Japanese general
Jun Ushiroku
(
後宮 淳
,
Ushiroku Jun
, 28 September 1884 ? 24 November 1973)
was a general in the
Imperial Japanese Army
.
Biography
[
edit
]
Born in what is now part of the city of
Nantan
,
Kyoto prefecture
, as the fourth son of a farmer, Ushiroku attended military preparatory schools in Osaka, and graduated from the 17th class of the
Imperial Japanese Army Academy
in 1905. He served in combat very briefly at the very end of the
Russo-Japanese War
as a junior lieutenant with the IJA 38th Infantry Regiment. He graduated from the 29th class of the
Army Staff College
in 1917. He served on staff of the
Kwantung Army
, staff of the
IJA 3rd Division
, staff of the
IJA 5th Division
, Railway Section of the
Imperial Japanese Army General Staff
,
military attache
to Europe, and back with the Kwantung Army in
Manchukuo
, where he was assigned to the protection of the
South Manchurian Railway
. In August 1931, became
Chief of Staff
of the
IJA 4th Division
.
Ushiroku was promoted to
major general
in March 1934 and was in charge of the Personnel Bureau of the General Staff from August 1935. Following the attempted
coup d'etat
by elements of the Imperial Japanese Army in the 1936
February 26 incident
, he was ordered to report directly to Army Minister
Hisaichi Terauchi
to oversee the purge of rebel sympathizers from sensitive posts. Following the July 1937
Marco Polo Bridge Incident
, he expressed his opposition to further expansion of the Army into China. However, in August 1937 he was promoted to lieutenant general and in October became commander of the
IJA 26th Division
.
[1]
At the time, this was a garrison force to provide security for central
Manchukuo
and from July 4, 1938, it was attached to the
Mongolia Garrison Army
in
Inner Mongolia
.
In 1939, he was reassigned to command the
IJA 4th Army
, which was again a garrison force guarding the northern borders of
Manchukuo
. These assignments kept him sidelined in the
Second Sino-Japanese War
until October 1940, when he became commander of the
Southern China Area Army
, which was responsible for garrisoning Japanese-occupied
Guangdong Province
and controlling military operations in neighboring
Guangxi Province
. In December 1940, he was awarded the Grand Cordon of the
Order of the Rising Sun
.
[2]
In July 1941, Ushiroku was promoted to chief of staff of the
China Expeditionary Army
. In August 1942, he was promoted to full general and withdrawn to Japan to command the
Central District Army
. This was a
field army
responsible for the defense of the
Japanese home islands
. He remained in this post until February 1944.
[3]
In February 1944, he was hand-picked by Prime Minister
Hideki Tojo
to serve as Vice Chief of the General Staff
[4]
a member of the
Supreme War Council
,
Inspector-General of Army Aviation
and Chief of the
Army Aeronautical Department
within the
Army Ministry
, as he had been a close protegee of Tojo from his early days in the Army. In these roles, Ushiroku pushed for the use of
suicide attacks
by
infantry
to disable or destroy American armor due to Japan's inability to mass-produce effective
anti-tank weapons
by this stage of the war.
[5]
After the collapse of the
Tojo cabinet
following the
loss of Saipan
, Ushiroku returned to Manchukuo to take command of the
Japanese Third Area Army
to oppose the
Soviet invasion
. Although his forces were composed mostly of undertrained or overaged reservists with obsolete weapons, he refused orders to retreat, and launched a counterattack along the
Mukden
-
Port Arthur
railway, buying time to allow many Japanese civilians to flee. By 13 August 1945, his formations were largely shattered, and a mutiny by the
Manchukuo Imperial Army
at
Shinky?
ended his attempts to regroup. He surrendered to the Soviet army on 21 August 1945. He spent more than a decade as an
internee in the Soviet Union
. Ushiroku returned to Japan on 26 December 1956.
Ushiroku served as Chairman of the Japan Veterans Association until his death in 1973. His grave is at the
Tama Cemetery
in
Fuchu, Tokyo
.
Family
[
edit
]
Ushiroku's elder brother, Shintaro Ushiroku (1873-1959) was a noted entrepreneur and industrialist in
Taiwan
. He started with a building materials manufacturing business and later founded a number of companies, including Toho Artificial Fiber, Taiwan Brick, Takasago Beer, Beitou Ceramics, and Taiwan Paper Mill. He was selected as an advisor to the Taiwan Governor-General's Council. After the war, he emigrated to Brazil. Ushiroku's eldest son, Torao Ushiroku (1914-1992), was a diplomat and ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the
Republic of Korea
.
References
[
edit
]
- Fuller, Richard (1992).
Shokan: Hirohito's Samurai
. London: Arms and Armor.
ISBN
1-85409-151-4
.
- Fukagawa, Hideki (1981).
(陸海軍?官人事?? (陸軍篇)) Army and Navy General Personnel Directory (Army)
. Tokyo: Fuyo Shobo.
ISBN
4829500026
.
- Dupuy, Trevor N. (1992).
Encyclopedia of Military Biography
. I B Tauris & Co Ltd.
ISBN
1-85043-569-3
.
- Hata, Ikuhiko (2005).
(日本陸海軍?合事典) Japanese Army and Navy General Encyclopedia
. Tokyo: St. Martin's Press.
ISBN
4130301357
.
External links
[
edit
]