Shizuo Yokoyama

Shizuo Yokoyama (横山 静雄) was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II, who is noted for his activity in the Philippine Islands during the final days of World War II.

Biography
Born in Fukuoka prefecture, Yokoyama graduated from the 24th class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1912. After leaving Army Staff College in 1925, within three years he had risen to the rank of major and was assigned to the Chosen Army headquarters as a staff officer in 1929.

Promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1932, Yokoyama spent much of the early 1930s in staff and administrative positions in the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff. Following his participating in an observation tour in Europe in 1934, Yokoyama was appointed commander of the Kwantung Army's Railway Zone serving in that post until 1937.

After a brief regimental command, Yokoyama was promoted to major general in 1939 (and later lieutenant general in 1941) holding several railway commands between 1939 and 1942.

Serving as commander of the IJA 8th Division for two years from June 1942, Yokoyama was named commander of the “Shimbu Group”, wholly responsible for the defense of southern Luzon in the Philippines from December 1944. The Shimbu Group became the IJA 41st Army in March 1945. Yokoyama commanded Japanese forces defending Manila against the U.S. Sixth and Eighth Armies from 3 February until his surrender on 4 March 1945, by which time his army had been reduced to just 6500 men.

At the end of the war Yokoyama was arrested, taken before a military tribunal on Manila and charged with war crimes. He was convicted of atrocities committed by Japanese forces during the Japanese defense of Manila and was sentenced to death. He was pardoned by Philippines President Elpidio Quirino and allowed to return to Japan in 1953.