Nobuo Tanaka, the general of the Japanese invasion of China, has a certain reputation in the Japanese military circles, and this fame is due to the characteristics of his beard, this person is relatively burly, and his mustache sticks out about 10 centimeters on both sides of his cheeks, which looks very exaggerated and funny, and because of this, he was appreciated by Emperor Hirohito, and he was not even allowed to shave his beard, and Tanaka Nobuo was also complacent.
Nobuo Tanaka (1891-1966) is a native of Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan, born in Tokyo Prefecture, studied in Tokyo Prefectural No. 1 Middle School and Army ** Infant School, graduated from the 24th Infantry Department of the Army Non-commissioned Officer School on May 28, 1912, and Yuyoshi Tsuchihashi, Yuichiro Nagano, Namimi Kawa, Shunzaburo McAkura, Iwanaga Wang, Tsutsumi Butsuki, Toroshiro Kawabe, Taijiro Iida, Sosaku Suzuki, Takazo Numata, Yoshio Hongo, Kaho Ishii, Mitsuo Nakazawa, Yoshikawa Shikashi, Nakamura Jikizo, Kobayashi Asaburo, Hosokawa Tadayasu, Kusumoto Minoru Kusumoto, Yokoyama Shizuo, Noda Kengo, Nishiyama Fukutaro and others were classmates and were assigned to serve in the 3rd Infantry Wing of the 15th Brigade of the 1st Division, and were promoted to second lieutenant at the end of the year.
Nobuo Tanaka served in the Xi Shino Prisoner Detention Center and the Urayan Dispatch Army Headquarters, and was later transferred back to the 3rd Infantry Wing as a squadron leader, and then transferred to the Japanese Kwantung Army as a squadron leader in the 4th Independent Garrison Brigade stationed in Tunren Mountain Pass, and after being transferred back to the Japanese mainland, he served as a student squadron leader at the Kumamoto Army Teaching School, and was promoted to infantry major in August 1929.
In August 1930, Nobuo Tanaka was transferred to the Guards Division, where he served as a group leader in the 2nd Guards Wing of the 2nd Brigade Regiment, and later served as an advisor to the Raiding Force in Ma Zhanshan, a group leader in the 15th Infantry Wing of the 28th Brigade of the 14th Division, and a wing attached to the 18th Infantry Wing of the 29th Brigade of the 3rd Division, and was promoted to Infantry Lieutenant in August 1934.
After Japan launched a full-scale war of aggression against China, Nobuo Tanaka was transferred to the captain of the 51st Independent Infantry Wing on August 2, and when he was promoted to infantry chief on March 25, 1938, he was transferred to the Japanese Kwantung Army and went to the Dongning area of Mudanjiang, Heilongjiang, to serve as the captain of the 4th District of the 1st National Border Garrison, and his immediate supervisor was Major General Seiichiro Shinohara, the captain of the 1st National Border Garrison.
The Japanese Kwantung Military Border Garrison is a non-field force relying on strategic fortifications for defense, which is configured according to the independent brigade and regimental structure, and its troop is generally equal to or less than that of infantry brigades, but the equipment of heavy firearms is often several times that of ordinary brigades, and the 1st National Border Garrison was stationed at the "Dongning Fortress" on the Mudanjiang River at that time.
The "Dongning Fortress" was built to defend against the Soviet Union, with a frontal width of about 93 kilometers and a depth of more than 50 kilometers, with three main positions, each consisting of 3 underground fortresses and hundreds of ground permanent fortifications, and the main positions were equipped with 10 240-mm guns and 8 300-mm guns.
The front of the position is equipped with anti-tank trenches, the trenches and communication trenches between the positions are crisscrossed and extend in all directions, the important communication arteries are set up with open bunkers, and the firearms and troops are arranged in echelons from the front line, which can be called the largest military fortress in Asia, known as the "Oriental Maginot Line", and there are as many as 130,000 garrisons at the peak.
On March 25, 1939, Nobuo Tanaka was transferred back to Japan and served as the commander of the 211th Infantry Wing of the 32nd Division, which was formed in Tokyo on February 7, under the jurisdiction of the 32nd Infantry Regiment (command organization), the 210th Infantry Wing, the 211th Infantry Wing, the 212th Infantry Wing and the 32nd Search Wing, the 32nd Field Artillery Wing, the 32nd Engineer Wing, and the 32nd Baggage Wing. The infantry regiment commander was Shunzaburo McKura, the chief of staff was Hiromichi Toyama, and Nobuo Tanaka was related to the wife of Kimura Hyotaro.
In April 1939, the 32nd Division was put into the North China Battlefield, after the division landed in Qingdao, it was incorporated into the combat sequence of the 12th Army of the North China Front, taking over the defense of the 114th Division in Jinan, because the headquarters of the 12th Army was located in Jinan, so the headquarters of the 32nd Division was located in Yanzhou, and the 211th Infantry Wing led by Nobuo Tanaka was stationed in Linyi, and the three infantry brigades under his command were stationed in Feixian, Xintai and Zhangqiu.
As early as a month before the 32nd Division arrived in Shandong, Chen Guanghe led the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army to advance into the southwest of Shandong, and the 6th Detachment of the Shandong Column and the Jinpu Detachment of the Eighth Route Army to jointly open up the anti-Japanese base area in southwest Shandong. More than 3,000 people of the 686th Regiment and local party and government organs, in the Lufang in the Tai'an area and more than 5,000 days of puppet army encountered, the two sides had a fierce battle, and the Eighth Route Army finally succeeded in breaking through, which is the famous "Lufang Breakthrough Battle" in history, but the number of the Japanese combat unit is unknown.
On October 1, 1940, Nobuo Tanaka was transferred back to Japan to serve as the principal of the Toyohashi Teaching School of the Army, which was also known as the Toyohashi Teaching School because of its location in Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture, which was a military school that trained army corporals, and those who graduated from the school were only awarded military cao, and Nobuo Tanaka was promoted to major general on March 1, 1941.
On October 15, 1941, Nobuo Tanaka was transferred to the Japanese Kwantung Army and served as the commander of the infantry of the 12th Division of the Japanese Army.
On August 1, 1942, Nobuo Tanaka was transferred to the North China Front, replacing Tanaka Ken as the commander of the 15th Independent Mixed Brigade, which was formed in Beiping on July 22, 1939, under the jurisdiction of the 77th, 78th, 79th, 80th, 81st Brigade of Independent Infantry, as well as the artillery team, engineer team, signal team, etc., stationed in Beiping to serve as a garrison task, maintain social order in Beiping, under the direct jurisdiction of the North China Front Command, the commander at that time was Tada Jun, and the chief of staff was Kasahara Yukio.
In May 1943, according to the order of the Japanese army's base camp, the North China Front took the 15th Brigade as the backbone and the 6th Brigade as the backbone and the 6th Brigade and Regiment as the independent mixed division, and organized the 63rd Division, the headquarters of the division was located in Beiping, under the jurisdiction of the 66th Infantry Brigade and the 67th Infantry Brigade, the division commander was Nobu Shotoku, and the chief of staff was Sato Sadaiji, which was directly under the jurisdiction of the North China Front Army Command.
Nobuo Tanaka served as the commander of the 66th Infantry Brigade of the 63rd Division, which was deployed in Baoding and commanded the 77th Independent Infantry Brigade, the 78th Independent Infantry Brigade, the 79th Independent Infantry Brigade and the 137th Independent Infantry Brigade, while the 67th Infantry Brigade was deployed in Beiping.
On November 24, 1943, Nobuo Tanaka was transferred to the commander of the 29th Brigade of the Independent Mixed Brigade, the brigade was stationed in the cantonment and the establishment of the situation is unknown, on May 16 of the following year, Nobuo Tanaka was transferred to the Burmese Front, replacing Yanagida Motozo, who was dismissed due to the failure of the "Battle of Imphal", as the commander of the 33rd Division, and on June 27 of the same year, after being promoted to lieutenant general, he officially became the commander of the 33rd Division.
The 33rd Division served as the main attack in the "Battle of Imphal", but in the extreme lack of supplies and replenishment, it was already at the end of its strength, and its exhaustion had reached its limit, and when Nobuo Tanaka arrived, it was just as the Anglo-Indian forces launched a counterattack, and the 33rd Division was quickly defeated without the strength to resist, and was thus heavily damaged by the Anglo-Indian forces and suffered heavy losses.
Nobuo Tanaka led the 33rd Division to fight and retreat, after leaving the battlefield for post-war rest and replenishment, after retreating to the Thai-Burmese border area in July 1945, it was directly under the jurisdiction of the Burmese Front Command, and after the defeat and surrender of Japan, Nobuo Tanaka was ordered to lead the division to surrender to the British army.
On January 22, 1946, Nobuo Tanaka was imprisoned as a war criminal suspect, and was later released in December of the same year due to lack of evidence, and during the trial of Class A war criminals in Tokyo, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East testified as a witness on October 24, 1947, and died on December 4, 1966.