On
this date, January 21, 1948, a Japanese War Criminal, Vice Admiral Naomasa
Sakonju, was hanged for war crimes during World War II. I will post information
about him from Wikipedia.
Japanese admiral
Naomasa Sakonju (1890-1948)
|
Born
|
June 6, 1890
Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan |
Died
|
January 21, 1948 (aged 57)
Hong Kong |
Allegiance
|
Empire of Japan
|
Service/branch
|
Imperial Japanese Navy
|
Years of service
|
1912-1945
|
Rank
|
Vice Admiral
|
Commands held
|
Cruiser Division 16
|
Battles/wars
|
World War II
|
Naomasa Sakonju
(左近允 尚正 Sakonjō Naomasa?, 6 June 1890 – 21 January 1948) was
an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II.
Biography
A
native of Kagoshima
Prefecture, Sakonju was a graduate of the 40th class of the Imperial
Japanese Navy Academy in 1912, placing 98th in a class of 144. He
served his midshipman tour on the cruiser Soya,
and battleship Suwo,
and after commissioning as an ensign was assigned to Hashidate.
After
his promotion to lieutenant on 1
December 1919, he was assigned to the Tenryū,
served a year as communications officer on Chichijima in the Ogasawara Islands, and returned to serve as
communications officer on Mutsu,
and seaplane tender Wakamiya.
He was promoted to lieutenant
commander in 1930, and was executive officer of the Kako
in 1933. He held numerous staff positions thereafter, including that of naval
attaché to Thailand from 1 September 1941.
He
was promoted to rear admiral on
15 October 1941, and continued to remain in Thailand until June 1942.
He
was assigned as commanding officer of the Cruiser Division 16 in September
1942, with the heavy cruiser Tone
as his flagship. CruDiv16 played an important role
during many naval battles of World War II.
In
March 1944, CruDiv 16 was engaged in attacking
Allied shipping sailing between Aden
and Fremantle.
The 6,100-ton British steamer MV Behar, crewed mostly by Indian seamen,
was sunk about midway between Ceylon and Fremantle on
9 March 1944. Following this attack, the squadron broke off its mission and
returned to Batavia, as it was feared that Allied ships
responding to the Behar's distress signal posed an unacceptable risk. Tone
took 114 survivors aboard, but was unable to land the prisoners at Batavia, as
new orders had been received from Tokyo that no further prisoners were to be
taken in combat operations other than those needed for interrogation. When
Sakonju protested that the prisoners could not very well be kept aboard Tone
for the duration of the war, he was advised that they should be "disposed
of". Ten days later, Tone Captain Haruo Mayuzumi ordered the
prisoners to line up on the aircraft deck. Apparently randomly, Mayuzumi
selected 52–72 men (accounts vary), and ordered them shot on the fantail after
they refused the honor of death by sword, and pitched the bodies into the Indian Ocean. Those killed included 10 of
14 officers on the MV Behar, and most of the Royal Navy crew.
Promoted
to vice admiral on 15 October 1944, Sakonju
became chief of staff of the China Area Fleet, remaining in that post
until the war's end
in 1945.
In
1946, Sakonju was arrested by the American
occupation authorities and extradited to Hong Kong, where he was charged with war crimes by a British military tribunal over his role in the
murder of the survivors of the Behar. Sakonju took responsibility in his
1947 affidavit. "In view of the fact that the Allies are lately killing
Japanese prisoners of war at Guadalcanal by running tanks over them and are often
bombing and torpedoing Japanese hospital ships, causing many casualties, the
H.Q. came to a conclusion that the Allies are aiming at the reduction of
Japan's manpower, and H.Q. decided to retaliate." Sakonju was hanged in
January 1948.
No comments:
Post a Comment