Masaharu Homma
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Masaharu Homma (本間雅晴 Honma Masaharu, 1888 in Sado, Niigata Prefecture, Japan - April 1946 in Los Banos, Philippines, also known as the Poet General, was the Japanese General in charge of the Bataan death march in the Philippines during 1942.
The USAFFE had just surrendered Manila to the Japanese forces under Homma.
It is not clear whether Homma was responsible for the atrocities that occurred during the Bataan Death March. He seemed remarkably tranquil and oblivious about the events that affected American POWs under him. It is thought that he was kind himself.
Homma was removed from command shortly after the fall of Corregidor because of the high cost and long delay in overrunning the American forces. He retired from the military and lived in semi-seclusion in Japan until the end of the war.
After the surrender of the Japanese, Homma was convicted by a U.S. military commission in the Philippines of war crimes, including the atrocities of the death march out of Bataan, and the atrocities at O'Donnell and Cabanatuan that followed, and executed on April 3, 1946 outside Manila.
Criticism of the court-martial has not abated over the years due to the fact that General Douglas MacArthur had Homma removed from Japan to the Philippines so that his court-martial panel there would try him rather than the Allied War Crimes Commission who were trying War Criminals in Japan. MacArthur was overheard to be extremely annoyed with Homma's lawyers who were giving Homma a proper and spirited defense, giving credence to the accusation that this court-martial was to be more like a drumhead/kangaroo court.