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memoirs of imamura hitoshi - keeping you on the edge

imamura hitoshi retrospective - episode x: famous scene, falling into the sea for unknown reasons

imamura hitoshi retrospective--episode x+1: famous scene i can't swim

imamura hitoshi's retrospective--episode x+2: welcoming the imperial master with food and drink

imamura hitoshi's retrospective--episode x+3: the dutch army is not good at fighting

imamura hitoshi retrospective--episode x+4: raising hands faster than the french

in the evening, lieutenant general maruyama, commander of the 2nd division, arrived and reported that due to the damage to the bridge, the packhorse and motor vehicle troops fell behind, but most of the two infantry regiments had approached the fortress line.

i had been worried that governor-general childa might send a telegram to the dutch government to forbid commander talpatton from surrendering, but the arrival of the high-spirited northeastern warriors of the 2nd division gave me confidence that we could capture the fortress in one fell swoop.

in order to thank the officers and soldiers of the division for their hard work in the tropical heat of the march, i informed them of the armistice talks and issued an order that if there was no surrender broadcast from bandung at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning, lieutenant general maruyama would simultaneously command the tokailin detachment to immediately launch an attack on the fortress.

that night, i spent the whole night thinking about how to deploy the attack fortress in case the negotiations failed.

at about 8:10 a.m. on march 9, 1937, miyoshi, a secretary of the ministry of foreign affairs, walked into my room with a big smile on his face.

"just now the radio broadcast commander talpaton's order for all dutch troops to cease fire and surrender unconditionally. congratulations."

ah, in this way, there would not be a fierce battle like the one in nanning, china two years ago. (the fierce battle that imamura was talking about was the bloody battle of kunlun pass. imamura was the commander of the 5th division at the time. in this battle, the chinese army fought bloody battles and made great sacrifices. they almost wiped out the 21st brigade under imamura and killed the brigade commander, masao nakamura. imamura was still frightened two years later. every chinese should remember this.)

“i hope this will be an opportunity for the greater east asia war to end,” i prayed while thanking god for his protection.

since the ceasefire order was broadcast, the other side would definitely come. as expected, commander talpatton brought two or three staff officers in addition to the people from yesterday and came at 1 p.m. the meeting started again in the same room as yesterday. i asked the division commander maruyama to sit next to me.

me: "this morning's broadcast has confirmed your army's intention to surrender, so i have issued an order to all my subordinates. before the surrender agreement is announced, all japanese troops will remain in place and will not advance or fire. have you brought the forms for surrendering troops and other material facilities that i requested yesterday?"

he silently handed over four or five forms.

i gave this to secretary miyoshi and asked him to read it aloud in japanese, and everyone present listened carefully.

we know that the dutch army has 100,000 soldiers, but the table shows less than 80,000. there is no doubt about the number of rifles and machine guns, but there are only about 30 cannons and no more than 5,000 to 6,000 vehicles.

this is doubtful. and there is no mention of the situation of the us, british and australian troops.

after mr. miyoshi finished reading the form, i asked lieutenant general potalpaton.

"according to the japanese military's investigation, the dutch army has about 100,000 troops. it is impossible that 20,000 people died in the past few days."

ta: "there are many indonesian soldiers in my team. after the war, a large number of indonesian soldiers deserted and ran back home, so the number of people decreased a lot."

me: "you have less than 30 cannons among your 100,000-man army. this is incomprehensible."

tower: "these were handed over to the japanese army. in addition, there should be some coastal artillery, but the exact number is unknown. the lack of artillery is our biggest weakness."

me: "after the war broke out, the japanese army learned from the monitored broadcasts that your headquarters announced that all public and private cars on java island would be requisitioned by the army. the total number should be tens of thousands."

tower: "because they will be requisitioned when necessary (the war ended too quickly and there was no time to mobilize), civilian vehicles were generally not requisitioned. the numbers on this table are for military use only.

me: "then, the troops will disarm and assemble at the barracks school and other places. weapons, ammunition, horses, cars and other military supplies will be assembled at their respective locations and handed over to the japanese army. the lieutenant general sitting on my left is the commander of the maruyama division. from today, he will be responsible for the security of the entire java area. from tomorrow on, the transfer of troops and other matters will be the responsibility of the division commander and your excellency. then, please sign this surrender document.

i handed him two copies of the surrender document, which had been written in japanese and dutch.

he picked up the surrender document and began to read it. as his hands kept shaking, the paper began to tremble like waves. after a while, he took out a pen from the breast pocket of his military uniform and prepared to sign. his eyes were wet and his hands were shaking so much that he couldn't even sign completely.

finally, i signed the surrender document and it was handed back to me. i wrote my official title and name in japanese and signed my seal under the items i accepted, and then gave one copy back to the other party.

me: "at this point, the two armies have officially reached peace. i immediately order all japanese troops under my command to cease combat operations. for the sake of your honor, i agree that your officers can wear swords before further instructions. if you have any special requests, please let me know. i will approve it unless it is a big deal."

tower: "thank you very much for allowing us to carry swords, but after disarming, in order to prevent the atrocities of some indonesians who are hostile to us, please allow us to carry pistols temporarily."

me: “okay, i allow it.”

tower: "in order to concentrate the surrender of soldiers and weapons to the japanese army, please allow some of our army headquarters to set up offices in the city and use the necessary transport vehicles to carry out the above activities."

me: "i agree to that. you can discuss the details with lieutenant general maruyama later in bandung."

tower: "there are quite a lot of dead and wounded soldiers at the fortress front. i hope you will allow them to be taken in."

me: "in order to accommodate these martyred soldiers, the maruyama division will provide full assistance."

tower: "due to combat needs, several railways, bridges, roads, etc. have been destroyed. now that the war is over, they must be repaired as soon as possible. the people really need to restore transportation. i want my engineering team to play a necessary role."

me: "i agree with you. however, this must be done under the planning and supervision of the japanese army. i will give you detailed instructions on each case."

tower: "beyond that, i have nothing to say."

me: "then i will say one last thing. please report to maruyama tomorrow the number and current location of your allies - the american, british, and australian troops. please also attach an ultimatum, advising them to surrender immediately like the dutch army did. if they do not, the japanese army will immediately launch an attack."

tower: "the american and british armies have expressed to me their intention to surrender. only the australian army has not given up the will to fight and is retreating to the mountains. we will persuade them."

the japanese and dutch troops completed the surrender negotiations and took the final photo. you can see imamura sitting on the right side of the table, the most prominent

in this way, the dutch drove to bandung at around 3 pm, and almost immediately after them, the maruyama division headquarters entered the city, while the tokailin troops and the 2nd division troops entered the fortress from the west and north.

the next day, at noon on march 10, i led the heads of the military headquarters into the city and walked into the cecil hotel. my intention was not to hold a ceremony to enter the city.

prior to this, on the 7th, the tsuchihashi division occupied surabaya, an important commercial and military port in eastern java, which had the largest population in java, and subdued about an enemy division.

the sakaguchi mixed brigade also occupied the port of cilacap on the 7th, cutting off the connection between the javanese coalition forces and australia and macarthur's headquarters based there.

these were also the main motivation for the dutch army to surrender. later, i attached a letter of gratitude to the sakaguchi brigade.

on the night of the 9th, our unit sent a message to the headquarters reporting the unconditional surrender of all dutch troops. at noon on the 10th, tian naohekal issued an imperial edict of commendation to the army and navy units responsible for this operation, expressing deep encouragement. we were deeply honored.

when the enemy surrendered at the kaligach airport, the governor general of the dutch east indies, mr. kilda, was an enemy, but his performance was admirable (he insisted on not surrendering?). at that time, he could still communicate with his own government, so i think he should have asked his own government in advance. as for the army commander's desire to surrender, it was beyond his control, and he had to admit surrender in the end.

in the defense of the dutch east indies, the biggest mistake of the dutch government (the exile government formed in london, england, when the mainland was occupied by the german army) was to hand over the overall command to admiral wavell, who had only more than 10,000 british and australian troops, and also handed over the governor's command. in fact, when the japanese army just started to land in the east and west of java, admiral wavell abandoned the allied forces and his subordinates and fled to india by plane. the remaining british, australian and american troops naturally would not obey the command of the dutch commander, making the entire operation chaotic and disorderly. i think it is reasonable for officers at all levels of the dutch army to lose their fighting spirit.

if the japanese army were led by the heroic childa, we would probably have to fight a very fierce battle.

on the contrary, commander talpaton was weak as a military commander. therefore, when childa was released from the prisoner camp after the war ended in august 1930, he was immediately appointed ambassador to france after returning to japan, while talpaton was assigned to the reserve.

talpatton's prisoner photo. as a dutchman, his height of 179 cm is not too tall. the key is the feature note given by the japanese: red hair. it's really funny. i don't know if the japanese deliberately insulted him. zheng chenggong called the dutch red-haired ghosts, which seems to make some sense.

seven years later, when i was tried as a war criminal by a dutch military tribunal in java, lieutenant general talpaton, at the request of the dutch indonesian prosecutor's office, responded to the accusations of war crimes against me by telegram from his country.

the procuratorate showed it to me and asked me for my opinion on it.

the first one is: "i (lieutenant general talpaton) had ordered the commander of the bandung fortress to declare the city an undefended city, but commander imamura ordered the bombing of the city."

to this, i replied: "i have not received such a notice. in fact, at the time of surrender, the fortress headquarters, the dutch general headquarters and the barracks were all built in the city. the weapons manufacturing factory was located about one thousand meters away from the city, and the military airport was also built adjacent to the city. in addition, there was no attached flying unit in the army under my command. the flying group in the java battle was a direct unit of the terauchi southern general army. moreover, since the streets of bandung would be used after the occupation of the fortress, i asked the commanders of each flying group to avoid bombing places other than weapons manufacturing factories and airports when performing their missions. the 100,000 citizens of bandung can prove that the city was not destroyed."

the second point is:

"although commander imamura did not threaten me verbally, his attitudes threatened me, forcing me to surrender unconditionally." (this accusation is really ridiculous. a general who commanded thousands of troops was frightened into surrendering by the attitude of the enemy. what a ghost general.)

i responded:

"war is the use of artillery fire to threaten each other's lives. in the negotiations on whether to stop fighting or continue fighting, my attitude seemed threatening, which was natural and reasonable. however, i did not use un-samurai and ungentlemanly words. didn't lieutenant bolten himself clearly write this?"

the court finally opened. the presiding judge was major de flotte, a legal officer who was captured by our army during the war. during the several days of trial, he did not accept the guilt accused by lieutenant general talpatton.

to be continued...