On January 26, 1949, in court, the war criminal invading China, Okamura Yasuji was acquitted by the judge.
When the news was announced, the whole society was in an uproar. Chairman Mao was so angry that he issued an "order" to Chiang Kai-shek overnight, asking him to arrest Okamura Yanji immediately.
However, Chiang Kai-shek ignored public opinion and on January 30, 1949, he assisted Okamura Yanji on a boat from Shanghai to Japan, allowing Okamura Yanji to arrive in Japan safely. Okamura Yanji was not punished for his crimes.
Okamura Yanji
The war criminals invading China actually fled with the assistance of the Chinese. This is simply incredible!
So, why did Chiang Kai-shek release Okamura Yasuji even if he had to bear the infamy? What evil things did Okamura Yasuji do in China?
1. He was sent to China
Okamura Yasuji is the main decision-maker for many major massacres and sweeping incidents.
He was born in 1884 and graduated from the Japanese Army University. When he was a child, his parents would teach him to know Chinese characters, so he had a certain understanding of Chinese culture. He was sent to Qingdao, China to work in 1915. This was his first time to set foot on China's land. Four years later, he returned to Japan to work.
He has long been committed to studying China's basic national conditions, actual situation, people's ideas, and changes in China's situation. These are not only his basic work, but also his interests.
The reason why Okamura Yasuji is interested in China is because since the country is prosperous and strong tomorrow, invasion of foreign countries has become the goal pursued by their generation of military ambitionists. They hope that Japan can become a strong country in Asia, so they extended their minions to other Asian countries. North Korea and China have all been invaded by Japan one after another.
Okamura Yasuji has many years of combat experience. In 1905, he participated in the Russo-Japanese War of , and later went to the battlefield of World War I . During the war, he was promoted step by step. In 1923, he was transferred to China again. This time his position was a military officer in Shanghai to China.
During this period, he was the person behind many incidents. For example, in 1925, in the face of the situation where workers working in the Japanese sand factory took to the streets to cause trouble, he did not send Japanese troops to suppress them. Instead, he used tricks to let the British non-commissioned officers patrolling the streets see it, and then provoked the British non-commissioned officers furious and shot Chinese workers, causing the May 30th Massacre .
This incident successfully transferred the conflict between Japanese companies and Chinese workers to the murders between Chinese and British soldiers, making the Chinese hate the British. Japan's export trade to China did not suffer any impact, but instead increased.
After the September 18th Incident , in order to prevent the world from paying attention to Japan's evil deeds invading the Northeast, he launched an aggressive war in Shanghai, known in history as the "January 28th" Incident.
In 1932, Okamura Yasuji was transferred to the Tohoku East and began his career of doing evil in the Tohoku East.
2. The evil things he did
Okamura Yasuji specially invented a tactic called "iron wall encirclement" to deal with the guerrilla warfare of the Eighth Route Army. By gradually narrowing the scope, he targeted annihilation of the guerrillas. His tactic destroyed many Eighth Route Army headquarters and became a major concern for the Eighth Route Army.
Since invading Northeast China, Japan has invented a system called comfort women in the army. They have captured Chinese women (including girls) into the military camp and forced them to serve Japanese officers and soldiers in comfort centers. If these people dare to escape, there will be more severe punishments waiting for them, such as four-legged cows and lotus seats.
On average, each comfort woman needs to serve 100 Japanese soldiers. At that time, 200,000 comfort women were Chinese, and there were comfort women from other countries such as North Korea. Even after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, these poor women suffered serious mental and physical injuries, and many people committed suicide or left serious sequelae.
Okamura Yasuji supports this system very much and is also the creator of this system. Before fleeing back to Japan in 1949, he also admitted that he was the "initiator".
In addition, he also invented the " person circle " in the Northeast, which means that all the houses in the village were demolished and materials were used to repair the city circumference. The people in the village were surrounded in one place, and they were not allowed to move around. They had to repair the city circumference. If they didn't repair it, they would be stabbed to death by a knife.
There is no food for people to eat in the circle of people. There are many people who die of freezing and illness. They will be infected with each other when they get epidemics in summer.
In addition, the 731 unit of the army was also involved in the decision-making.
In 1943, he went to Tai'an to hold a secret meeting on the use of bacterial warfare. In August of that year, taking advantage of the heavy rain in Luxi , the Japanese army threw bacillus cholera into the flooded river water, allowing the bacteria to enter the homes of millions of ordinary people along the river water, causing the local sorrow to be everywhere, and 500,000 people twitched and died.
In order not to let the people keep their hatred eyes on the local Japanese army, Okamura Yasuji also recruited a large number of puppet troops, or transferred troops from other places to "sweep" the local people.
Okamura's various evil deeds were outrageous, and he himself understood that he had done many evil things. Therefore, when the Emperor announced his unconditional surrender in August 1945, he also felt the pain of "not being able to survive or not being able to die."
At that time, he hoped to transport more than 2 million Japanese soldiers and people back to the country, and he also signed a surrender letter on behalf of Japan, so he could not die. However, what he was about to wait for was the trial of Military Court . With his crimes, he might be sentenced to hanging .
Unexpectedly, Chiang Kai-shek gave him new hope.
After Chiang Kai-shek surrendered, he issued a statement saying that the Chinese were willing to "repay evil with kindness" and let ordinary Japanese soldiers and people return to the country.
At the same time, Chiang Kai-shek handed over this dispatch work to Okamura Nagato for handling. During his detention of Okamura Nagato, he was treated very well.
From the end of 1945 to the end of 1948, most Japanese officers and generals were convicted of the trial, except for suicide.
Whether international or domestic, Chiang Kai-shek urged him to quickly trial Okamura Naoji, and under various pressures, Chiang Kai-shek had to pretend to hold a trial of Okamura Naoji.
3. Okamura Yasuji returned to Japan
The reason why Chiang Kai-shek kept Okamura Yasuji was, on the one hand, to get all the military equipment and weapons handed over by Japan after surrendering to him, because Okamura Yasuji, as the commander of Japan, most Japanese officers still abide by his instructions.
On the other hand, it is to deal with the Communist Party. He knew that Okamura Yasuji was capable in military affairs and had great experience in dealing with the Eighth Route Army, so he hoped that he could help him give advice.
And Okamura Yasuji was also willing to collude with Chiang Kai-shek and helped Chiang Kai-shek write many plans to deal with the Communist Party, and to serve as a military advisor for Chiang Kai-shek.
However, even though the two met together, the Kuomintang was defeated by the Communist Party and Chiang Kai-shek stepped down after being held accountable within the Kuomintang.
The apparent acting president of the Kuomintang is Li Zongren , but Chiang Kai-shek is still in power.
Therefore, although the judge in the trial court also hated Okamura Yanji's actions, he could only read the "accreditation" verdict prepared by Chiang Kai-shek in advance, otherwise his position and life would be difficult to guarantee.
Chairman Mao was very angry when he learned about this and issued an order to the Kuomintang that the Kuomintang must arrest Okamura Yanji again and must hand it over to the People's Liberation Army for handling.
Chairman Mao
At that time, Li Zongren wanted to rule the river, so he used peace talks as an excuse to delay the Communist Party's Crossing the River Battle .
When the Communist Party discovered that Nanjing National Government not only did not arrest Okamura Yasuji, but also allowed Chiang Kai-shek to secretly send him to Japan, it was understood that Li Zongren's peace talks were not of any sincerity.
In April 1949, as soon as the last limited time arrived, the Battle of Crossing the River was launched, making the Kuomintang pay the price for what it did.
Unfortunately, Okamura Yasuji finally returned to Japan by boat and was not punished in Japan. He lived to be 82 years old and died in 1966.
Okamura Yasuji had an only son who died suddenly in 1962, which may be considered the only "retribution".
