Shizuo Yokoyama
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Shizuo Yokoyama (1890-1961) was a Japanese general who commanded the Shimbu Group, assigned to the defense of the Philippine Islands during the final days of the Second World War.
Born in the Fukuoka prefecture, Yokoyama graduated from the Japanese Military Academy in 1912. After leaving Army Staff College in 1925, within three years he had risen to the rank of major and assigned to the Korean Army headquarters as a staff officer in 1929.
Promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1932, Yokoyama spent much of the early 1930s in staff positions under both the Army and Navy General Staff.
Following his participating in an observation tour in Europe in 1934, Yokoyama was appointed commander of the Kwantung (Guandong) Army's Railway Zone serving in that post until 1937.
After a brief regimental command, Yokoyama was promoted to major general in 1939 (and later lieutenant general in 1941) holding several railway commands between 1939 and 1942.
Serving as commander of the 8th Division for two years, Yokoyama was named commander of the Shimbu Group, wholly responsible for the defense of southern Luzon. Assuming command of the 41st Army in January 1945, Yokoyama commanding Japanese forces defending Manilla against the U.S. Sixth and Eighth Armies from February 3 until his surrender on March 4, 1945.
Charged as a war criminal following the war, Yokoyama was convicted of atrocities committed of Japanese forces during the Japanese defense of Manila and imprisoned at Sugamo Prison for five years until his release in 1953.
[edit] References
- Smith, Robert Ross. Triumph in the Philippines. U.S. Army in World War II: The War in the Pacific. Washington, D.C., 1968.
