Naozaburo Okabe
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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 ...
, who commanded the
Japanese Sixth Area Army The was a field army of the Imperial Japanese Army during both the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. History The Japanese 6th Area Army was formed on August 25, 1944 under the China Expeditionary Army primarily as a military reserve a ...
from November 1944 until the end of
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 opposing ...
.


Biography

Okabe was born in
Hiroshima city is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui ha ...
and attended military preparatory schools as a youth. He graduated from the 18th 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 ...
, where his classmates included Tomoyuki Yamashita and
Korechika Anami was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II who was War Minister during the surrender of Japan. Early life and career Anami was born in Taketa city in Ōita Prefecture, where his father was a senior bureaucrat in the Home M ...
. He subsequently graduated from the 27th 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 1918, with the rank of captain, he was sent to the
Vladivostok Vladivostok ( rus, Владивосто́к, a=Владивосток.ogg, p=vɫədʲɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, c ...
Special Operations Office during the
Japanese intervention in Siberia The of 1918–1922 was the dispatch of Japanese military forces 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 ...
, and as a major in 1922, he was sent as a
military attache A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
to
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
. During his time in Poland, he acquired the latest code encryption technology from one of his contacts in the Polish General Staff. After his return to Japan, Okabe served as an instructor at the Staff College from December 1928 to April 1930, during which time he was promoted to colonel. In April 1934, he received command of the 1st Field Artillery Regiment. In February 1932, he was assigned to the staff of the
Shanghai Expeditionary Army The was a corps-level ad hoc Japanese army in the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Shanghai Expeditionary Army was first raised on February 25, 1932 as a reinforcement for Japanese forces involved during the First Battle of Shanghai. It was disso ...
in the midst of the First Shanghai Incident, and he served in Shanghai until December of that year. After his return to Japan, he was assigned to research and training within the Staff College and was promoted to major general in August 1934. In August 1937, he was assigned as chief-of-staff of the newly-formed
Northern China Area Army The was an area army of the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War. History The Japanese North China Area Army was formed on August 21, 1937 under the control of the Imperial General Headquarters. It was transferred to th ...
was responsible for direction and coordination of the Japanese military activity in all of north China, He was promoted to lieutenant general in December of the same year. In July 1938, Okabe was assigned command of the Manchukuo-based
IJA 1st Division The was an infantry division in the Imperial Japanese Army. Its call sign was the . The 1st Division was formed in Tokyo in January 1871 as the , one of six regional commands created in the fledgling Imperial Japanese Army. The Tokyo Garrison h ...
. which he led during the disastrous
Nomonhan Incident The Battles of Khalkhin Gol (russian: Бои на Халхин-Голе; mn, Халхын голын байлдаан) were the decisive engagements of the undeclared Soviet–Japanese border conflicts involving the Soviet Union, Mongolia, Jap ...
. He was subsequently transferred to command the Mongolia Garrison Army in September 1939, where his forces suffered a defeat against the Chinese during the Battle of Wuyuan. In September 1940, Okabe was recalled to Japan and attached to the
Imperial Japanese Army General Staff The , also called the Army General Staff, was one of the two 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 ...
. In 1940, he was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun and 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 the ...
, 2nd class. From December, he was head of the Army Technical Headquarters and became a member of the Supreme War Council from October 1942. Simultaneously, he was also appointed as commandant of the Staff College. He was promoted to general in February 1943. In October 1943, Okabe returned to the field as the commander of the newly-formed
Japanese Third Area Army The was a field army of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, based in southern Manchukuo and active in combat against the Soviet Union in the very final stages of the war. History The Japanese 3rd Area Army was formed on October 29, 1 ...
under the control of the
Kwantung Army ''Kantō-gun'' , image = Kwantung Army Headquarters.JPG , image_size = 300px , caption = Kwantung Army headquarters in Hsinking, Manchukuo , dates = April ...
. This was a military reserve and garrison force to maintain security and
public order In criminology, public-order crime is defined by Siegel (2004) as "crime which involves acts that interfere with the operations of society and the ability of people to function efficiently", i.e., it is behaviour that has been labelled criminal ...
in southern Manchukuo as many veteran divisions of the Kwantung Army were transferred to the various southern fronts in the Pacific War and was based in
Mukden Shenyang (, ; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly known as Fengtian () or by its Manchu name Mukden, is a major Chinese sub-provincial city and the provincial capital of Liaoning province. Located in central-north Liaoning, it is the prov ...
. In August 1944, he was transferred to command the Northern China Area Army based in
Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
, and in November of the same year, became commander of the newly-formed
Japanese Sixth Area Army The was a field army of the Imperial Japanese Army during both the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. History The Japanese 6th Area Army was formed on August 25, 1944 under the China Expeditionary Army primarily as a military reserve a ...
. This was also a reserve and garrison force for the occupation of the central provinces of China between the
Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest list of rivers of Asia, river in Asia, the list of rivers by length, third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in th ...
and the
Yellow River The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the sixth-longest river system in the world at the estimated length of . Originating in the Bayan Ha ...
. At the surrender of Japan, he surrendered his forces to the
Republic of China Army The Republic of China Army (ROCA), previously known as the Chinese Nationalist Army or Nationalist Revolutionary Army and unofficially as the Taiwanese Army, is the largest branch of the Republic of China Armed Forces. An estimated 80% of th ...
at
Hankou Hankou, alternately romanized as Hankow (), was one of the three towns (the other two were Wuchang and Hanyang) merged to become modern-day Wuhan city, the capital of the Hubei province, China. It stands north of the Han and Yangtze Rivers whe ...
on September 2, 1945. Okabe was taken as a prisoner of war to Shanghai, where he was to be tried for unspecified war crimes, but he died in prison due to illness of November 28, 1946 before he could come to trial.


References

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External links

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Valka.cz
{{DEFAULTSORT:Okabe, Naozaburo 1887 births 1946 deaths Military personnel from Hiroshima Japanese generals Japanese military attachés People of the Second Sino-Japanese War Japanese military personnel of World War II Prisoners who died in Chinese detention Grand Cordons of the Order of the Rising Sun Recipients of the Order of the Golden Kite, 2nd class Japanese people who died in prison custody