was an

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 ...

general during

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 was killed in action during the

Battle of Eniwetok The Battle of Eniwetok was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought between 17 February 1944 and 23 February 1944, on Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The invasion of Eniwetok followed the American success in the Battle ...

Biography

Yoshimi Nishida was born on 1 March 1892 in

Kōchi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Kōchi Prefecture has a population of 757,914 (1 December 2011) and has a geographic area of 7,103 km2 (2,742 sq mi). Kōchi Prefecture borders Ehime Prefecture to the northwest and ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. He graduated from the 25th class

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 ...

on 26 May 1913. He was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant on 25 December of the same year. He rose steadily through the ranks during the 1920s and 1930s, becoming captain and deputy commander of the IJA 41 Infantry Regiment in 1923, major in 1930, commander of the IJA 25th Infantry Regiment in 1932 and lieutenant-colonel in 1935. Nishida was assigned to the

Central China Expeditionary Army Central China Expeditionary Army ( ja, 中支那派遣軍, ''Nakashina hakengun'') was a field army of the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War. On November 7, 1937 Japanese Central China Area Army (CCAA) was organized as a ...

in February 1938 and was promoted to colonel in July of the same year. In March 1939 he was given command of the IJA 223 Infantry Regiment. He was rotated back to Japan in 1940 and assigned to command the Kyoto Regiment. Nishida was promoted to the rank of major-general on 1 August 1942 and assigned command of the 3rd Independent Defense Regiment, a reserve force. However, as the war situation deteriorated for Japan, he was recalled to combat duty and assigned the

1st Amphibious Brigade First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

, which was the main defense force for the island of

Eniwetok Enewetak Atoll (; also spelled Eniwetok Atoll or sometimes Eniewetok; mh, Ānewetak, , or , ; known to the Japanese as Brown Atoll or Brown Island; ja, ブラウン環礁) is a large coral atoll of 40 islands in the Pacific Ocean and with it ...

in the

Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands ( mh, Ṃajeḷ), officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands ( mh, Aolepān Aorōkin Ṃajeḷ),'' () is an independent island country and microstate near the Equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the Internati ...

. The 1st Amphibious Brigade had just been formed from the 3rd Independent Reserve Regiment, formerly based in Manchukou, and was poorly trained and unaccustomed to the tropics. The brigade had 3,940 men; however, with the loss of its supply ship ''

Aikoku Maru was an armed merchant cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II. The ship entered service in 1940, the ship was later converted to an ammunition ship. She was sunk in February 1944 during Operation Hailstone. Design ''Aikoku Maru'' ...

'' during

Operation Hailstone Operation Hailstone ( ja, トラック島空襲, Torakku-tō Kūshū, lit=airstrike on Truk Island), 17–18 February 1944, was a massive United States Navy air and surface attack on Truk Lagoon conducted as part of the American offensive drive ...

, only 2,586 men arrived on Eniwetok. These men were supplemented by aviation personnel, civilian employees, and labourers. Most were stationed on Parry Island, where Nishida established his HQ. Nishida had erected several defensive positions to keep the Americans at bay, but the small size of the island made defenses in depth near impossible. With heavy

naval artillery Naval artillery is artillery mounted on a warship, originally used only for naval warfare and then subsequently used for naval gunfire support, shore bombardment and anti-aircraft roles. The term generally refers to tube-launched projectile-firi ...

support, US Marines stormed Parry island on 22 February 1944, sustaining 131 casualties (37 KIA), against which Nishida and almost all of his 800 defenders were annihilated. Nishida was posthumously 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 and was promoted to lieutenant-general.

References

External links

Ammenthorp, The Generals
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nishida, Yoshimi 1892 births 1944 deaths People from Kōchi Prefecture Imperial Japanese Army generals of World War II Imperial Japanese Army personnel killed in World War II Recipients of the Order of the Golden Kite