General Zhang Zizhong was martyred in the Battle of Zaoyi, and the then commander of the 231st Infantry Regiment of the 39th Division of the Japanese Army, Takehiko Yokoyama, was one of the culprits in encircling and pursuing General Zhang Zizhong, so Takehiko Yokoyama also became a thorn in the eyes of the Chinese soldiers, and Takehiko Yokoyama was eventually killed by the Chinese army, but there are different versions of the process of Takehiko Yokoyama's killing, which one is closer to the truth of history? This article joins you in exploring takehiko Yokoyama, a violent and cruel Japanese fascist soldier.
Takehiko Yokoyama
Takehiko Yokoyama (1892-1944), a native of Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan, graduated from the 25th Infantry Section of the Army Non-Commissioned Officer School in May 1913. After the "18 Incident", he accompanied his unit to northeast China to garrison Tun, but the specific number of the unit is unknown.
On July 20, 1938, Takehiko Yokoyama was transferred from the Kwantung Army to the Mongolian Army, and served as the commander of the 2nd Independent Infantry Brigade of the Independent Mixed 2nd Brigade regiment with the rank of Nakasa, and the brigade commander at that time was Major General Kenji Tokioka, which was formed by some brigades and squadrons of the Japanese First Division stationed in The Northeast of Tun, under the jurisdiction of 5 independent infantry brigades, each with 4 infantry squadrons, and the total number of soldiers in each independent infantry brigade was 810.
Among them, the 1st Independent Infantry Brigade was stationed in Tun Xuanhua and Kangzhuang; the 2nd Independent Infantry Brigade was stationed in Huailai; the 3rd Independent Infantry Brigade was stationed in Wei County; the 4th Independent Infantry Brigade was stationed in Tianzhen and Laiyuan; the 5th Independent Infantry Brigade was stationed in Zhangjiakou; and the headquarters of the Independent Mixed 2nd Brigade regiment was located in Zhangjiakou and served as a garrison in the Zhangjiakou area.
Japanese artillery tower
On June 1, 1939, "Nobuhide Abe" was transferred from the commander of the 1st Infantry Brigade of the 1st Division to the commander of the 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade, but Takehiko Yokoyama and Norihide Abe only met for two months, and on August 1 of the same year, they were transferred back to Japan as the commander of the 231st Infantry Regiment of the 39th Division of the Japanese Army, which was formed in Hiroshima on June 30, 1939, with Kei Murakami as the commander of the division, and the 231st Wing was selected as the commander of the 231st Wing because he was from Hiroshima.
The 39th Division of the Japanese Army was a three-unit division under the command of the 231st Infantry Regiment, the 232nd Infantry Regiment and the 233rd Infantry Regiment, which was sent to central China in September 1939 and stationed in Tun on both sides of the Beijing-Han Line from Wushengguan to Hankou and in the area east of the line.
The Japanese invasion of China
Since the Battle of Wuhan, the Sino-Japanese War has entered a phase of stalemate, although the Japanese occupation area continues to expand, but due to the lack of soldiers and it is difficult to fully control the occupied area, so a number of special three-unit divisions and independent mixed brigades have been established for the Japanese army to serve as a garrison in the occupied area, and the Thirty-ninth Division was sent to central China under such a background.
On October 2, 1939, the Thirty-ninth Division was incorporated into the combat sequence of the Japanese Eleventh Army, which was the only field mobile corps in the Japanese army invading China and the "protagonist" of the frontal battlefield in China, specifically looking for the main force of the Chinese army to fight a decisive battle, with a view to eliminating the effective forces of the Chinese army, and the commander of the Eleventh Army at this time was Lieutenant General Ninji Okamura.
In March 1940, Kazuichiro Enbu succeeded his classmate Ninji Okamura as commander of the Eleventh Army, and soon after taking office, he gathered masataka Yamawaki's 3rd Division, Shizuichi Tanaka's 13th Division, Murakami Keisaku's 39th Division, and Ikeda's Detachment, Ishimoto's Detachment, Ogawa's Detachment, and Yoshida's Detachment to launch the Battle of Zaoyi.
Among them, the Japanese 39th Division (3 infantry brigades and 1 mountain artillery brigade attached to the 6th Division Regiment) launched from the front of Suixian County, attacked Zaoyang from the middle road, coordinated with the 3rd Division and the 13th Division, and attempted to encircle and annihilate Huang Qixiang's 11th Army, and the 39th Division crossed the river near Yicheng and advanced into Jingmen, at this time the Ikeda detachment was assigned to the 39th Division, began to attack the 11th Group Army, and soon arrived at Jinyangdian, forming a joint siege with the 3rd Division and the 13th Division against Zaoyang. The Eleventh Army was forced to retreat and move.
Yuanbu and Ichiro also ordered the Thirty-ninth Division, the Thirteenth Division, and the Ikeda Detachment to encircle the five divisions under the jurisdiction of Zhang Zizhong's Thirty-third Army, and the Third Division to cover its northern flank, due to the lack of secrecy of the Chinese army, the incoming and outgoing telegrams during the period were intercepted by the Japanese army, and the specific location of the various departments was learned, especially the general headquarters of the Thirty-third Army was detected by the Japanese army, so it was besieged by the Japanese army.
Because Zhang Zizhong personally came to the front line of the battle, more than 1,500 of his troops were surrounded by several times the Japanese army near the pumpkin shop, of which Takehiko Yokoyama's 231st Infantry Wing was the most direct attacking unit, fierce fighting until the afternoon of May 16, the special service battalion guarding Zhang Zizhong was also killed and wounded, Zhang Zizhong himself was also martyred because of his serious wounds, becoming the highest general of the Chinese army since the War of Resistance, and the 233rd Infantry Regiment Commander of the Japanese 39th Division, Tetsujiro Kanzaki, He was also killed by Chinese forces at battle of Baihe on 21 May.
The Nationalist army escorted Zhang Zizhong's coffin
Faced with the death of Tetsujiro Kanzaki, the commander of the 233rd Wing who fought together, Takehiko Yokoyama, who was already cunning and violent, was even more animalistic, and in the subsequent battles, he slaughtered more than 200 innocent people in a village called Caojiazhou, and buried the bodies in a pond, and in a village called Xujiagao temple, more than 100 unarmed civilians were tied together, concentrated in a cattle pen, and strafed with machine guns, and then poured gasoline to burn the traces. Its evil deeds can be described as heinous.
On March 1, 1941, Takehiko Yokoyama was transferred back to Japan as an attached to the Headquarters of the Eastern Army, responsible for the defense and combat missions in the Tokyo area, because Takehiko Yokoyama had no career in the Army, so his promotion was relatively slow, and he was not promoted to major general until August 2, 1943, from second lieutenant to major general of the army, Yokoyama took a full 30-year military career.
In early August 1943, Takehiko Yokoyama was sent to Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, as the commander of the 62nd Infantry Brigade of the 70th Division, and since the brigade was formed in Hiroshima, Takehiko Yokoyama succeeded Mitsuko Yamazaki as the commander of the 62nd Brigade, which was stationed in Ningbo at the time as a garrison and security officer, and had 6 independent infantry brigades under its command, named the 121st, 122th, 123rd, 124th, 50th and 112th Independent Infantry Brigades. Among them, the 50th and 112th brigades were originally subordinate to the 56th Infantry Brigade of the 60th Division, and the commander of the 70th Division at that time was Lieutenant General Takayuki Uchida, and the chief of staff was Shunji Nakagawa, whose headquarters was located in Jiashan.
Japanese forces occupying Ningbo
As the supreme commander of the Japanese occupation army in Ningbo, Yokoyama Takehiko was naturally also violent and difficult to change, implementing brutal rule over Ningbo, constantly suppressing anti-Japanese armed forces in Qingxiang townships, in order to maintain social order in Ningbo, because Ningbo is a port city, a large number of strategic materials plundered by the Japanese army are also transported back to Japan from Ningbo Port.
On June 8, 1944, Takehiko Yokoyama was ordered to lead the 62nd Brigade to participate in the "Battle of Jinqu", fighting horizontally from east to west, undertaking a frontal operation from Jinhua to Quzhou, with the purpose of opening up the Zhejiang-Gansu Line, in response to the "Operation No. 1" launched by the commander-in-chief of the Chinese Dispatch Army, Okamura Ningji, to open up the mainland communication line, while the garrison task in Ningbo was handed over to other Japanese troops.
On June 11, 1944, when The 62nd Infantry Brigade led by Takehiko Yokoyama encountered stubborn resistance from the Chinese army while passing through Lion Mountain in Longyou County, Zhejiang Province, it was killed on the spot in the fierce battle between the two sides, but which fan number unit did it, and who was the Chinese commander? There is no clear historical record, even the "Chronicle of Longyou County" only records the battle and the burial place of Takehiko Yokoyama, who was posthumously promoted to lieutenant general in the army after his death, and he was awarded a fourth-class golden eagle medal during his lifetime.