Hong Sa-ik

Hong Sa-ik (hangul: 홍사익, hanja: 洪思翊, born February 2, 1887 – September 26, 1946) was a military general for Japan, but he was from Korea.

In September 1905, Hong Sa-ik entered the Korean empire military school but switched to a Japanese military school in Tokyo after Japan took over the country. He joined the Japanese military. From 1910 until 1936, he served in the army and he was promoted to general. In 1940, he was appointed to work in the city of Nanjing in China. In 1944 he was sent to the Philippines, where he was put in charge of prisons for captured Allied soldiers.

In August 1945, Japan was defeated by the American army and other Allied forces. Hong Sa-ik tried to escape, but he was arrested by the American army.  He was called a Class B war criminal, meaning that he committed crimes that are not unusual in war, like harming the prisoners in his camps. But the Allies did not think he planned the war or committed crimes against humanity, like the Nazis who ran the Holocaust.

On September 26, 1946, he was executed by firing squad with other Japanese generals.

 References 

 山本七平『洪思翊中将の処刑』（文藝春秋、1986年）
 山本七平『洪思翊中将の処刑』上、下（筑摩書房ちくま文庫、2006年）、上 、下 
 長野為義『李朝の武人と桜花 日韓史の中の洪思翊中将』（角川書店、1992年） 
 名越二荒之助『日韓共鳴二千年史 これを読めば韓国も日本も好きになる』（明成社、2002年） 

Category:1887 births
Category:1946 deaths
Category:Korean people