General Masaharu Homma, known as "the Poet" is most remembered as the conqueror of The Philippines as commander of the Fourteenth Imperial Japanese Army. He had a long record of distinguished military service. In World War I he served in France with the British Expeditionary Force, was an aide to HIH Prince Chichibu and commanded a division in the early days of the Second Sino-Japanese War but was made commander of the Army of Taiwan after speaking out that hostilities with China should be ended as quickly as possible following the Japanese capture of the Chinese capital of Nanking. After the outbreak of war with the United States he was given command of the XIV Army and tasked with the conquest of The Philippines, landing on December 10, 1941. This military operation was a complete success and it was probably that success, more than anything else, that led to his execution after the war on trumped-up charges of "war crimes" mostly because of the mistreatment of American prisoners of war. However, it was a complete injustice as was the case with other top Japanese generals executed quickly after the war was over. There were real instances of mistreatment of prisoners but General Homma was certainly not to blame for them, he never ordered such a thing as he was clearly singled out mostly because he had been a very successful general, the man who had conquered the largest and primary American "colony" in East Asia.
Far from being cruel, General Homma gave strict orders to his men that the Filipinos were to be treated as friends rather than enemies and he did his best to take precautions against any misbehavior by his soldiers. In fact, others tried to thwart him and hurt his career because they thought he was being entirely too kind and lenient toward the enemies of Japan. Whenever he found out about this, such as a plan to assassinate a leading Filipino politician, he acted quickly to stop such activity and punish the perpetrators according to the strict regulations of the Imperial Japanese Army. As for the treatment of American prisoners, particularly the "Bataan Death March" -he had nothing to do with it. General Homma was a careful commander and one who put his troops first. He did not want to waste the lives of his men and because of this cautious approach, some in the high command thought he lacked aggression and so they effectively replaced him just after the fall of Corregidor, the last offensive that knocked out the final Filipino-American resistance. So, even though at the time the prisoners on Bataan were taken and moved, General Homma was listed still as commander of the XIV Army, in fact, he was not and he had nothing to do with the mistreatment of prisoners. In fact, all such activities were done in violation of his clear orders that surrendered troops were to be well treated.
Forced to retire in 1943, partly because of his very humanitarian policies, it was the height of injustice that, when the war was over, he was singled out for prosecution as a "war criminal". Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Frank Murphy even protested the verdict, saying that it was completely unjust and amounted to nothing more than an act of vengeance. He was prosecuted not because of anything he did wrong but because he had made the U.S. Army look bad by conquering The Philippines which they thought would be easily defended against Japan. General Douglas MacArthur had a long relationship with the Philippines and had been humiliated as "Dugout Doug" by the battle and his escape from the Philippines (on presidential order) in a submarine to escape the victorious Japanese forces under General Homma. This was the real, underlying reason for his prosecution. A number of fair-minded Americans protested the "guilty" verdict and his wife pleaded with General MacArthur to show mercy to her husband. However, this was not done, the only courtesy given to him being that he was executed by firing squad like a soldier rather than hanged like a common criminal as was usually the case. He was executed on April 3, 1946.
General Homma was certainly not a "war criminal" by any means. He was an honorable and upright commander and a very successful war hero that Japan should be proud of.
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