Masaharu Homma - Biography

Biography

Homma was born on Sado Island, in the Sea of Japan off Niigata Prefecture. He graduated from the 14th class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1907, and from the 27th class of the Army Staff College in 1915.

Homma had a deep respect for, and some understanding of, the West, having spent eight years as a military attaché in the United Kingdom, including combat service in France in 1918 with the British Expeditionary Force.

From 1930-1932, Homma was again sent as a military attaché to the United Kingdom, where his proficiency in the English language was useful. He was also assigned to be part of the Japanese delegation to the Geneva Disarmament Conference in 1932 and served with the Press Section of the Army Ministry from 1932-1933. He was given a field command again, as commander of the IJA 1st Infantry Regiment from 1933–1935, and was promoted to command the IJA 32nd Infantry Brigade from 1935-1936.

In 1937, Homma was appointed aide-de-camp to Prince Chichibu, a brother of Emperor Shōwa. With him, he made a diplomatic tour in Europe which ended in Germany. There he attended the Nuremberg rally and met Adolf Hitler, with whom the prince tried to boost relations, following the Anti-Comintern Pact of 1936. He then served as the commander of the Taiwan Army of the Imperial Armed Forces, and composed the lyric of the military song, "Taiwan Army." Yamaguchi Yoshiko ("Lee Shiang Lan" in Chinese) was invited to sing the song to boost Taiwanese morale.

With the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Homma was appointed commander of the IJA 27th Division in China from 1938–1940 and directed the blockade of the foreign concessions in Tientsin, where he led the negotiations with the British. After the fall of Nanking, he declared publicly that "unless peace is achieved immediately it will be disastrous". Homma was removed from his position at the front lines, and re-assigned to become commander in chief of the Taiwan Army District from 1940-1941. He was promoted to lieutenant general in July 1938.

With the start of the Pacific War, Homma was named commander of the 43,110-man IJA 14th Army and tasked with the invasion of the Philippines. He ordered his troops to treat the Filipinos not as enemies but as friends, and respect their customs and religion. In one instance, on his approach to Manila, Homma stopped his columns and ordered the men to clean up and tighten formations, knowing that unkempt soldiers are more likely to loot and rape.

This liberal approach towards Filipino civilians earned him the enmity of his superior, General Count Hisaichi Terauchi, commander of the Southern Army, who sent adverse reports about Homma to Tokyo from his headquarters in Saigon. There was also a growing subversion within Homma's command by a small group of insubordinates, under the influence of Colonel Tsuji Masanobu. In Homma's name, they sent out secret orders against his policies, including ordering the execution of Filipino Chief Justice Jose Abad Santos and attempted execution of former Speaker of the House of Representatives Manuel Roxas, which Homma found out about in time to stop.

Homma failed to give credence to the possibility that a retreat into Bataan Peninsula by Filipino-American forces might succeed in upsetting the Japanese timetable. By the time he recognized his mistake, his best infantry division had been replaced by a poorly trained reserve brigade, greatly weakening his assault force. Rather than waste his men in furious frontal assaults, he tried to outmaneuver the American forces. This brought criticism from superiors who believed he had been “contaminated” by Western ideas about conserving the lives of his men.

Worried about the stalled offensive in Luzon, Hirohito pressed Army Chief of Staff Hajime Sugiyama twice on January 1942 to increase troop strength and launch a quick knockout on Bataan. Following these orders, Sugiyama put pressure on Homma to renew his attacks. The resulting Battle of Bataan commencing in January 1942 was one of the most intense in the campaign. However, the deteriorating relationship between Homma and Sugiyama led to the removal of Homma from command shortly after the fall of Corregidor, and he was thereafter commander of the 14th Army in name only. The New York Times errorously reported prior to the fall of Bataan that Homma was replaced by General Yamishita, and that Homma had committed suicide.

The Imperial General Headquarters regarded Homma as not aggressive enough in war (resulting in the high cost and long delay in securing the American and Filipino forces' surrender), and too lenient with the Filipino people in peace, and he was subsequently forced into retirement, in August 1943. Homma retired from the military and lived in semi-seclusion in Japan until the end of the war.