was a general in the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

, commanding Japanese ground forces in the Southwest Pacific during the closing months of the war. He led a brigade-sized formation, known as the Nakai Detachment, which had been detached from the 20th Division during the

Finisterre Range campaign The Markham Valley, Ramu Valley and Finisterre Range campaigns were a series of battles within the broader New Guinea campaign of World War II. The campaigns began with an Allied offensive in the Ramu Valley, from 19 September 1943, and concl ...

. Nakai was later placed in command on the IJA 20th Division.

Biography

Nakai was born in

Tottori Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Tottori Prefecture is the least populous prefecture of Japan at 570,569 (2016) and has a geographic area of . Tottori Prefecture borders Shimane Prefecture to the west, Hiro ...

. He graduated from the 29th class of the

Imperial Japanese Army Academy The was the principal officer's training school for the Imperial Japanese Army. The programme consisted of a junior course for graduates of local army cadet schools and for those who had completed four years of middle school, and a senior course f ...

in May 1917 and from the 42nd class of the

Army Staff College Staff colleges (also command and staff colleges and War colleges) train military officers in the administrative, military staff and policy aspects of their profession. It is usual for such training to occur at several levels in a career. For exa ...

in November 1930.Nakai Masutaro
www.generals.dk As a junior officer, Nakai participated in the Siberian Expedition. In the 1930s, he had extensive experience in China, where he served as a military attaché from 1937. In May 1939, he was promoted to colonel and in September of the same year was assigned to the

China Expeditionary Army The was a general army of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1939 to 1945. The China Expeditionary Army was established in September 1939 from the merger of the Central China Expeditionary Army and Japanese Northern China Area Army, and was headq ...

on the front lines of combat in central China in the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...

. From 1939–1940, Nakai served on the senior staff of the IJA 21st Army tasked with the

Canton Operation The Canton Operation (; pinyin: Guǎngzhōu Zhànyì) was part of a campaign by Empire of Japan, Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War to blockade Republic of China (1912-1949), China to prevent it from communicating with the outside world ...

, and from February 1940, on the senior staff of the IJA 22nd Army, a garrison force in Guangxi which fought at the

Battle of South Guangxi The Battle of South Guangxi () was one of the 22 major engagements between the National Revolutionary Army and Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War. In November 1939, the Japanese landed on the coast of Guangxi and captured ...

and which was disbanded for its insubordination in invading French Indochina. Nakai was sent back to Tokyo, but returned later in 1940 as a member of the staff of the Indochina Expeditionary Army. After a brief stint as an instructor at the Toyama Army Infantry School, Nakai was assigned the post of chief-of-staff of the IJA 20th Division, based in

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

. In January 1943, the IJA 20th Division was transferred to the

Japanese Eighteenth Army The was a field army of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. History The Japanese 18th Army was formed on November 9, 1942, under the Japanese Eighth Area Army of the Southern Expeditionary Army Group for the specific task of opposin ...

in the Southern Area Command (eastern

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

). In August 1943, Nakai was promoted to

major general Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...

and placed in command of the infantry group. On the death of General

Shigeru Katagiri was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, commanding Japanese ground forces on New Guinea during the closing months of the war.

in April 1944, Nakai became acting commander of the IJA 20th Division. In April 1945, he was promoted to

lieutenant general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

. He and his surviving forces held out against the

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal land warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army (CA), wh ...

in the

and other combat operations in New Guinea until the end of the war.

References

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External links

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Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nakai, Masutaro 1895 births 1969 deaths Military personnel from Tottori Prefecture Japanese military personnel of World War II Japanese generals