page_title: Shunroku Hata
section_title: Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Shunroku Hata / Biography / Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II
caption_attribution_description: 日本語: 1938 年畑俊六（左）与寺内寿一（右）在徐州合影 English: Hata Shunroku (left) with Field Marshal Terauchi Hisaichi in Xuzhou Deutsch: Links: Hata Shunroku (畑俊六, General; 1879-1962) Rechts: Terauchi Hisaichi (寺内寿一, Generalfeldmarschall; 1879–1946) bei Xuzhou
context_page_description: Shunroku Hata was a Field Marshal in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. He was the last surviving Japanese military officer with a marshal's rank. Hata was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1948, but was paroled in 1954.
context_section_description: His rise after the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War was then very rapid: Military Councilor, Inspector General of Military Training and promotion rank of general all in late 1937. He was appointed as commanding general of the Central China Expeditionary Army in February 1938, to replace General Matsui Iwane, who had been recalled to Japan over the Nanjing Incident. Hata became Senior Aide-de-Camp to Emperor Shōwa in May 1939 followed by a stint as Minister of War from August 1939 to July 1940 during the terms of Prime Minister Nobuyuki Abe and Mitsumasa Yonai. In July 1940, Hata had a pivotal role in bringing down the Yonai cabinet by resigning his post as Minister of War.
  Hata returned to China as commander-in-chief of the China Expeditionary Army in March 1941. He was the main Japanese commander at the time of Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign, during which Chinese sources claim that over 250,000 civilians were killed. Hata was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal (Gensui) on June 2, 1944 following Japanese victory at Operation Ichi-Go.
  Hata was requested to take command of the Second General Army, based in Hiroshima from 1944 to 1945 in preparation for the anticipated Allied invasion of the Japanese home islands. He was thus in Hiroshima at the time of the atomic bombing and took command of the city following the explosion. Hata was one of the senior generals who agreed with the decision to surrender, but asked that he be stripped of his title of Field Marshal in atonement for the Army's failures in the war.
caption: Hata (left) with Field Marshal Terauchi Hisaichi in Xuzhou
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