was a

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 ...

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 ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He died in combat during the

Battle of Iwo Jima The Battle of Iwo Jima (19 February – 26 March 1945) was a major battle in which the United States Marine Corps (USMC) and United States Navy (USN) landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Imperial Japanese Army (IJ ...

Biography

Senda was a native of

Kagoshima Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu and the Ryukyu Islands. Kagoshima Prefecture has a population of 1,599,779 (1 January 2020) and has a geographic area of 9,187 km2 (3,547 sq mi). Kagoshima Prefecture borders Kumamoto P ...

, and was born to the Takayama family, and was later adopted by the Senda family, whose surname he took. A graduate of the 26th 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 1914, one of his classmates was General

Tadamichi Kuribayashi General was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, part-time writer, haiku poet, diplomat, and commanding officer of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff. He is best known for having been the commander of the Japanese garrison at the bat ...

. He was promoted to major in 1924. Assigned to the

IJA 11th Division The was an infantry division in the Imperial Japanese Army. Its tsūshōgō code name was the , and its military symbol was 11D. The 11th Division was one of six infantry divisions newly raised by the Imperial Japanese Army after the First Sino ...

, he as in combat in the disastrous

Battle of Lake Khasan The Battle of Lake Khasan (29 July – 11 August 1938), also known as the Changkufeng Incident (russian: Хасанские бои, Chinese and Japanese: ; Chinese pinyin: ; Japanese romaji: ) in China and Japan, was an attempted military incurs ...

against the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

in 1938. He was promoted to colonel in 1939, but was reassigned as chief of the discipline section in the Sendai Army Youth School. On 29 May 1940, he became commanding officer of the 44th Infantry Regiment of the Japanese Imperial Army. He later became commandant of the Sendai Army Youth School on 5 February 1943, a post he maintained until 27 November 1944. In Autumn 1944, general

, in charge of the defense of the island of

Iwo Jima Iwo Jima (, also ), known in Japan as , is one of the Japanese Volcano Islands and lies south of the Bonin Islands. Together with other islands, they form the Ogasawara Archipelago. The highest point of Iwo Jima is Mount Suribachi at high. ...

, replaced many local officers with others whom he judged more competent.

Imperial General Headquarters The was part of the Supreme War Council and was established in 1893 to coordinate efforts between the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy during wartime. In terms of function, it was approximately equivalent to the United States ...

promoted Senda 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 a ...

and sent assigned him to Iwo Jima, after general Kuribayashi requested "the best infantry leader" available. The choice was puzzling, as Senda had never attended the Army War College, a prerequisite for higher ranking officers, and his combat experience was very limited. Nevertheless, Senda took office at the 2nd Mixed Brigade as its commanding officer on 16 December 1944. Senda built his headquarters in a cave in Mount Tamana, near Motoyama Airfield. He also organized his men in to "special assault squadrons" who were assigned suicide missions to rush enemy tanks with explosives. The 2nd Mixed Brigade more the brunt of the attack by the IUSMC 4th Division for six days, from March 2 to March 8, in which it became completely encircled. As the US Marines resorted to

flamethrowers A flamethrower is a ranged incendiary device designed to project a controllable jet of fire. First deployed by the Byzantine Empire in the 7th century AD, flamethrowers saw use in modern times during World War I, and more widely in World ...

to burn Senda's men in place, Kuribayashi refused Senda's repeated requests to be allowed to lead his men on a final

Banzai charge Banzai charge is the term that was used by the Allied forces of World War II to refer to Japanese human wave attacks and swarming staged by infantry units. This term came from the Japanese battle cry , and was shortened to banzai, specificall ...

attack. Instead, Kuribayashi ordered Senda to retreat with his remaining forces to the Japanese headquarters. Senda attempted a breakout with 427 men, but were pinned down on a beach and were annihilated, with only two men reaching Kuribayashi's lines. Some of Senda's men refused the order to surrender, and remained behind at Mount Tamana to continue guerrilla-style attacks on the American forces. Approximately half of the American forces killed in action during the battle died in Senda's sector. Senda was posthumously 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 ...

and awarded the

Order of the Golden Kite The was an order of the Empire of Japan, established on 12 February 1890 by Emperor Meiji "in commemoration of Jimmu Tennō, the Romulus of Japan". It was officially abolished 1947 by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) during th ...

. 4th class.

Decorations

Order of the Rising Sun The is a Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese government, created on 10 April 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge features rays of sunlight ...

, 2nd class * JPN Kinshi-kunsho 4Class BAR

Order of the Golden Kite, 4th class

References

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sadasue, Senda 1892 births 1945 deaths Imperial Japanese Army generals of World War II Japanese generals Japanese military personnel of World War II Japanese military personnel killed in World War II Battle of Iwo Jima Recipients of the Order of the Golden Kite Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun People from Kagoshima Prefecture