
Masakazu Kawabe (5 December 1886-2 March 1965) was a General of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.
Biography[]
Masakazu Kawabe was born in Toyama Prefecture, Japan in 1886, and he graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1907 and the Army Staff College in 1915. After serving as a military attaché to Switzerland from 1918 to 1921 and to Germany from 1929 to 1932, he commanded the Infantry School from 1933 to 1934 and was promoted to major general in 1936. He commanded the Permanent China Brigade during the Second Sino-Japanese War before rising to the rank of Deputy Chief of Staff of the North China Area Army and Chief of Staff of the Central China Expeditionary Army, attaining the rank of lieutenant general in March 1939. In March 1941, he was given command of the IJA 3rd Army in China and served as Chief of Staff of the China Expeditionary Army from August 1942 to March 1943. That month, he was transferred to Burma to take command of the Burma Area Army. He and Renya Mutaguchi planned a preemptive attack against British forces at Imphal to enable an invasion of Assam and India, and, although the difficult supply situation for the Japanese generated much opposition to the plan among Kawabe's officers, the plan went ahead, resulting in massive casualties and the loss of Burma. Kawabe was relieved in August 1944 after falling ill with dysentery, and he served as Commander in Chief of the Central District Army and the 15th Area Army in the Home Islands during the late stages of World War II. In April 1945, he took command of the Air General Army's units in Japan, Korea, and Okinawa. After the war, the Allied occupiers had Kawabe assist with the demobilization of the Japanese army, and he retired at the end of the year and died 20 years later.