THE HANGING OF SIX JAPANESE WAR CRIMINALS (JUNE 18, 1947)

On this date, June 18, 1947, six convicted Japanese war criminals were hanged by the U.S. Navy War Crimes Commission on Guam.

INTERNET SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shigematsu_Sakaibara

 

Admiral Shigematsu Sakaibara (seated third from left) signing the surrender of Wake Island aboard USS Levy - 4 September 1945. Admiral Shigematsu Sakaibara (seated third from left) signing the surrender of Wake Island aboard USS Levy - 4 September 1945.

Surrender of Wake Island Aboard USS LEVY DE 162

4 September 1945

Left to right, sitting at table: Japanese Army Colonel Shigeharu Chikamori, Sakaibara, Japanese Paymaster Lieutenant P. Hisao Napasato, Marine Brigadier General Lawson H. M. Sanderson, of Santa Barbara, Cal., Commander of the Fourth Marine Air Wing who accepted the surrender in the name of Rear Admiral W. K. Harrill, Army Sergeant Larry Watanabe of Honolulu, official interpreter at the surrender, and Colonel T. J. Walker Jr., Sanderson's Chief of Staff.

Standing, center back, holding pipe, is Colonel Walter L. J. Baylor

source: Destroyer Escort Sailors Association

http://www.desausa.org/

http://www.desausa.org/de_photo_library/surrender_of_wake_island_1.htm

Born	December 28, 1898 Yamagata Prefecture, Japan
Died	18 June 1947 (aged 48) Guam
Allegiance	Empire of Japan
Service/branch	Imperial Japanese Navy
Years of service	1918-1945
Rank	Rear Admiral
Commands held	65th Base Garrison (Wake Island)
Battles/wars	World War II Battle of Wake Island

Shigematsu Sakaibara (酒井原 繁松 Sakaibara Shigematsu^?, December 28, 1898 – June 18, 1947) was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy and the Japanese garrison commander on Wake Island during World War II.

Biography

A native of Yamagata prefecture in northern Japan, Sakaibara was a graduate of the 46th class of the Imperial Japanese Navy Academy in 1918, placing 36th in a class of 124. He served his midshipman tour on the cruiser Tokiwa, and after his commission as an ensign was assigned to Hirado. He later served on the destroyer Kaba and battleship Mutsu.

As a sub-lieutenant he served on the Iwate and after his promotion to lieutenant on December 1, 1924, he was assigned to the Hiei, Yura, and Sendai. He was chief gunnery officer on the Tatsuta. Promoted to lieutenant commander in 1930, he served as chief gunnery officer on Takao in 1934, followed by Mutsu in 1935. He was executive officer on Chikuma in 1939. After his promotion to captain in 1940, he served in a number of staff positions.

After the Battle of Wake Island on December 23, 1941, Sakaibara was appointed garrison commander of the Japanese occupation force. Fearing an imminent attempt by American forces to retake the island, Sakaibara enslaved the American prisoners of war and forced them to build a series of bunkers and fortifications. However, instead of attempting an amphibious invasion, the United States Navy established a submarine blockade, causing the Japanese garrison to starve. United States forces bombed the island periodically from 1942 until Japan's surrender in 1945.

On October 5, 1943, aircraft from USS Yorktown bombed Wake Island. Two days later, fearing an imminent invasion, Sakaibara ordered the execution of the 98 civilian prisoners remaining on Wake Island. They were taken to the northern end of the island, blindfolded and machine-gunned. One prisoner (whose name has never been discovered) escaped, but was recaptured and personally beheaded by Sakaibara.

Sakaibara was promoted to rear admiral a year later, on October 15, 1944. The Japanese garrison on Wake Island formally surrendered to the United States on September 7, 1945.

After the war, Sakaibara was taken into custody by the American occupation authorities, extradited to Guam, and sentenced to death by a military tribunal for war crimes in connection with his actions in the "Wake Island Massacre". He was hanged on June 18, 1947. Until the end, he maintained "I think my trial was entirely unfair and the proceeding unfair, and the sentence too harsh, but I obey with pleasure."

Surrender of Wake Atoll, 4 September 1945

Raising the U.S. flag over Wake Island on 4 September 1945, as a U.S. Marine Corps bugler plays "Colors". This was the first time the Stars and Stripes had flown over Wake since its capture by the Japanese on 23 December 1941. The officer saluting in the right foreground is Rear Admiral Shigematsu Sakaibara, Japanese commander on Wake. Colors carried by the U.S. party, right background, include the U.S. Marine Corps flag. Photographed by R.O. Kepler, USMC.

U.S. Marine Corps Photograph, in the Collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Surrender of Wake Atoll, 4 September 1945

Raising the U.S. flag over Wake Island on 4 September 1945, as a U.S. Marine Corps bugler plays "Colors". This was the first time the Stars and Stripes had flown over Wake since its capture by the Japanese on 23 December 1941. The officer saluting in the right foreground is Rear Admiral Shigematsu Sakaibara, Japanese commander on Wake. Colors carried by the U.S. party, right background, include the U.S. Marine Corps flag. Photographed by R.O. Kepler, USMC.

U.S. Marine Corps Photograph, in the Collections of the Naval Historical Center.

INTERNET SOURCE: http://www.executedtoday.com/2009/06/18/1947-shigematsu-sakaibara-wake-island-massacre/

In the evening of June 18, 1947,* six convicted Japanese war criminals were hanged** by the U.S. Navy War Crimes Commission on Guam.

An unidentified Japanese prisoner ascends the gallows on Guam. [PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.executedtoday.com/2009/06/18/1947-shigematsu-sakaibara-wake-island-massacre/]

The most lastingly notable of the six was Rear Admiral Shigematsu Sakaibara, who was hanged for ordering (and perhaps in one instance, personally conducting) an infamous mass execution on Wake Island that has already appeared in these pages.

According to Judgment at Tokyo:

For some, the hanging of one of these six men had been a horrible tragedy and perhaps even a mistake. Rear Adm. Shigematsu Sakaibara had enjoyed the reputation of “gentleman soldier” and protector of the common man. Hailing from a wealthy family near Misawa in Tohokhu province, some 450 miles north of Tokyo, Sakaibara never forgot his roots. Forever poking fun at the fast-paced Tokyo lifestyle, the rear admiral touted the value of rural living, the integrity and honesty of those who lived in Japan’s rugged north country, and Tokyo’s need to recognize their great contributions to the war effort. Contemplating a postwar political future, he would be following in the footsteps of his politically influential family in northern Japan. That future was linked to championing the rights of returning veterans and other have-nots. Misawa had indeed had a heroic reputation as an important navy town and base for years. Sakaibara had assisted in the training exercises held there for the Pearl Harbor attack plan in late 1941. His future seemed golden no matter who won the war. But what some in his command called “The 1943 Incident” changed all that.

These events, Sakaibara admitted in his trial, had taken place in an atmosphere of near starvation and impending doom. The defense counsel especially emphasized that point, asking the commission to understand and respect the pressures and strains on Sakaibara at the time of the incident. But the commission was not in a forgiving mood. In the chaos of retreat or not, innocent civilians had been murdered.

… Unfortunately for Sakaibara, several members of his former command expressed surprise on the witness stand when asked about the desperate situation on Wake in 1943. These men insisted that Sakaibara and his defense team’s description of a starving, chaotic Wake was an exaggerated one. There had been no unexpected miseries, confusion, or sense of peril, they said. Sakaibara’s fate was sealed.

True to form, defendant Sakaibara offered a very literate final statement to the commission. In contrast to so many of his colleagues on trial in Tokyo, on Guam, or elsewhere, Sakaibara, albeit with carefully picked words, admitted he was guilty of rash and unfortunate actions. He appeared especially convincing when he noted that he wished he had never heard of Wake Island. But his most memorable comments involved his own view of morality in war. A nation that drops atom bombs on major cities, the rear admiral explained, did not have the moral authority to try so many of his countrymen. With Hiroshima and Nagasaki in mind, Sakaibara claimed there was little difference between himself and the victors over Japan. With that statement a legend grew, particularly in his home town, of Sakaibara, the victim of American revenge.

… As late as the 1990s, some people there, not necessarily of the World War II generation, still bowed in reverence to Sakaibara family members out of respect for the “sacrificed” gentleman soldier.

His last words:

I think my trial was entirely unfair and the proceeding unfair, and the sentence too harsh, but I obey with pleasure.

* Some sources places the executions on June 19; the U.P. wire story, dated June 19th, referred to the hangings occurring “last night,” and the preponderance of evidence I have been able to locate appears to me to support the 18th rather than the 19th.

** An interesting bit of interservice-rivalry color on proceedings in Guam, courtesy of Prisoners of the Japanese:

The United States Navy had hanged fewer than a handful of men in more than a hundred years … Now on Guam they had all kinds of Japanese to try and sentence to death … They had to requisition an Army executioner to show them how to hang. He was a lieutenant with silver-rimmed glasses, a leading-man moustache, and a paunch. He used the traditional British drop formula, but he was an innovator as well: He invented a method of lowering the dead body to the stretcher without having to cut the rope.