Yuitsu Tsuchihashi

Biography

Tsuchihashi was born in Saga prefecture. He completed the 24th class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1912 and the 32nd class of the Army Staff College in 1920. In 1921 he was assigned to the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office, and from 1923 to 1924 studied French at the Tokyo Foreign Language School in Kanda, Tokyo. From 1924 to 1927 he served as a military attache to France and the League of Nations. After returning to Tokyo, he commanded a battalion in the 1st Infantry Regiment and held various administrative posts on the General Staff. Promoted to colonel in August 1935, he immediately took command of the IJA 20th Infantry Regiment. In August 1937 he became a military liaison to France. After promotion to major general in July 1938, he was appointed chief of staff of the IJA 21st Army in August 1939. That army conducted the Canton Operation, invading Guangdong Province with the Imperial Japanese Navy’s 5th Fleet, completing it by the end of the year. The IJA 21st Army was disbanded on February 9, 1940, and Tsuchihashi returned to Tokyo as military liaison to the Chinese Embassy. Promoted to lieutenant general in August 1941, he was sent to Taiwan in September 1941 to command the newly-formed IJA 48th Division. After the Pacific War began, his division landed in the Philippines as part of the IJA 14th Army and captured Manila. In January 1942 the division was transferred to the IJA 16th Army in eastern Java, where it captured Surabaya and its strategic oil fields on 7 March 1942. Afterwards, Tsuchihashi and the IJA 48th Division were assigned to garrison the island of Timor. He launched a major counter-offensive to push Australian commandos into a corner on the south coast, and the Japanese recruited Timorese civilians for intelligence. The island was secured when the remaining Australian commandos were evacuated in December 1942. In November 1944, Tsuchihashi was sent to French Indochina to reorganize and take command of the 38th Army. In March 1945, he played a crucial role in the Japanese coup d'état in French Indochina and became the provisional Governors-General of French Indochina. He maintained Japanese policy of neutrality in Indochinese internal politics, forming a government of French-trained but nationalist ministers. Just before the Japanese surrender, Tsuchihashi met with envoys of the Viet Minh and agreed to turn over power to their movement; however, only days later, French forces arrived to reimpose colonial rule. After the surrender, he was taken prisoner by the Nationalist Chinese in Hanoi and held in a POW camp in Guangdong province, China. In January 1948, he was transferred to French control in Saigon, where he remained until released in July 1949. He returned to Japan in June 1950, living in obscurity until his death in 1972.