78th Infantry Wing, stationed in the vicinity of Yongsan, North Korea.

"II. Shortly after the 26th Incident, Washizu was transferred back to Tokyo, where on March 23 he was attached to the headquarters of the Guards Division, assisted by Lieutenant General Kiyoshi Kazuki, who had joined him on the same day, and a year later, on March 1, Washizu was transferred to the post of director of the Toyama School of the Army, and was promoted to lieutenant general on November 1, 1937.

On July 15, 1938, Washizu Shuhei became the commander of the 21st Division of the Japanese Army, its chief of staff was Chiba Kumaji Nakasa, and the commander of the infantry regiment was Major General Torajiro Iwai, which was a three-wing division formed in Japan, under the command of the 62nd Infantry Wing, the 82nd Infantry Wing, the 83rd Infantry Wing and the 51st Mountain Artillery Wing, etc., in mid-August of the same year, the 21st Division was put into the Chinese battlefield and was directly under the command of the North China Front Command. On November 11, 1938, it was incorporated into the combat sequence of the 12th Army of the Japanese Army, and was stationed near Xuzhou to serve as a garrison.

Washizu Shuhei: The second commander of the Fourth Army of the Japanese Kwantung Army

Japanese troops in mopping

On September 28, 1940, Washizu was transferred to the Japanese Kwantung Army, succeeding Nakajima Imaasago as commander of the Fourth Army, and its chief of staff was Lieutenant General Asaburo Kobayashi, and the two were old acquaintances.

At this time, the Japanese Fourth Army only commanded the 1st Division of Yokoyama Yong, the 8th Independent Garrison, the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 13th National Border Garrisons, and some artillery units, stationed on the Qiqihar line to serve as a garrison for the defense of the Soviet Union.

Washizu Shuhei: The second commander of the Fourth Army of the Japanese Kwantung Army

Japanese troops invading China

On October 15, 1941, Washizu was suspended from his post and put on standby, and on December 2 of the same year, he was transferred to the reserve, and was not re-drafted out of the mountain until the Japanese base camp deployed for local defense operations, and on April 1, 1945, he became the commander of the Nagoya Division District, and the Japanese army base camp had demarcated 16 divisional districts, of which 14 were on the mainland, 2 in Korea, and each division area corresponds to a division, mainly responsible for the recruitment and training of the division's soldiers, and the Nagoya Division corresponds to the Third Division, It was also the only division of the Japanese army to fight in the Chinese battlefield from the beginning of the war to its surrender.

After Japan's defeat and surrender, Washizu led his troops to surrender to the U.S. army, and the circumstances are unknown, and he was awarded one Golden Eagle Medal of the fourth class and one Golden Eagle Medal of the third degree during his military career, and died on February 20, 1970.

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