Kenji Doihara
Kenji Doihara (土肥原 賢二, Doihara Kenji, 8 August 1883 – 23 December 1948) was a Japanese army officer. As a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, he was instrumental in the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.
Doihara Kenji | |
|---|---|
Doihara in c. 1941~45 | |
| Nickname(s) | Lawrence of Manchuria, a reference to T. E. Lawrence |
| Born | 8 August 1883 Okayama, Japan |
| Died | 23 December 1948 (aged 65) Sugamo Prison, Tokyo, Occupied Japan |
| Cause of death | Execution by hanging |
| Allegiance | Empire of Japan |
| Service/ | Imperial Japanese Army |
| Years of service | 1904–1945 |
| Rank | General |
| Commands held | 14th Division Fifth Army Seventh Area Army |
| Battles/wars | Siberian Intervention Second Sino-Japanese War World War II |
| Awards | Order of the Rising Sun |
As a leading intelligence officer, he played a key role to the Japanese machinations that led to the occupation of large parts of China, the destabilization of the country, and the disintegration of the traditional structure of Chinese society to diminish reaction to the Japanese plans by using highly-unconventional methods. He became the mastermind of the Manchurian drug trade and the sponsor behind many underworld activities in Japanese-occupied China.
After the end of World War II, he was prosecuted for war crimes in the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. He was found guilty, sentenced to death, and hanged in December 1948.