Kawaguchi Mamoru (died 1933) was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army who commanded its Korea garrison at the time of the Invasion of Manchuria in 1931.
Biography[]
Kawaguchi Mamoru was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, and he was sent to command the IJA garrison in Korea during the 1930s. In 1931, during the invasion of Manchuria, Mamoru had 3,469 Koreans in Manchuria brutally executed over the course of 27 days; he had them shot, cut open with knives, beaten with pipes, or strangled, and he would then burn their bodies, avenging the losses that his men had suffered from Korean resistance forces. In 1933, the Korean resistance plotted to assassinate him in Seoul before he could return to Japan, and they also planned to assassinate pro-Japanese businessman Kang In-guk. The first attack failed, and Kawaguchi was only lightly injured, suffering an arm injury. Nevertheless, he resolved to attend his son's wedding to Kang's daughter Mitsuko the next day.
Death[]
Kawaguchi's death
Kawaguchi was unaware that Kang had accidentally shot and killed Mitsuko under the belief that she was really her twin sister, Ahn Okyun, the attempted assassin of Kawaguchi and Kang. Ahn took on the identity of Mitsuko and stood in her place at the wedding, where she planned to kill the two men. The wedding was interrupted when Korean Independence Army fighter Chu Sang-ok opened fire on the Japanese soldiers from the elevator, making an unexpected apperance. Kawaguchi was dragged away to cover, but Ahn retrieved a pistol hidden in her bouquet and proceeded to shoot the general several times, killing him.