Masaharu Homma

April 3rd 1946
Been found guilty of war crimes related to the treatment of prisoners of War Japanese General Homma Masaharu was executed.

Masaharu had been the Japanese Commander that had ordered the American prisoners captured in the Philippines to undergo what became known as the Bataan Death March.

Masaharu Homma (Honma Masaharu, November 27, 1887 – April 3, 1946) was a lieutenant general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. Homma commanded the Japanese 14th Army, which invaded the Philippines and perpetrated the Bataan Death March. After the war, Homma was convicted of war crimes relating to the actions of troops under his direct command and executed by firing squad on April 3, 1946.

After the surrender of Japan, in mid-September 1945, the American occupation authorities arrested Homma and extradited him to the Philippines, where he was tried by an American tribunal on 48 counts of violating international rules of war relating to the atrocities committed by troops under his command during the Bataan Death March.

Homma was arraigned on December 19, 1945, and the trial was held at the High Commissioner’s Residence, Manila, between January 3 and February 11, 1946.
A team of six lawyers, none of whom had experience in criminal law, was appointed to defend Homma.

The prosecution called witnesses and filed depositions attesting to the abuse and poor conditions encountered by the Allied soldiers during the march. In particular, James Baldassarre, a survivor of the march, testified to the killings of two Allied officers by the Japanese, and Homma’s indifference to the illness and suffering of the Allied prisoners of war.

During his defense, Homma claimed that he was so preoccupied with the plans for the Corregidor assault that he had forgotten about the prisoners’ treatment, believing that his officers were properly handling the matter. He claimed that he did not learn of the atrocity until after the war, though his headquarters were only 500 feet (150 m) from the route of the march, stating in court, “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.” Robert Pelz, a member of Homma’s defense team, noted in his diary, “I truly believe [Homma] had no idea of the things that occurred.”