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Yoshijiro Umezu
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
General Yoshijiro Umezu (梅津美治郎 Umezu Yoshijirō?) (January 4, 1882 - January 8, 1949) was the chief commander of the Japanese army in World War II.
In the 1920s Umezu was a member of the Tosei-Ha (Control Group) led by General Kazushige Ugaki along with Gen Sugiyama, Koiso Kuniaki, Tetsuzan Nagata and Hideki Tojo. They represented a moderate line between the armed forces, in opposition to the radical movement of the Koda-Ha (Action Group) guided by Sadao Araki.
Along with War Minister Korechika Anami and Soemu Toyoda, Chief of Staff of the Navy, Umezu opposed surrender in August of 1945; he believed that the military should fight on, forcing the Allies to sustain heavy losses in a ground invasion of Japan, and that only this way could Japan negotiate for better peace terms.
After the war he was tried as a war criminal along with other senior Japanese officials (see International Military Tribunal for the Far East, and sentenced to life imprisonment on November 12, 1948. He died from illness in 1949.