General Okamura Yasuji, Commander-in-Chief of Japan’s China Expeditionary Army, surrenders to his former student General He Yingqin in Nanjing, 1945 [1397×1012]
Despite being on opposite sides of the conflict and Okamura’s role in atrocities against the Chinese, General He thought fondly of his former teacher. According to Donald G. Gillin and Charles Etter (1983):
> For example, according to an aide of Ho Ying-ch’in [He Yingqin], when General Ho arrived in Nanking to accept the Japanese surrender, he immediately visited General Okamura, who had taught him at the Imperial Military Academy in Tokyo and, addressing the Japanese commander as *sensei* (teacher), apologized profusely for having to subject him to the indignity of surrendering (Ch’en 1963:44)
The Chinese Nationalists employed Okamura as an adviser during the Chinese Civil War:
> Especially infuriating to the Communists must have been Chiang’s open deference to and use of General Okamura. During 1942 and 1943, Okamura had been the commander and indeed the chief architect of the devastating *sanko seisaku* (kill all, burn all, loot all) offensives that the Japanese hurled at the Communists and their peasant allies. The Communists repeatedly accused Japanese forces in North China, now allied with the Nationalists, of again using the tactics associated with Okamura’s terrifying wartime offensives. However, to Chiang such offensives were praiseworthy actions aimed at defeating banditry and Soviet imperialism in China, and he welcomed as an ally this Japanese general whose wartime successes against the Communists promised to make him a valuable advisor in Chiang’s own campaign against them.
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>After 1949, when Chiang hastily extradited him to Japan so that he would not be tried for war crimes by the victorious Chinese Communists, he was able to live comfortably in a village outside Tokyo until his death in the 1960s. Whenever he celebrated his birthday, his guests always included a visitor from Taiwan, his former student Ho Ying-ch’in [He Yingqin], who, during the civil war in China, had been Chiang Kai-shek’s chief of staff.
Dtnoip30
Despite being on opposite sides of the conflict and Okamura’s role in atrocities against the Chinese, General He thought fondly of his former teacher. According to Donald G. Gillin and Charles Etter (1983):
> For example, according to an aide of Ho Ying-ch’in [He Yingqin], when General Ho arrived in Nanking to accept the Japanese surrender, he immediately visited General Okamura, who had taught him at the Imperial Military Academy in Tokyo and, addressing the Japanese commander as *sensei* (teacher), apologized profusely for having to subject him to the indignity of surrendering (Ch’en 1963:44)
The Chinese Nationalists employed Okamura as an adviser during the Chinese Civil War:
> Especially infuriating to the Communists must have been Chiang’s open deference to and use of General Okamura. During 1942 and 1943, Okamura had been the commander and indeed the chief architect of the devastating *sanko seisaku* (kill all, burn all, loot all) offensives that the Japanese hurled at the Communists and their peasant allies. The Communists repeatedly accused Japanese forces in North China, now allied with the Nationalists, of again using the tactics associated with Okamura’s terrifying wartime offensives. However, to Chiang such offensives were praiseworthy actions aimed at defeating banditry and Soviet imperialism in China, and he welcomed as an ally this Japanese general whose wartime successes against the Communists promised to make him a valuable advisor in Chiang’s own campaign against them.
.
>After 1949, when Chiang hastily extradited him to Japan so that he would not be tried for war crimes by the victorious Chinese Communists, he was able to live comfortably in a village outside Tokyo until his death in the 1960s. Whenever he celebrated his birthday, his guests always included a visitor from Taiwan, his former student Ho Ying-ch’in [He Yingqin], who, during the civil war in China, had been Chiang Kai-shek’s chief of staff.