Akira Muto (, 1892 December 15 - 1948 December 23) was a lieutenant general of the Japanese Army, the director of the Army Military Affairs Bureau when Japan launched the Pacific War, and a representative of the expansion party during the invasion of China. He was born in a small landlord family in Baishui Village, Shangyi City, Kumamoto Prefecture. He graduated from the Army Sergeant School in June 1913. In December, he was awarded the rank of Second Lieutenant of the Army Infantry. In 1920, he was selected to study in the 32nd phase of the Army University. In 1936, he was transferred from the Chief of the Combat Division of the General Staff Department to the Chief of the Second Division of the General Staff Department of the Kwantung Army. Muto Akira was good at collecting intelligence. The intelligence and field investigation reports he collated played a lot of roles in Japan's invasion of China. In 1937, he ordered the Japanese army to camp in Nanjing City at will, which led to the Nanjing Massacre. He was the representative of the expansion faction in the war of aggression against China and one of the seven Class A war criminals hanged in Tokyo.
During the invasion of Northeast China by the Guandong Army, in order to achieve the goal of conquering and occupying Suiyuan, they planned the establishment of a pseudo-Mongolian military government by King De. However, because the Chinese army Fu Zuoyi launched the Suiyuan War of Resistance, King De failed. Akira Muto had participated in the entire process of the Suiyuan incident, and had stepped forward to deal with the aftermath, commanding King De to retreat to preserve his strength. In 1937, Muto Akira was transferred to the third division of the General Staff of the Kwantung Army, responsible for formulating battle plans, establishing military stations, organizing soldiers, etc.
On July 7, 1937, marked by the Lugouqiao Incident, Japan launched a full-scale war of aggression against China. For Akira Muto, this was like taking stimulants. He couldn't wait to call Colonel Riverside, who was then the head of the second division of the General Staff of the Kwantung Army."Something pleasant has happened!" However, after the war began, the Japanese Army Staff Headquarters had different opinions on war guidance, and there was a dispute between the "expansion faction" and the "non-expansion faction." The so-called " non-expansion faction " was just a strategic consideration of " advancing north ". They hoped to have more troops to prepare for a war with the Soviet Union in the future, so they hoped to temporarily limit their invasion of China to a certain area. On the other hand, the " expansion faction " considered the strategy of " advancing south " and hoped to quickly occupy all of China and then expand into the Pacific region.
Muto Akira was a key member of the "expansion faction" and firmly advocated the immediate expansion of the war against China, not only to North China, but also to Tsingtao and Shanghai. In the end, Akira Muto and the others gained the upper hand, and the flames of war quickly spread throughout China. Muto Akira was also appreciated by the General Staff Headquarters for proposing a plan to expand the invasion of China. He made an exception and allowed him to go to the Imperial Palace to pay his respects to the Emperor.
Akira Muto not only proposed to expand the war of aggression against China, but also personally acted as a pioneer in expanding the war of aggression against China. After the "August 13" Incident, the Japanese army attacked Shanghai, but they were met with the tenacious resistance of the Chinese army and did not achieve the goal of a quick battle. Therefore, Akira Muto proposed to send troops to land in Hangzhou Bay. After his suggestion was adopted, the Japanese army's plan to capture Shanghai succeeded. Because of his contributions, he was appointed as the deputy chief of staff of the Central China Front Army. After taking up his new post, Muto Akira proposed to attack Nanjing immediately. On December 1, 1937, the Japanese headquarters adopted his suggestion and issued an order to attack Nanjing.
On December 13, 1937, the Japanese army occupied Nanjing, followed by the tragic death of 300,000 Chinese compatriots. Akira Muto was one of the main culprits in this disaster. On December 17th, the Central China Army celebrated the Japanese occupation of Nanjing and held an entrance ceremony in a pool of blood. Akira Muto followed Matsui Ishigen on horseback and arrived at Nanjing's Zhongshan Gate by car. He accompanied Matsui Ishigen from Zhongshan Gate to the official residence of the Chinese National Government to review the invading troops on both sides. At that time, Muto Akira was the deputy chief of staff of the Central China Army and was responsible for the Japanese army's camping arrangements in Nanjing. Muto Akira announced that there were insufficient campsites outside Nanjing, and the Japanese soldiers could choose any campsite in Nanjing City. With this order, it was as if a beast's cage had been opened. The Japanese army rushed to the streets and alleys of Nanjing City, killing men, raping women, and robbing property, leading to the shocking Nanjing Massacre.
In July 1938, Muto Akira was transferred to the position of Deputy Chief of Staff of the North China Front Army and began his massacre of the Chinese people in North China. In October of the same year, he was appreciated by the Japanese rulers for his continuous planning and expansion of the war against China, and was promoted to major general. During his time in North China, Muto Akira participated in commanding the siege of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei anti-Japanese base area and carried out five large "mopping-up" operations in central Hebei. In 1939, he was promoted to Chief of Military Affairs of Japan's Army Ministry.
On June 22, 1941, fascist Germany launched a lightning attack on the Soviet Union. The confrontation between the Soviet Union and Germany broke out on the European battlefield of World War II. Muto Akira saw this as an excellent opportunity to launch an attack on the Soviet Union. Muto Akira was one of the main participants in the many meetings of the General Staff Headquarters and the Army and Navy Headquarters to study the war against the Soviet Union. He began to spare no effort to advocate the attack on the Soviet Union.
War criminals who ravaged the territory of other countries could not escape the justice of history, and Akira Muto, a war maniac whose hands were stained with the blood of innocent civilians, was no exception. After the unconditional surrender of the Japanese government, under the righteous demands of the Chinese government, the allied forces arrested Akira Muto as a suspected war criminal and detained him in the Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, Japan.
On March 31, 1946, the Eastern International Military Tribunal's prosecutor's team charged Akira Muto as a Class A war criminal who launched a war of aggression. His main crimes included participating in the planning and launching of the war of aggression, creating the "Nanjing Massacre" and the "Manila Massacre".
This kind of war maniac, and the advocate of the Japanese army's "Northern Expedition" strategy, now that there was such a good opportunity, how could he let go? With the support of General Sugiyama and the indulgence of the Emperor and the Chief of Staff of the Japanese Army, Prince Zaijin, Muto Akira returned to the Kwantung Army as he wished. He was appointed as the Chief of Staff of the Kwantung Army and the Second Division (Intelligence Collection and Analysis). At the same time, he was promoted to Major General of the Army.
As soon as the ambitious and complacent Muto Akira arrived in Northeast China, he attracted the so-called " eyewitnesses " and a large amount of physical evidence, including broken water bottles, clothes and hats abandoned by the anti-Japanese soldiers during the retreat, as well as damaged guns and shells picked up by the Kwantung Army on the battlefield. All of them were standard equipment of the Russian army. Although Akira Muto was radical and arrogant, he was naturally sensitive and unique in gathering and analyzing information. He quickly came to a conclusion from the testimony of these witnesses: The enemy who ambushed the Kwantung Army's mopping-up troops was indeed the Northeast Anti-Japanese Army, but it was a new type of anti-Japanese army that had been secretly trained and armed by the Soviet Union. However, Akira Muto, who had always wanted to cause trouble for Russia, did not tell anyone about his analysis, including his immediate superior, General Nishio Shouzao, the commander of the Kwantung Army. Instead, he claimed that the culprit of the attack on the Kwantung Army was the Russian Far East Border Guards and their accomplice, the Northeast Anti-Japanese Alliance. The evidence was conclusive and honest!
Therefore, Muto Akira requested the headquarters to agree to increase the number of troops in the northeast, and requested the Japanese governor in North Korea, General Saitou, to cooperate with the Kwantung Army. For this reason, he also developed a detailed " Battle Plan against the Russian Far East Border Guards " with General Nishio Shouzao and others to report to the headquarters. After a heated discussion, Prince Zaijin and General Sugiyama, despite the strong opposition of Ishihara and others, approved the battle plan that Ishihara called " a plan to push Japan into the fire pit." With the cooperation of the army and navy, this plan was quickly implemented.
In the early morning of the day when Ma Jun returned to Shanghai from Peiping, Japan once again resorted to their rogue tactics-sneak attack. First, the coalition fleet consisted of three battleships. Under the personal command of the commander of the Japanese joint fleet, Lieutenant General Mehmet Mitsumasamasa, the powerful fleet consisting of two battlecruisers (Kirishima, Hirai), four light cruisers, and four destroyer quietly passed through the Thousand Islands under the cover of fog and entered the Sea of Okhotsk. Then, they suddenly appeared outside the port of Okhotsk, the mother port of the Russian fleet in Okhotsk. Before the battleships of the Okhotsk fleet could react, dozens of 406mm and 380mm cannons on the main battleships of the Japanese coalition fleet had already been adjusted and lined up in the battle line.
The unprepared Russian fleet of Okhotsk was hit by tons of artillery shells. All the warships were blown to pieces and completely annihilated before they could even fire. By the time the coastal defense artillery in Okhotsk finally fired, the main cannon on the main battleship of the Japanese joint fleet had begun to adjust the muzzle and began another round of attacks on the coastal defense artillery. The four light patrols and four destroyer also began to close in and cover the landing of the Marine Corps.
For a time, the telephone and telegram in the command center of the Russian Far East Military Region kept ringing. Marshal Tukhachevsky, who had just taken over as the commander of the Far East Military Region, was the Chief of Staff of the Soviet Red Army and the Field Marshal. After being captured in the First World War, he met Charles de Gaulle, who was also a prisoner, in prison. After returning to the Soviet Union, he made military achievements in the Russian civil war and was considered one of the most talented senior military generals in the Red Army. He was also known as the "Red Napoleon". During the purge of the Soviet Union, he was sentenced to death for spying and immediately executed. Later, the members of the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs who participated in the trial were also collectively executed. In 1956, the 20th National Congress of the Soviet Union was announced to be vindicated.）The hand that was holding the phone was already trembling with anger. When he slammed the phone down, he said,"Son of a b * tch Japanese, shameless!”
In the face of the Japanese's undeclared war, Marshal Tuchachevsky quickly dispatched troops and sent two mechanized divisions stationed in the Outer Koxing 'an Mountains and Gongqingcheng to reinforce the port of Okhotsk. At the same time, he reported the news of the Japanese coalition fleet suddenly attacking the port of Okhotsk, causing the entire fleet of Okhotsk to be wiped out, and the Japanese were in the process of landing operations. At the same time, as one of the first five marshals of the Soviet Union in 1935, Tuchachevsky quickly judged the real purpose of Japan's sneak attack on Okhotsk Port with his shrewd mind and superior military accomplishments. It was an attempt to "divert the east and attack the west" and "lure the tiger away from the mountain". The key targets of the attack should be the largest central city in the Far East of the Soviet Union, the location of the Far East Military Command, Boli, and the military town of the Far East of the Soviet Union. Russia's Pacific Fleet's base in Vladimir!
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