The army chief caught between imperial command and surrender
On September 2, 1945, he signed the surrender instrument on behalf of Imperial General Headquarters.
Yoshijirō Umezu was a senior general of Imperial Japan who helped direct military rule and continental policy in China and Manchuria. As Army Chief of Staff from 1944, he argued for continuing the war, yet refused to support a military coup and enforced the emperor’s surrender order. On September 2, 1945, he signed the instrument of surrender for Imperial General Headquarters, then received a life sentence at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East for responsibility in waging aggressive war and died in prison.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1904Second lieutenant, 1st Infantry Regiment
- 1919–1921Military attaché in Switzerland
- 1934–1935Commander, China Garrison Army
- 1939–1944Commander and commander-in-chief, Kwantung Army
- 1944–1945Chief of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff
- 1945Signed the surrender instrument for Imperial General Headquarters
- 1948–1949Life imprisonment at the IMTFE, died in custody
Related historical events
Japanese coercion in North China and command of the Kwantung Army
Appointed commander of the China Garrison Army in March 1934, Umezu took part in extending Japanese control in North China. The He–Umezu Agreement, concluded in June 1935 with He Yingqin, head of the Nationalist government’s Peiping Military Council branch, barred Kuomintang organization and anti-Japanese activity in Hebei, required the withdrawal of Chinese units, and called for the removal of Hebei governor Yu Xuezhong. Accounts differed over how the agreement was made and whether China had consented to it. A League of Nations inquiry recorded that in 1937 Japan invoked the agreement to warn the Nanjing government against sending troops into Hebei and sought to preserve its political influence in North China. After the Marco Polo Bridge incident, Japanese forces expanded their reinforcements and operations, occupied Beijing and Tianjin, and established a Japan-favored government in Hebei.
After the Battle of Nomonhan, Umezu became commander of the Kwantung Army in September 1939. Under his command, it served as Japan’s central military institution for occupying and governing Manchukuo. A military-history encyclopedia describes his assignment as restoring Tokyo’s control over the army. When the Kwantung Army was upgraded to a general army in 1942, Umezu’s title changed to commander-in-chief. He held that post until moving to the Army General Staff as chief in July 1944.