At the beginning of 1944, the Allies began a full-scale campaign in the Pacific. Hideki Tojo was forced to resign in July due to domestic and foreign difficulties, and a group of former Imperial Road officers and officers who had sympathized with the Northern Advance School in the 30s attempted to establish a "war **" headed by Yamashita Fumi, but failed to win the support of the emperor and the Kido cabinet ministers. However, due to the current situation and his ability to reopen the war in the South Pacific, Kido suggested to the Emperor that Yamashita be recalled, explain to him his determination and vision for Operation Jie-1 (the Japanese army's battle plan to reopen the situation in the South Pacific), and give him a week to understand the situation in the Pacific. In this way, Yamashita was appointed commander of the 14th Front Army on September 26, 1944, and was responsible for commanding the Japanese troops invading the Philippines.
Waiting for Yamashita is a battle of trapped beasts. The mission of the 14th Front Army under Yamashita was to be responsible for the defense of the entire Philippine island. The 14th Front Army is under the jurisdiction of the 35th Army (commanded by Lieutenant General Suzuki Sosaku) and other troops, with 8 infantry divisions, 1 tank division, and 4 independent mixed brigades, totaling more than 350,000 people. In the summer of 1944, after occupying Mariana and New Guinea, the U.S. military decided to seize Leyte Island first and then the entire Philippines in order to cut off the sea lines of communication between the Japanese mainland and the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia) and Burma, and establish a naval and air base to advance into the Japanese mainland.
On October 11, Yamashita called a meeting of corps commanders to deploy the battle plan. On October 20, MacArthur took command of the U.S. Army.
Two divisions of the 10th and 24th Corps formed the Northern and Southern Assault Groups, landed at Tacloban and Durag on the east coast of Leyte Island, respectively, and launched an attack on the 16th Division and the service units of the 35th Front Army of the Japanese Army defending the island. Yamashita ordered the 35th Army to defend Leyte Island. The Japanese concentrated several hundred planes to attack the US landing ships, but with little success. On that day, the U.S. troops landed more than 100,000 troops, occupied a landing site 20 kilometers wide and 18 kilometers deep, and then divided the Japanese troops in the areas of Caligara and Bravin. Under these circumstances, Yamashita decided to fully implement the "Jie-1" battle plan and mobilize land, sea, and air forces to fight a decisive battle against the US forces.
From 23 to 26 October, the navies of the two sides engaged in a large-scale naval battle in the waters near Leyte Gulf, in which the US forces sank four Japanese aircraft carriers, three battleships, 10 cruisers, nine destroyers, and seven submarines, destroyed 500 aircraft, and annihilated about 10,000 Japanese troops, achieving a major victory. At the end of October, Yamashita sent Japanese troops to the army.
1. The 26th Division and the 68th Brigade reinforced Leyte Island, and by the beginning of December, the number of Japanese troops on the island had reached 7There are more than 50,000 people, 79 ships and hundreds of aircraft. At this time, the U.S. military had landed in 2 armies totaling 17More than 40,000 people, with about 700 ships and 4,700 aircraft responsible for transportation and cover. The Japanese army resisted stubbornly in the depths and used special attack planes and special attack boats to attack the US ** ships, and the battle situation was in a stalemate for a time. On 7 December, the U.S. 7th Division landed in Olmok Bay on the west coast, and with the cooperation of the Navy and Air Force, it attacked from east to west, and finally broke through the Japanese defense line. On the 25th, most of the Japanese troops defending the island were annihilated, ending the organized resistance.
After the U.S. forces occupied Leyte, Yamashita would invade Luzon's land and navy.2870,000 people are organized into 3 groups. The three groups built strong defensive bases in three regions, determined to "resist the war independently and permanently", and to contain and deplete the US army with a lasting defense. To this end, trucks are in and out of Manila around the clock to transport soldiers, food, ** and other supplies to designated locations. On January 3, 1945, Yamashita Fumi's headquarters was transferred to Baguio, a summer resort in west-central Luzon. Before leaving, Yamashita once again ordered the troops to carry out a large-scale purge and looting of the local people. On January 9, 1945, about 200,000 troops of the U.S. Sixth Army landed in Lingayen Bay on the west coast of Luzon Island, and with the cooperation of the Philippine People's Anti-Japanese Army, launched an attack on the Japanese invading army's Shangwu Group and Manila respectively. The Japanese relied on the existing positions to resist and delayed the US attack. At the end of January, U.S. forces captured Clark and advanced into Manila. On February 3, the U.S. military began its attack on Manila. The Japanese naval forces stationed in Manila put up desperate resistance, and the two sides engaged in street fighting for four weeks. On March 3, U.S. forces occupied Manila and then attacked southwest and southeast Luzon. The remnants of the Japanese Jianwu Group and the Zhenwu Group retreated into the mountains west of Clark and east of Manila, respectively. At the same time, the U.S. forces advancing north launched an offensive against the recalcitrant Shangwu group and occupied Baguio in late April. Yamashita Fengwen fled his headquarters to Kaiyangan, Axin Mountain Stream and other places in disarray, and commanded his remnants to "resist". In June, U.S. forces entered the Cagayan Valley, opening the road from Apari to Baguio and San Jose. The Japanese army retreated into the mountains, surrounded by the American army, the Japanese army was cut off, the disease was epidemic, and many people died of disease and starvation.
At this point, the battle of the Philippines was a foregone conclusion——— and the US military relied on its superiority in the sea and air to concentrate its forces and break through in the middle to deal a devastating blow to the Japanese invading forces, cutting off the sea transportation line for Japan to plunder the strategic materials in the South Seas, and creating conditions for the Allied forces to attack the Japanese mainland. On August 15, Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced his surrender. At 9:30 a.m. on September 3, Yamashita signed the instrument of surrender on behalf of the Japanese fascists in the Southeast Asian theater. After the signing, Yamashita was held as a war criminal at New Bilibi Prison on Mentian Rupa Street in Lisal County, 30 miles south of Manila.
At the request of China and the British**, the Allies soon began to try Yamashita Fumi. In late September, six U.S. military officers conducted a preliminary interrogation of Yamashita and others in the conference room of the prison chapel. On October 8, the Manila Military Court held its first public hearing in public in a solemn atmosphere**. This trial was not hotly debated. It is only the interrogation of whether the defendant is himself, the reading of the indictment, and whether he pleads guilty to the crime. The presiding judge, Major General R. Reynoldouz, decided to begin a formal trial on 29 October and then announced his retirement. During this period, Yamashita Fumi's application for Akira Muto and Deputy Chief of Staff of Utsunomiya to be assistant defenders was immediately opposed by the chief prosecutor: "The prosecutor does not recognize the two proposed people as chief of staff and deputy chief of staff. The days when Yamashita had a chief of staff or deputy chief of staff is over. ”
In the subsequent public trial, the former murderous Yamashita Fengwen still wanted to show his majesty as a "Malay Tiger" under the bright lights of the courtroom, but thousands of people who survived under the iron hooves of the Japanese invaders came to the military court to march one after another, chanting the slogan of severely punishing the murderer**Yamashita Fengfumi, which made Yamashita Fengwen panic. Some of the little girls who were witnesses took off their shirts in public in the courtroom and showed the judge the scars from the bayonets of their men at the foot of the mountain. The older girl presented her testimony to the court of the Japanese soldiers. They were filled with righteous indignation one by one, and they wanted to rush up and bite Fengwen to death under the mountain. In the midst of the angry denunciation of the crowd, Yamashita closed his eyes and lowered his always majestic head. The court charged Yamashita with unshirkable criminal responsibility for the sacking of Manila and Singapore, command responsibility for the burning of 150 American prisoners of war on Fipalawan Island in December 1944, and a series of ** against innocent villagers in Batangas province of the Philippines in the same year!
U.S. Marine Corps Commander Tauglas William Pogue testified:
"We 150 American POWs are being held in a concentration camp on the island of Palawan in the Philippines. On that day, as soon as we entered the air-raid shelter, we heard a ** and continuous terrible shouts, mixed with the laughter of Japanese officers and soldiers and the sound of machine guns. I saw a puff of black smoke coming out of the entrance to the air raid trench of Company A. More than 50 Japanese soldiers armed with rifles, grenades, light machine guns, and torches rushed in with barrels of gasoline. They poured gasoline through the doorway and threw a torch to lead the gasoline. When the captives rushed out and fled for their lives, they were either stabbed to death with bayonets, beaten to death with sticks, or shot to death! ......Later, five of us escaped and joined the guerrillas. ”
When it was Yamashita to defend himself, he blinked slyly and exonerated himself with rhetoric: "Every time an incident happened, I didn't get a report, and I didn't know beforehand that it might happen......I didn't give the order to do it....I do my best to control my army. The U.S. judge solemnly pointed out in response to Yamashita Fumi's defense: "After Singapore surrendered to Japan on February 15, 1942, you led your army to occupy the entire island of Singapore. On the same day, you ordered the four commanders to whom you belonged that all overseas Chinese men in Singapore must be gathered in a designated place to investigate their identities, and those with anti-Japanese sentiments and ** personnel must be executed. You also stipulate that this work must be completed by 23 February. According to this order, a large number of overseas Chinese in Singapore have suffered miserably, and according to the statistics of you Japanese, there are no less than 5,000 people! Then, the military court summoned officers Arthur John and Thomas Isaac of the Tanjong Paja Police Station in Malaya, who were forced to participate in the event, to testify. John said: "The Japanese ordered us to take the more than 700 overseas Chinese in the area to the police station and confine, ask for their names, and then transport them by car to Tanjong Paya Pier and shoot them all." ”
Li Xiuguo, who witnessed the Japanese invaders on the beach near Singapore, testified: "On the afternoon of February 23, 1944, I saw three cars full of Chinese driving past my house. The car stopped not far from my house. The Japanese robbers tied three people together in groups, passed through an alley next to the Chinese swimming club, and escorted them to the beach. The Japanese devils asked the overseas Chinese to kneel down facing the sea, only to see a Japanese officer waving a red flag, and the Japanese soldiers shot together, and then raised their sabers and hacked those wounded to death! In the end, the judge asked Yamashita in a stern manner: "According to your order, countless overseas Chinese have been sent, can you still say that you have not given an order and do not know that there have been incidents of the Philippines, Malaysia, Singaporeans and overseas Chinese?" In front of a large number of human and material evidence, the arrogant "Malay Tiger" bowed his head in frustration like a deflated ball. Then he suddenly shouted again: "I don't know, I don't know anything!" ”
After more than a month of trial, on the afternoon of December 8, 1945, the Manila Military Court handed down the final verdict on Yamashita Fumi. The President of the Tribunal, Major Renolrouz, solemnly announced that the Japanese war criminal Yamashita Fumi, who had committed the most heinous crimes, was sentenced to death by hanging. In February 1946, MacArthur, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, made the following statement in response to the divergent opinions on the Yamashita Fufumi case:
"I re-examined the proceedings in Yamashita's case in order to look for certain facts that would mitigate his culpability, but in vain I did not find any facts. ......
"The proceedings are conducted under the guidance of the principal theoretical basis of all judicial purposes......The outcome of the trial was impeccable. ”
"I approve the outcome and verdict of the Military Commission, and direct the Commander of Army Western Pacific to enforce the sentence against the accused, stripping him of his **, medals, and other indications indicating his military position. ”
Yamashita Fumi's lawyer appealed to the White House, but Truman immediately dismissed it. In the early morning of February 23, 1946, the end of Yamashita Fumi's day arrived. He was sent to the Ross Banyos Execution Ground in the southern suburbs of Manila. The noose of justice was slowly pulled up, and the war criminal Yamashita Fumi was hung forever on the gallows of history.