Hatazō Adachi Early career . Adachi was born into an impoverished samurai family in Ishikawa Prefecture in 1890 ( the 23rd year of the reign of Emperor Meiji , which is why his father chose the " kanji " for " 23 " to represent his given name " Hatazō " ) . Too poor to afford the military preparatory schools necessary for a career in the Imperial Japanese Navy , as a youth he tested into the fiercely competitive Tokyo Cadet Academy , which enabled him to enter the Imperial Japanese Army Academy , from which he graduated from the 22nd class in 1910 . Adachi served with the 1st Imperial Guards Division , and then graduated from the 34th class of the Army War College in 1922 . Unlike many Army officers of his day , Adachi avoided involvement in the political factions which plagued the Japanese Army in the 1930s . After serving in a number of staff and administrative positions within the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff , Adachi was assigned to the Railway Guard unit of the Kwangtung Army , responsible for the security of the South Manchuria Railway in 1933 . Second Sino - Japanese War . Adachi was promoted to colonel in 1934 , and was given command of the IJA 12th Infantry Regiment in 1936 . During the Shanghai Incident of July 1937 , Adachi also gained a reputation of leading his troops from the front , where the fighting was the thickest . He was injured by a mortar barrage in September , which permanently damaged his right leg . He was promoted to major general in 1938 , and promoted to commander of the IJA 26th Infantry Brigade . Adachi had a reputation as a " soldier ' s general " , sharing the miserable living conditions of his troops and welcoming open discussion with his officer and staff . Promoted to lieutenant general in August 1940 , he was commander of the IJA 37th Division at the Battle of South Shanxi . In 1940 , he became as Chief of staff of the North China Area Army from 1941 – 1942 , during the height of its scorched earth campaigns against the Chinese forces . Pacific War . On 9 November 1942 , Adachi was appointed commander in chief of the newly formed 18th Army on Rabaul and the north coast of New Guinea from 1942 - 1945 . The 18th Army contained the IJA 20th Division and IJA 41st Division , both of which arrived safely . However , the IJA 51st Division , including Adachi and his senior staff , came under Allied air attack while en route from Rabaul to Lae , in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea . All eight transport ships and four destroyers were sunk with the loss of 3 , 664 men , and only 2 , 427 men of the division were rescued . With the defeat of the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Solomon Islands campaign , and with landings of US forces led by Douglas MacArthur at Aitape and Hollandia from 22 – 27 April 1944 , isolated the vast majority of Adachi ' s forces . His forces , suffering from malaria , heat exhaustion and malnutrition were rendered ineffective for the remainder of the war , despite Adachi ' s efforts to achieve some form of self - sufficiency by planting crops and giving priority in rations to the sick . As ammunition began to run low , many of Adachi ' s commanders resorted to banzai charge s against the Allied beachhead at Aitape rather than surrender . By the end of the war in September 1945 , most of his forces had been annihilated . Of Adachi ' s original 140 , 000 men , barely 13 , 000 were still alive when the war ended . He surrendered to the Australian 6th Division at Cape Wom , by Wewak , New Guinea . Postwar . At the end of the war , Adachi was taken into custody by the Australian government and charged with war crimes in connection with mistreatment and arbitrary execution of prisoners of war . Although not personally involved in any of the atrocities mentioned , Adachi insisted on absorbing command responsibility for the actions of his subordinates during the military tribunal . He was sentenced to life imprisonment . After the war Adachi was charged with war crimes , including the killing of prisoners , and on 12 July 1947 was sentenced to imprisonment for life . On 10 September that year he killed himself in his quarters in the prisoners ' compound at Rabaul , having first written a number of letters . In one of these , addressed to those officers and men of the XVIII Army who were then in the compound , he said :