Officers Yoshitaka Kawane and Kurataro Hirano stand as they are sentenced to death for causing the deaths of up to nearly 20000 prisoners during the Bataan Death March

Officers Yoshitaka Kawane and Kurataro Hirano stand as they are sentenced to death for causing the deaths of up to nearly 20000 prisoners during the Bataan Death March. The victims, who had to walk 65 miles, were offered almost no food or water. Anyone who stopped was usually killed (Tokyo, 1948)

The Bataan Death March

Depictions of the march, by survivor Ben Steele The court documents for Kawane and Hirano (it specifies

what kinds of atrocities the officers presided over).

The case was heard in front of an American military tribunal as part of the Yokohama War Crimes Trials. It.was one of the most high-profile cases. For those curious about their positions and ranks: Yoshitaka Kawane was an IJA Major General; Kurataro Hirano was an IJA Colonel.

In addition to the victims of the march, Kawane and Hirano were also found guilty of contributed to the deaths

of thousand of American and Filipino POWs in Camp O'Donnell, the destination of the march. After reviewing the case, U.S. officials concluded that there were no extenuating circumstances warranting leniency for either Kawane or Hirano.

Kawane, 60, and Hirano (l don't know how old he was) were both executed by hanging at Sugamo Prison in

Allied-occupied Japan on February 12, 1949. Six other Japanese war criminals were also executed that day. A lieutenant and four of his men for murdering six American POWs. The victims were downed pilots who

had been wandering around in French Indochina for three months. The killers gave each of them a cigarette to smoke before shooting and bayonetting them.

Yasutoshi Mizuguchi, a prison camp doctor described as a sadist. He was convicted of enabling the deaths of two American POWs by intentionally refusing them medical treatment.

Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma, who was the Military Governor of the Philippines at the time of the march, was also tried for war crimes. He was not tried for ordering the march, but instead for failing to prevent it from happening.

During Homma's trial, multiple witnesses attested to his apathy to the suffering of Allied POWs. Homma claimed he didn't know about the march, but nevertheless accepted

full responsibility for the atrocities which were committed.

Homma appeared to express some degree of remorse during his trial. "I came to know for the first time in the court of the atrocities, and I am ashamed of myself should

these atrocities have happened" he said.

Historian Kevin C. Murphy has argued that while it is not clear whether Homma ordered the atrocities that occurred during the march, his lack of administrative expertise and his inability to adequately delegate authority and control his men allowed them to happen.

After American-Filipino forces surrendered, Homma turned the logistics of handling the estimated 25,000 prisoners to Kawane. Homma publicly stated that the POWs Would be treated fairly. A plan was formulated, approved by Homma, to transport and march the prisoners to Camp O'Donnell.

However, the plan was severely flawed, as the American and Filipino POWs were starving, were weak with malaria, and numbered not 25,000, but 76,000 men, far more than any Japanese plan had anticipated.

Homma was sentenced to death. However, the court said he would shot like a soldier instead of being hanged like a common criminal. Homma, 58, was executed by firing squad in Los Baños in the Philippines on April 3, 1946.

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