Tomoyuki Yamashita

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Tomoyuki Yamashita
山下 奉文
Yamashita in the 1940s
Military Governor of Japan to the Philippines
In office 26 September 1944 – 2 September 1945
Monarch	Emperor Shōwa
Preceded by	Shigenori Kuroda
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Personal details
Born	(1885-11-08)8 November 1885 Ōtoyo, Kōchi, Empire of Japan
Died	23 February 1946(1946-02-23) (aged 60) Los Baños, Laguna, Commonwealth of the Philippines
Cause of death	Execution by hanging
Resting place	Tama Reien Cemetery, Fuchū, Tokyo, Japan
Alma mater	Imperial Japanese Army Academy
Awards	Order of the Golden Kite Order of the Rising Sun Order of the Sacred Treasure Order of the German Eagle
Nickname(s)	Tiger of Malaya The Beast of Bataan[1]
Military service
Allegiance	Empire of Japan
Branch/service	Imperial Japanese Army
Years of service	1905–1945
Rank	General
Commands	25th Army 1st Area Army 14th Area Army
Battles/wars	World War I World War II Second Sino-Japanese War Malayan campaign Battle of Singapore Philippines campaign
Japanese name
Kanji	山下 奉文
Kana	やました ともゆき
Transcriptions Romanization Yamashita Tomoyuki

Tomoyuki Yamashita (山下 奉文, Yamashita Tomoyuki, 8 November 1885 – 23 February 1946; also called Tomobumi Yamashita^[2]) was a Japanese convicted war criminal and general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. Yamashita led Japanese forces during the invasion of Malaya and Battle of Singapore. His conquest of Malaya and Singapore in 70 days earned him the sobriquet "The Tiger of Malaya" and led to the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill calling the ignominious fall of Singapore to Japan the "worst disaster" and "largest capitulation" in British military history.^[3] He was assigned to defend the Philippines from the advancing Allies later in the war. Although he was unable to prevent the superior Allied forces from advancing, despite dwindling supplies and Allied guerrilla action, he was able to hold on to part of Luzon until after the formal Surrender of Japan in August 1945.

Under Yamashita's command, at least 350,000 to 450,000 were killed.^[4] Yamashita was in overall command during Sook Ching, the Rape of Manila, and other atrocities.^[5]

After the war, Yamashita was tried for war crimes committed by troops under his command during the Japanese defense of the occupied Philippines in 1944. Yamashita denied ordering those war crimes and denied having knowledge that they even occurred. Conflicting evidence was presented during the trial concerning whether Yamashita had implicitly affirmed commission of these crimes in his orders and whether he knew of the crimes being committed. The court eventually found Yamashita guilty and he was executed in February, 1946. The ruling against Yamashita – holding the commander responsible for subordinates' war crimes as long as the commander did not attempt to discover and stop them from occurring – came to be known as the Yamashita standard.