Kenji Doihara
Encyclopedia
was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army
in World War II
. He was instrumental in the Japanese invasion of Manchuria
for which he earned fame taking the nickname 'Lawrence of Manchuria', a reference to the Lawrence of Arabia.
As a leading intelligence officer he played a key role to the Japanese machinations leading to the occupation of large parts of China, the destabilization of the country and the disintegration of the traditional structure of the Chinese society in order to diminish reaction to the Japanese plans using highly unconventional methods. He became the mastermind of the Manchurian drug trade, and sponsor to a wide variety of underworld activities in China intended to finance Japanese intellegence operations and to undermine Chinese military stability. After the end of the World War II
he was prosecuted for war crimes in the International Military Tribunal for the Far East
. He was found guilty, sentenced to death
and was hanged in December 1948.
, Okayama Prefecture
. He attended military preparatory schools as a youth, and graduated from the 16th class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1904. He was assigned to various infantry
regiments as a junior officer, and returned to school to graduate from the 24th class of the Army Staff College
in 1912.
Doihara longed for a high-ranked military career, but his family's low social status stood in the way. He therefore contrived to use his 15-year-old sister as a concubine for a prince, who in exchange, rewarded him with a military rank and a posting to the Japanese embassy in Beijing
, China
as assistant to the military attaché
Gen. Hideki Tōjō
. Doihara could speak fluent Mandarin Chinese, and was fluent in several other Chinese dialects as well. With his linguistic abilities and knowledge of Chinese history and culture, he was soon earmarked for military intelligence
duties. He spent most of his early career in various postings in northern China, except for a brief tour in 1921-1922 as part of the Japanese forces in eastern Russia
during the Siberian Intervention
.
Meanwhile, Doihara worked his way up the military ladder, and was attached to IJA 2nd Infantry Regiment from 1926 to 1927 and IJA 3rd Infantry Regiment in 1927. In 1927 he was part of an official tour to China and then attached to IJA 1st Division from 1927 to 1928. He was then made military adviser to the Chinese Nationalist Government until 1929. In 1930 he was promoted to colonel
and commanded IJA 30th Infantry Regiment.
in 1930. He headed military espionage operations from the Japanese Army’s Tientsin office. The following year he was transferred to Shenyang
as head of the Houten Special Agency, another espionage office under the control of the Japanese Kwantung Army where he served until early 1932.
While at Shenyang, Doihara, together with Colonel Itagaki Seishirō
were instrumental in engineering the Mukden Incident
, and (as part of the following invasion of Manchuria) suborning the cooperation of Northeastern Army
generals Xi Qia
in Kirin
, Zhang Jinghui
in Harbin
and Zhang Haipeng at Taonan
in the northwest of Liaoning
province.
Next, Doihara was dispatched by Itagaki to return former Qing dynasty
emperor Pu Yi to Manchuria. The plan was to pretend that Pu Yi had returned to resume his throne by popular demand of the people of Manchuria, and that although Japan had nothing to do with his return, it could do nothing to oppose the will of the people. In order to carry out this plan, it was necessary to land Pu Yi at Yingkou
before that port froze; therefore, it was imperative that he arrive there before 16 November 1931. Doihara successfully brought Pu Yi into Manchuria within the deadline.
In early 1932 Doihara was sent to head the Harbin Special Agency of the Kwantung Army, where he began negotiations with General Ma Zhanshan
after he had been driven from
Tsitsihar by the Japanese. Ma's position was ambiguous; he continued negotiations while he supported Harbin-based General Ting Chao
. When Doihara realized his negotiations were not going anywhere, he requested that Manchurian warlord
Xi Qia advance with his forces to take Harbin from General Ting Chao. However, General Ting Chao was able to defeat Xi Qia’s forces and Doihara realized he would need Japanese forces to succeed. Doihara engineered the Harbin Incident to justify their intervention. This resulted in the IJA 12th Division under General Jirō Tamon
coming from Mukden by rail and then marching through the snow to reinforce the attack. Harbin fell on 5 February 1932. By the end of February, General Ting Chao retreated into northeastern Manchuria and offered to cease hostilities, ending Chinese formal resistance. Within a month the puppet state
of Manchukuo
was established under Doihara's supervision who had named himself mayor of Mukden. He then arranged for the puppet government to ask Tokyo to supply "military advisors". During the next months 150,000 soldiers, 18,000 gendarmes and 4,000 secret police
poured into the newly founded protectorate to secure Japanese rule
.
Because of Ma's fame in fighting the Japanese invasion, Doihara made contact with Ma and offered him a huge sum of money to defect to the new Manchukuoan government and Manchukuo Imperial Army
. Ma agreed and flew to Mukden in January 1932, where he attended the meeting that founded the state of Manchukuo and was appointed as War Minister of Manchukuo and Governor of Heilongjiang Province. However, after secretly using the Japanese money to raise and reequip a new volunteer force
, he led his troops from Tsitsihar
on 1 April 1932 reestablishing the Heilongjiang Provincial Government for the Republic of China
and continued to resist the Japanese.
From 1932 to 1933 the newly promoted Major General
Doihara commanded IJA 9th Infantry Brigade of IJA 5th Division. After the seizure of Jehol
in Operation Nekka, Doihara was sent back to Manchukuo to head Houten Special Agency once again until 1934. He was then attached to IJA 12th Division until 1936. However, according to the opinion of his military chief in Manchuria General Kanji Ishiwara, his heavy addiction to the opium contributed to his unreliability as an army officer.
, when he was given command of the IJA 14th Division under the Japanese First Army
in North China. There he served in the Beiping–Hankou Railway Operation
and spearheaded the campaign of Northern and Eastern Henan, where his division opposed the Chinese counterattack in the Battle of Lanfeng
.
Following the Battle of Lanfeng, Doihara was attached to the Army General Staff as head of the Doihara Special Agency until 1939, when he was given command of the Japanese Fifth Army
, in Manchukuo under the overall control of the Kwantung Army.
In 1940 Doihara became a member of the Supreme War Council
, Head of the Army Aeronautical Department of the Ministry of War
, and Inspector-General of Army Aviation until 1943. From 1940 to 1941 he was appointed Commandant of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy. On 4 November 1941, as a general
in the Japanese Army Air Force and a member of the Supreme War Council he voted his approval of the attack on Pearl Harbor
.
In 1943, Doihara was made Commander in Chief of the Eastern District Army. In 1944, he was appointed the Governor of Johor State
, Malaya
and commander in chief of the Japanese Seventh Area Army in Singapore
until 1945.
Returning to Japan in 1945, Doihara was promoted to Inspector-General of Military Training
(one of the most prestigious positions in the Army) and commander in chief of the Japanese Twelfth Area Army. At the time of the surrender of Japan
in 1945 Doihara was commander in chief of the 1st General Army.
, his activity played a key role in shattering China's ability to confront Japan's expansion by generating chaotic conditions which prevented any mass reaction in the invaded country.
Robbery, rape, assault and murder by soldiers and gendarmes controlling Manchuria's Chinese and Russian population, and arbitrary confiscation of property and unabashed extortion became commonplace. Underground brothels, opium dens, gambling houses and narcotics shops run by Japanese gendarmes competed with the state monopoly syndicate of opium. Many conscientious Japanese officers protested these conditions, but Tokyo ignored them and consequently they were silenced. The ritual suicide of Field Marshal Nobuyoshi Mutō
, who allegedly had left a note to the Emperor Hirohito pleading for mercy for the people of Manchuria, was in vain.
Doihara soon expanded his activity into the still unoccupied parts of China. By using about 80,000 paid Chinese villains known as Chiang Mao Tao, he funded hundreds of criminal groups, using them for every kind of social disturbance, turnover, assassinations and sabotage inside unoccupied China. Through these organizations he soon managed to control a large part of the opium traffic in China, using the money earned to fund his covert operations.
He hired an army of agents and sent them throughout China as representatives of various humanitarian organizations. They established thousands of health centers, mainly in the villages of the districts, for curing tuberculosis
, which was then epidemic in China. By adulterating medicines with opium, he managed to addict millions of unsuspecting patients, expanding societal degeneration into areas which had been hitherto untouched by the increasing breakdown of Chinese society. This scheme also created a pool of addicted victims desperate to offer any kind of service in order to secure a daily dose of opium.
He initially gave food and shelter to about 100,000 Russian White émigré
women who had taken refuge in the Far East after the defeat of the White Russian
anti-Bolshevik movement and the withdrawal of the Entente
and Japanese
armies from Siberia
. Having lost their livelihoods, and with most of them widowed, Doihara forced the women into prostitution, using them to create a network of brothel
s throughout China where the use of heroin and opium was promoted. Once addicted, the women were used to further spread the use of opium among the population by earning one free opium pipe for every six they were selling to their customers.
According to testimony presented at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East
held in Tokyo in 1948, the revenue from the narcotization policy in China, including Manchukuo, was estimated as twenty to thirty million yen per year, while another authority stated that the annual revenue was estimated by the Japanese military at 300 million dollars a year.
Doihara's methods reached into the core of the Kuomingtang army. In 1938 Chiang kai Shek was forced to execute eight generals commanding Chinese divisions when it was found that they were also inthe pay of Doihara. This heralded a wave of executions of high-ranking Chinese military and civilian officials found guilty for every kind of dealing with Doihara during the next six years of the war. To many westerners in touch with the Chinese leadership, the purges were without lasting results.
and prosecuted before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East
in Tokyo
for war crimes. Doihara was found guilty of Counts 1, 27, 29, 31, 32, 35, 36, and 54 and was sentenced to death. He was hanged
on 23 December 1948 at Sugamo Prison
.
Imperial Japanese Army
-Foundation:During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to the Emperor were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū...
in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He was instrumental in the Japanese invasion of Manchuria
Manchuria
Manchuria is a historical name given to a large geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria usually falls entirely within the People's Republic of China, or is sometimes divided between China and Russia. The region is commonly referred to as Northeast...
for which he earned fame taking the nickname 'Lawrence of Manchuria', a reference to the Lawrence of Arabia.
As a leading intelligence officer he played a key role to the Japanese machinations leading to the occupation of large parts of China, the destabilization of the country and the disintegration of the traditional structure of the Chinese society in order to diminish reaction to the Japanese plans using highly unconventional methods. He became the mastermind of the Manchurian drug trade, and sponsor to a wide variety of underworld activities in China intended to finance Japanese intellegence operations and to undermine Chinese military stability. After the end of the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
he was prosecuted for war crimes in the International Military Tribunal for the Far East
International Military Tribunal for the Far East
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East , also known as the Tokyo Trials, the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, or simply the Tribunal, was convened on April 29, 1946, to try the leaders of the Empire of Japan for three types of crimes: "Class A" crimes were reserved for those who...
. He was found guilty, sentenced to death
Death Sentence
Death Sentence is a short story by the American science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the November 1943 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and reprinted in the 1972 collection The Early Asimov.-Plot summary:...
and was hanged in December 1948.
Early life and career
Kenji Doihara was born in Okayama cityOkayama, Okayama
is the capital city of Okayama Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of Japan.The city was founded on June 1, 1889. As of August 2010, the city has an estimated population of 705,224 and a population density of 893 persons per km². The total area is 789.88 km²....
, Okayama Prefecture
Okayama Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region on Honshū island. The capital is the city of Okayama.- History :During the Meiji Restoration, the area of Okayama Prefecture was known as Bitchū Province, Bizen Province and Mimasaka Province.- Geography :...
. He attended military preparatory schools as a youth, and graduated from the 16th class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1904. He was assigned to various infantry
Infantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...
regiments as a junior officer, and returned to school to graduate from the 24th class of the Army Staff College
Army War College (Japan)
The ; Short form: of the Empire of Japan was founded in 1882 in Minato, Tokyo to modernize and Westernize the Imperial Japanese Army. Much of the empire's elite including prime ministers during the period of Japanese militarism were graduates of the college....
in 1912.
Doihara longed for a high-ranked military career, but his family's low social status stood in the way. He therefore contrived to use his 15-year-old sister as a concubine for a prince, who in exchange, rewarded him with a military rank and a posting to the Japanese embassy in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
as assistant to the military attaché
Military attaché
A military attaché is a military expert who is attached to a diplomatic mission . This post is normally filled by a high-ranking military officer who retains the commission while serving in an embassy...
Gen. Hideki Tōjō
Hideki Tōjō
Hideki Tōjō was a general of the Imperial Japanese Army , the leader of the Taisei Yokusankai, and the 40th Prime Minister of Japan during most of World War II, from 17 October 1941 to 22 July 1944...
. Doihara could speak fluent Mandarin Chinese, and was fluent in several other Chinese dialects as well. With his linguistic abilities and knowledge of Chinese history and culture, he was soon earmarked for military intelligence
Military intelligence
Military intelligence is a military discipline that exploits a number of information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to commanders in support of their decisions....
duties. He spent most of his early career in various postings in northern China, except for a brief tour in 1921-1922 as part of the Japanese forces in eastern Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
during the Siberian Intervention
Siberian Intervention
The ', or the Siberian Expedition, of 1918–1922 was the dispatch of troops of the Entente powers to the Russian Maritime Provinces as part of a larger effort by the western powers and Japan to support White Russian forces against the Bolshevik Red Army during the Russian Civil War...
.
Meanwhile, Doihara worked his way up the military ladder, and was attached to IJA 2nd Infantry Regiment from 1926 to 1927 and IJA 3rd Infantry Regiment in 1927. In 1927 he was part of an official tour to China and then attached to IJA 1st Division from 1927 to 1928. He was then made military adviser to the Chinese Nationalist Government until 1929. In 1930 he was promoted to colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
and commanded IJA 30th Infantry Regiment.
The “Lawrence of Manchuria”
Doihara's performance was recognized, and he was assigned to Imperial Japanese Army General Staff OfficeImperial Japanese Army General Staff Office
, also called the Army General Staff, was one of the four principal agencies charged with overseeing the Imperial Japanese Army.-Role:The was created in April 1872, along with the Navy Ministry, to replace the Ministry of Military Affairs of the early Meiji government.Initially, the Army Ministry...
in 1930. He headed military espionage operations from the Japanese Army’s Tientsin office. The following year he was transferred to Shenyang
Shenyang
Shenyang , or Mukden , is the capital and largest city of Liaoning Province in Northeast China. Currently holding sub-provincial administrative status, the city was once known as Shengjing or Fengtianfu...
as head of the Houten Special Agency, another espionage office under the control of the Japanese Kwantung Army where he served until early 1932.
While at Shenyang, Doihara, together with Colonel Itagaki Seishirō
Itagaki Seishiro
was a General in the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II and a War Minister.-Overview:Itagaki was born in Morioka city, Iwate prefecture into a samurai class family formerly serving the Nanbu clan of Morioka Domain. He graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1904...
were instrumental in engineering the Mukden Incident
Mukden Incident
The Mukden Incident, also known as the Manchurian Incident, was a staged event that was engineered by Japanese military personnel as a pretext for invading the northern part of China known as Manchuria in 1931....
, and (as part of the following invasion of Manchuria) suborning the cooperation of Northeastern Army
Northeastern Army
The Northeastern Army , was the Chinese army of the Fengtien clique until the unification of China in 1928. From 1931 to 1933 it faced the Japanese forces in Manchuria, Jehol and Hebei, in the early years of the Second Sino-Japanese War.Zhang Xueliang commanded this army after the assassination of...
generals Xi Qia
Xi Qia
Xi Qia , also Xi Xia , was a general in command of the Kirin Provincial Army of the Republic of China, who defected to the Japanese during the Invasion of Manchuria in 1931, and who subsequently served as a cabinet minister in Manchukuo....
in Kirin
Jilin
Jilin , is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the northeastern part of the country. Jilin borders North Korea and Russia to the east, Heilongjiang to the north, Liaoning to the south, and Inner Mongolia to the west...
, Zhang Jinghui
Zhang Jinghui
Zhāng Jǐnghuì ; 1871 – 1 November 1959) was a Chinese general and politician during the Warlord era. He is noted for his role in the Japanese puppet regime of Manchukuo in which he served as its second and final Prime Minister.-Biography:...
in Harbin
Harbin
Harbin ; Manchu language: , Harbin; Russian: Харби́н Kharbin ), is the capital and largest city of Heilongjiang Province in Northeast China, lying on the southern bank of the Songhua River...
and Zhang Haipeng at Taonan
Taonan
-Administrative Divisions:There are 6 subdistricts, 5 towns, 14 townships, and 2 ethnic townships.Subdistricts:*Tuanjie Subdistrict , Fuwen Subdistrict , Guangming Subdistrict , Xinglong Subdistrict , Yongkang Subdistrict , Tongda Subdistrict Towns:*Wafang , Wanbao , Heishui , Najin , Anding...
in the northwest of Liaoning
Liaoning
' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the northeast of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is "辽" , a name taken from the Liao River that flows through the province. "Níng" means "peace"...
province.
Next, Doihara was dispatched by Itagaki to return former Qing dynasty
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
emperor Pu Yi to Manchuria. The plan was to pretend that Pu Yi had returned to resume his throne by popular demand of the people of Manchuria, and that although Japan had nothing to do with his return, it could do nothing to oppose the will of the people. In order to carry out this plan, it was necessary to land Pu Yi at Yingkou
Yingkou
Yingkou is located in the northwestern portion of the Liaodong Peninsula, and on the left bank of the Daliao River, which enters the sea in the city. To the west is the Liaodong Bay of the Bohai Gulf, and the city thus looks across to Jinzhou and Huludao...
before that port froze; therefore, it was imperative that he arrive there before 16 November 1931. Doihara successfully brought Pu Yi into Manchuria within the deadline.
In early 1932 Doihara was sent to head the Harbin Special Agency of the Kwantung Army, where he began negotiations with General Ma Zhanshan
Ma Zhanshan
Ma Zhanshan or Ma Chan-san , was a Chinese Muslim general who initially opposed the Imperial Japanese Army in the invasion of Manchuria, briefly defected to Manchukuo, and then rebelled, and fought against the Japanese in Manchuria and in other parts of China.-Early life:Ma was born...
after he had been driven from
Jiangqiao Campaign
- External links :*****Topographic maps of campaign area.* San-chien-fang 三间房 area, Angangxi , Tsitsihar* Nenjiang Bridge area...
Tsitsihar by the Japanese. Ma's position was ambiguous; he continued negotiations while he supported Harbin-based General Ting Chao
Ting Chao
Ting Chao or Ding Chao was a Chinese General, known for his defense of Harbin during the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and 1932....
. When Doihara realized his negotiations were not going anywhere, he requested that Manchurian warlord
Warlord
A warlord is a person with power who has both military and civil control over a subnational area due to armed forces loyal to the warlord and not to a central authority. The term can also mean one who espouses the ideal that war is necessary, and has the means and authority to engage in war...
Xi Qia advance with his forces to take Harbin from General Ting Chao. However, General Ting Chao was able to defeat Xi Qia’s forces and Doihara realized he would need Japanese forces to succeed. Doihara engineered the Harbin Incident to justify their intervention. This resulted in the IJA 12th Division under General Jirō Tamon
Jiro Tamon
-External links:* * - Notes :...
coming from Mukden by rail and then marching through the snow to reinforce the attack. Harbin fell on 5 February 1932. By the end of February, General Ting Chao retreated into northeastern Manchuria and offered to cease hostilities, ending Chinese formal resistance. Within a month the puppet state
Puppet state
A puppet state is a nominal sovereign of a state who is de facto controlled by a foreign power. The term refers to a government controlled by the government of another country like a puppeteer controls the strings of a marionette...
of Manchukuo
Manchukuo
Manchukuo or Manshū-koku was a puppet state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia, governed under a form of constitutional monarchy. The region was the historical homeland of the Manchus, who founded the Qing Empire in China...
was established under Doihara's supervision who had named himself mayor of Mukden. He then arranged for the puppet government to ask Tokyo to supply "military advisors". During the next months 150,000 soldiers, 18,000 gendarmes and 4,000 secret police
Secret police
Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....
poured into the newly founded protectorate to secure Japanese rule
Pacification of Manchukuo
The Pacification of Manchukuo, was a campaign to pacify the resistance to the newly established puppet state of Manchukuo between the Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies of Manchuria and later the Communist Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army and the Imperial Japanese Army and the forces of the...
.
Because of Ma's fame in fighting the Japanese invasion, Doihara made contact with Ma and offered him a huge sum of money to defect to the new Manchukuoan government and Manchukuo Imperial Army
Manchukuo Imperial Army
The Manchukuo Imperial Army was the armed force of the Japanese dominated puppet state of Manchukuo, serving as the land forces, along with the Manchukuo Imperial Guards...
. Ma agreed and flew to Mukden in January 1932, where he attended the meeting that founded the state of Manchukuo and was appointed as War Minister of Manchukuo and Governor of Heilongjiang Province. However, after secretly using the Japanese money to raise and reequip a new volunteer force
Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies
After the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, and until 1933, large volunteer armies waged war against Japanese and Manchukuo forces over much of Northeast China....
, he led his troops from Tsitsihar
Qiqihar
- Subdivisions :Qiqihar is divided into 16 divisions: 7 districts , 8 counties and 1 county-level city .-Economy:...
on 1 April 1932 reestablishing the Heilongjiang Provincial Government for the Republic of China
Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
and continued to resist the Japanese.
From 1932 to 1933 the newly promoted Major General
Major General
Major general or major-general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. A major general is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the ranks of brigadier and brigadier general...
Doihara commanded IJA 9th Infantry Brigade of IJA 5th Division. After the seizure of Jehol
Jehol
Jehol could mean either a province or a city:* Jehol Province, former province in northeastern China* Chengde, the capital of above provinceNamed after the province:* Jehol Biota* Jeholodens* Jeholopterus* Jeholornis* Jeholosaurus...
in Operation Nekka, Doihara was sent back to Manchukuo to head Houten Special Agency once again until 1934. He was then attached to IJA 12th Division until 1936. However, according to the opinion of his military chief in Manchuria General Kanji Ishiwara, his heavy addiction to the opium contributed to his unreliability as an army officer.
Second Sino-Japanese War
From 1936 to 1937 Doihara was the commander of the 1st Depot Division in Japan until the Marco Polo Bridge IncidentMarco Polo Bridge Incident
The Marco Polo Bridge Incident was a battle between the Republic of China's National Revolutionary Army and the Imperial Japanese Army, often used as the marker for the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War .The eleven-arch granite bridge, Lugouqiao, is an architecturally significant structure,...
, when he was given command of the IJA 14th Division under the Japanese First Army
Japanese First Army
The was an army of the Imperial Japanese Army. It was raised and demobilized on three separate occasions.-History:The Japanese 1st Army was initially raised during the First Sino-Japanese War from September 1, 1894 to May 28, 1895 under the command of General Yamagata Aritomo...
in North China. There he served in the Beiping–Hankou Railway Operation
Beiping–Hankou Railway Operation
The Japanese 京漢線作戦 or Peiking–Hankou Railway Operation was a follow up operation to the Peiking Tientsin Operation of the Japanese army in North China at the beginning of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War. The Japanese advanced to the south along the Peiking - Hankou Railway toward the Yellow River.....
and spearheaded the campaign of Northern and Eastern Henan, where his division opposed the Chinese counterattack in the Battle of Lanfeng
Battle of Lanfeng
The Battle of Lanfeng was part of the larger campaign for Northern and Eastern Honan and was occurring at the same time as the Battle of Xuzhou...
.
Following the Battle of Lanfeng, Doihara was attached to the Army General Staff as head of the Doihara Special Agency until 1939, when he was given command of the Japanese Fifth Army
Japanese Fifth Army
The was an army of the Imperial Japanese Army based in Manchukuo as a garrison force during World War II under the overall command of the Kwantung Army.-History:...
, in Manchukuo under the overall control of the Kwantung Army.
In 1940 Doihara became a member of the Supreme War Council
Supreme War Council (Japan)
The Supreme War Council was established during the development of representative government in Meiji period Japan to further strengthen the authority of the state. Its first leader was Yamagata Aritomo , a Chōshū native who has been credited with the founding of the modern Japanese army and was to...
, Head of the Army Aeronautical Department of the Ministry of War
Ministry of War of Japan
The , more popularly known as the Ministry of War of Japan, was cabinet-level ministry in the Empire of Japan charged with the administrative affairs of the Imperial Japanese Army...
, and Inspector-General of Army Aviation until 1943. From 1940 to 1941 he was appointed Commandant of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy. On 4 November 1941, as a general
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
in the Japanese Army Air Force and a member of the Supreme War Council he voted his approval of the attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
.
In 1943, Doihara was made Commander in Chief of the Eastern District Army. In 1944, he was appointed the Governor of Johor State
Johor
Johor is a Malaysian state, located in the southern portion of Peninsular Malaysia. It is one of the most developed states in Malaysia. The state capital city and royal city of Johor is Johor Bahru, formerly known as Tanjung Puteri...
, Malaya
British Malaya
British Malaya loosely described a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the Island of Singapore that were brought under British control between the 18th and the 20th centuries...
and commander in chief of the Japanese Seventh Area Army in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
until 1945.
Returning to Japan in 1945, Doihara was promoted to Inspector-General of Military Training
Inspectorate General of Military Training
The was responsible for all non-military aviation training of the Imperial Japanese Army. It was headed by an Inspector general who was responsible for overseeing technical and tactical training, and who reported directly to the Emperor of Japan via the Imperial General Headquarters rather than to...
(one of the most prestigious positions in the Army) and commander in chief of the Japanese Twelfth Area Army. At the time of the surrender of Japan
Surrender of Japan
The surrender of Japan in 1945 brought hostilities of World War II to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy was incapable of conducting operations and an Allied invasion of Japan was imminent...
in 1945 Doihara was commander in chief of the 1st General Army.
Controversy
Doihara's activity in China vastly exceeded the normal behaviour of an intelligence officer. As chief of the Japanese secret services in China he worked out, put in motion and oversaw a wide series of activities systematically exploiting the occupied areas and disrupting Chinese social structure in the rest of the country in order to weaken public resistance. To this end, he used every possible kind of action, including deliberately fueling criminality, fostering drug addiction, sponsoring terrorism and spreading corruption in the almost ungovernable country. The extent of his activities and covert operations are still inadequately understood. According to Ronald Sydney SethRobert Chartham
Robert Chartham was the pseudonym of Ronald Sydney Seth , a British writer who used the name Chartham for his activity as a sexologist and the name Seth for travel books and books about espionage....
, his activity played a key role in shattering China's ability to confront Japan's expansion by generating chaotic conditions which prevented any mass reaction in the invaded country.
Robbery, rape, assault and murder by soldiers and gendarmes controlling Manchuria's Chinese and Russian population, and arbitrary confiscation of property and unabashed extortion became commonplace. Underground brothels, opium dens, gambling houses and narcotics shops run by Japanese gendarmes competed with the state monopoly syndicate of opium. Many conscientious Japanese officers protested these conditions, but Tokyo ignored them and consequently they were silenced. The ritual suicide of Field Marshal Nobuyoshi Mutō
Nobuyoshi Muto
-External links:*- Notes :...
, who allegedly had left a note to the Emperor Hirohito pleading for mercy for the people of Manchuria, was in vain.
Doihara soon expanded his activity into the still unoccupied parts of China. By using about 80,000 paid Chinese villains known as Chiang Mao Tao, he funded hundreds of criminal groups, using them for every kind of social disturbance, turnover, assassinations and sabotage inside unoccupied China. Through these organizations he soon managed to control a large part of the opium traffic in China, using the money earned to fund his covert operations.
He hired an army of agents and sent them throughout China as representatives of various humanitarian organizations. They established thousands of health centers, mainly in the villages of the districts, for curing tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
, which was then epidemic in China. By adulterating medicines with opium, he managed to addict millions of unsuspecting patients, expanding societal degeneration into areas which had been hitherto untouched by the increasing breakdown of Chinese society. This scheme also created a pool of addicted victims desperate to offer any kind of service in order to secure a daily dose of opium.
He initially gave food and shelter to about 100,000 Russian White émigré
White Emigre
A white émigré was a Russian who emigrated from Russia in the wake of the Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War, and who was in opposition to the contemporary Russian political climate....
women who had taken refuge in the Far East after the defeat of the White Russian
White movement
The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...
anti-Bolshevik movement and the withdrawal of the Entente
Siberian Intervention
The ', or the Siberian Expedition, of 1918–1922 was the dispatch of troops of the Entente powers to the Russian Maritime Provinces as part of a larger effort by the western powers and Japan to support White Russian forces against the Bolshevik Red Army during the Russian Civil War...
and Japanese
Japan during the Siberian Intervention
The ' of 1918–1922 was the dispatch of troops of the Imperial Japanese Army to the Russian Maritime Provinces as part of a larger effort by western powers and Japan to support White Russian forces against the Bolshevik Red Army during the Russian Civil War....
armies from Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
. Having lost their livelihoods, and with most of them widowed, Doihara forced the women into prostitution, using them to create a network of brothel
Brothel
Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...
s throughout China where the use of heroin and opium was promoted. Once addicted, the women were used to further spread the use of opium among the population by earning one free opium pipe for every six they were selling to their customers.
According to testimony presented at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East
International Military Tribunal for the Far East
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East , also known as the Tokyo Trials, the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, or simply the Tribunal, was convened on April 29, 1946, to try the leaders of the Empire of Japan for three types of crimes: "Class A" crimes were reserved for those who...
held in Tokyo in 1948, the revenue from the narcotization policy in China, including Manchukuo, was estimated as twenty to thirty million yen per year, while another authority stated that the annual revenue was estimated by the Japanese military at 300 million dollars a year.
Doihara's methods reached into the core of the Kuomingtang army. In 1938 Chiang kai Shek was forced to execute eight generals commanding Chinese divisions when it was found that they were also inthe pay of Doihara. This heralded a wave of executions of high-ranking Chinese military and civilian officials found guilty for every kind of dealing with Doihara during the next six years of the war. To many westerners in touch with the Chinese leadership, the purges were without lasting results.
Prosecution and conviction
After the war, Doihara was arrested by the American occupation authoritiesSupreme Commander of the Allied Powers
Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers was the title held by General Douglas MacArthur during the Occupation of Japan following World War II...
and prosecuted before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East
International Military Tribunal for the Far East
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East , also known as the Tokyo Trials, the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, or simply the Tribunal, was convened on April 29, 1946, to try the leaders of the Empire of Japan for three types of crimes: "Class A" crimes were reserved for those who...
in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
for war crimes. Doihara was found guilty of Counts 1, 27, 29, 31, 32, 35, 36, and 54 and was sentenced to death. He was hanged
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
on 23 December 1948 at Sugamo Prison
Sugamo Prison
Sugamo Prison was located in the district of Ikebukuro, which is now part of the Toshima ward of Tokyo, Japan-History:...
.