Eitarō Uchiyama
Quick Facts
Biography
Eitaro Uchiyama (内山英太郎, Uchiyama Eitarō) (December 16, 1887 – December 25, 1973) was a Lieutenant-General in the Imperial Japanese Army, who commanded the Japanese Fifteenth Area Army from April 1945 until the end of the war. He was sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment for war crimes.
Life
Eitaro Uchiyama became an artillery officer and was by 1938, as a Major general, Commander of Artillery in the Kwantung Army. In 1940, he was promoted to Lieutenant General and given command of the 13th Division with which he participated in numerous campaigns and battles in China. On August 17 1942, he became commander of the 3rd Army until February 7 1944. Then he took over the command of the 12th Army, with which he won the Battle of Central Henan.
In April 1945, he was recalled to Japan, to prepare for the US invasion of Japan at the head of the Japanese Fifteenth Area Army. After the end of World War II he participated in the demobilization, until 1946 when he was arrested and tried for war crimes. In 1949, he was sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment for allowing the execution of dozens of US Airmen shot down between April and August 1945 over his area of Japan.
He was paroled in 1958 and died in 1973.