In February 1944, he was recalled to Japan and was attached to the General Staff. On September 26 1944 he became Commander of the First Area Army, with which he fought unsuccessfully against the Red Army, when the Soviet Union invaded Manchukuo at the end of the war. Together with his surviving soldiers, he became prisoner of war in Siberia. He was never repatriated and is thought to have died in a prison camp in 1947 or 1952.