
Renya Mutaguchi (7 October 1888 – 2 August 1966) was a Lieutenant-General of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.
Biography[]
Renya Mutaguchi was born on 7 October 1888 in Saga Prefecture, Japan. Mutaguchi fought in the Siberian Intervention of the Russian Civil War and served as a military attache to France before being sent to China in 1936 to take command of the Imperial Japanese Army garrison in Beijing. Units under his command fought China in the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937, and Mutaguchi was made a Major-General during the ensuing Second Sino-Japanese War. In 1940, he was promoted to Lieutenant-General and led the Japanese 18th Infantry Division during the campaign in Malaya and Singapore; Mutaguchi was wounded in the Battle of Singapore. In March 1943, Mutaguchi was given command of the Japanese 15th Army in Burma during the war with the United Kingdom, United States, and China in the India-Burma Campaign, and he was defeated at the 1944 Battle of Imphal. 50,000 of his 65,000 troops died to starvation, disease, and enemy fire, and in December 1944 he was relieved of command. From 1945 to March 1948 he was imprisoned by the United States, and he died in Tokyo in 1966.