Masaharu Homma
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Masaharu Homma (本間雅晴 Honma Masaharu, November 27, 1887 in Sado, Niigata Prefecture, Japan - April 3, 1946 in Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines), also known as the Poet General, was the Japanese General in charge of the troops and actions that created the Bataan Death March in Philippines during 1942 and the bombing of Manila after the declaration that it was an open city.
He was believed to be a very skilled military theoretician, but not a sufficient delegator or practical leader. This is supported by his later dismissal from command after the fall of Corregidor because of the extended time and cost of the operation.
Homma is thought to have been a moderate, not a fanatical militarist. He attended military academies and Oxford, spoke English and was known to like western movies. During battles, he painted and composed poetry and thus was given the nickname, the Poet General.
It is not clear whether Homma ordered the atrocities that occurred during the Bataan Death March, but it is clear that his lack of administrative expertise and delegatory skills led to the atrocities. In his defense at his war crime trial, Homma even claimed that he was so preoccupied with the plans for the Corregidor assault that he had forgotten about the prisoners’ treatment, believing that his officers were properly handling the matter. He allegedly did not learn of the death toll until after the war.
Homma publicly stated at the surrender of the 80,000 US and Philippine troops that the POWs would be treated fairly. However, the Japanese thought that there were only 40,000 POWs and the surrender would occur some three weeks later, a point at which supplies would have arrived.
Homma was removed from command shortly after the fall of Corregidor because of the high cost and long delay in securing the American and Philippine forces surrender. Homma retired from the military and lived in semi-seclusion in Japan until the end of the war.
After the surrender of the Japanese, Homma was convicted by a U.S. military commission in the Philippines of war crimes, including the atrocities of the death march out of Bataan, and the atrocities at O'Donnell and Cabanatuan that followed, and executed by firing squad on April 3, 1946 outside Manila.
General Douglas MacArthur had Homma removed from Japan to the Philippines so that his court-martial panel there would try him rather than the Allied War Crimes Commission who were trying War Criminals in Japan. Historian Philip Piccigallo said that Homma was convicted of the actions of his men during the march rather than having a direct hand in the actions themselves.
External links
- http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bataan/peopleevents/p_homma.html
- http://www.doingoralhistory.org/virtual_archive/2004/Papers/PDFs/M_Kleinman.pdf
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