Japanese general who directed Okinawa's war of attrition
Even after defeat was clear, he rejected a surrender appeal and ordered his remaining forces to fight to the end.
Mitsuru Ushijima was an Imperial Japanese Army officer who commanded formations in the war against China and the Pacific War. Sent to Okinawa in 1944, he led the 32nd Army in a defense-in-depth and war of attrition in the south rather than a beach battle, while its system also mobilized civilians for labor and combat. His May 1945 withdrawal from Shuri prolonged resistance but drew refugees into the battlefield and increased civilian losses; he rejected surrender and killed himself in June.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1908Graduated from Army Academy, 20th class; infantry second lieutenant
- 1916Graduated from Army Staff College, 28th class
- 1918–1919Staff of the Siberian Intervention force, transport and deployment
- 1937–1939Commander, 36th Infantry Brigade, China campaigns
- 1939–1941Commander, 11th Division, stationed at Hulin, Manchukuo
- 1942–1944Commandant, Imperial Japanese Army Academy
- 1944–1945Commanding general, 32nd Army, Okinawa defense
- 1945Promoted to general; suicide at Mabuni
Related historical events
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionStaff officer in the intervention against Soviet RussiaIn 1918–1919, he served on the Siberian Intervention force staff, handling transport and deployment.
- 1937–1945The war with Japan and the second united frontJapanese brigade commander in ChinaFrom 1937 to 1939, he commanded the 36th Infantry Brigade in China.
- 1941–1945The Pacific WarCommander of the 32nd Army on OkinawaHe commanded the southern fortress line and attrition defense, mobilizing civilians and troops into the fighting.
Brigade commander in the invasion of China, 1937-1939
Promoted to major general in March 1937, Ushijima took command of the 36th Infantry Brigade, formed from regiments raised in Kagoshima and Miyakonojo. The brigade left Kagoshima in early August of that year and assembled at Shanhai Pass, where the 6th Division commander Hisao Tani ordered him to destroy three divisions of the Chinese 14th Army advancing near Badaling. Although greatly outnumbered, Ushijima broke the Chinese positions in fighting from 30 August to 13 September at Xiamaling and Qianjuntai, and by 14 October had pushed to the outskirts of Shijiazhuang. The brigade lost seven officers and 170 men of other ranks killed and thirteen officers and 358 men wounded. Ushijima reconnoitered at the front under shellfire and became a feared figure to Chinese troops, who called him the "ghost general."
When the 6th Division was committed to the Shanghai front in November, the brigade advanced along the Kunshan-Suzhou line and joined the assault on Nanjing that began on 11 December. The brigade is recorded as having cut the retreat route of Chinese troops withdrawing from Nanjing and taking some 20,000 prisoners. The 6th Division was among the units involved in the killing, rape, arson and looting around the fall of Nanjing, and its commander Tani Hisao was sentenced to death by the Nanjing Military Tribunal after the war. The Okinawa Times recalls that the army leadership at Nanjing included Ushijima and Isamu Cho, later commander and chief of staff of the 32nd Army, and argues that what the two did in China is indispensable to understanding the Battle of Okinawa.
From July 1938 the brigade took part in the Wuhan campaign as a core unit, capturing Huangmei in August; it pressed on despite the Chinese army's flood operation, which breached the Yangtze dikes, took the Guangji fortress in September and entered Hankou in October. In December of that year the 11th Army commander Yasuji Okamura awarded him a commendation. He left brigade command in March 1939 to head the Army Preparatory Academy and the Toyama School concurrently, and was promoted to lieutenant general that August.