Colonel Tsuji of Malaya (part 5)

Tsuji by this time had managed to move 33rd Army headquarters 80 miles into China, to Mangshih. As a Japanese biographer related the story in 1953, he put on a remarkable banquet to which he invited several war correspondents. An air raid destroyed the bridge leading to Mangshih, so they were unable to attend, but afterward they were told that Tsuji and some other staff officers had eaten the liver of an enemy pilot. In this version, the pilot was British. The same story was told by a Japanese army officer, Major Mitsuo Abe of the 49th Division who was actually present at the macabre meal; according to him, the pilot was an American lieutenant named Parker. In this version, the banquet was spontaneous. Parker was shot down in a raid, questioned by Abe and Tsuji, and refused to give any useful information. Another air-raid killed two Japanese soldiers and persuaded the officers that they must pull back from Mangshih. There was a clamor for Parker's execution, both for revenge and for the practical consideration that there was scarcely enough transport for the Japanese staff, without taking the American along. The two officers supposedly refused to have him executed. Instead, Parker was killed while they were at dinner, "while trying to escape." It was then and there, in this version, that the pilot's liver was brought in.

As the war correspondents heard the story, the liver was cut up and roasted on skewers. "The more we consume," Tsuji proclaimed, "the more we shall be inspired by a hostile spirit towards the enemy." Some officers merely toyed with their portions, some ate a bit and spit it out. Tsuji called them cowards and ate until his own portion was finished. This was some time in August.

By September, holding South Burma had become the main priority. Honda accordingly gave away one of his divisions to the 15th Army, which was hard-pressed by the British pressing into Burma from the west. Yamamoto was furious, and predictably blamed the quixotic gesture upon Tsuji: "He's up to his old tricks again--trying to get publicity." Tsuji celebrated his birthday on Oct 11 "in the front lines" in North Burma, picking "bracken sprouts" for dinner in "our headquarters in the bamboo groves of Monyeu." (possibly Mong Yu on the Burma-China border)

The collapse in Burma

Not long after, on October 16, Stilwell launched his last offensive, with British and Chinese divisions pressing the much- weakened 33rd Army in a giant pincers. To prevent being cut off, he had to pull back into Burma, under cover of a desperate stand at Bhamo, where Tsuji served as liaison officer, as usual in the front trench. The 33rd Army fought well and long, not withdrawing to Lashio until January 30. From that moment, there could be no further obstacle to American supply route from India to China; the Allies had succeeded in a major objective of the Burma, and the Japanese had failed.

On Feb 11, Honda and Tsuji went to a conference called by Burma Area Army, accompanied in Tusji's case by a medal for the gallantry he had displayed in Operation Dan. Obnoxious as always, he tried to refuse it, until Honda told him: "If you don't wish to accept the award for yourself, consider it for the whole 33rd Army staff." On that basis, Tsuji took the medal. By his own account, Tsuji was badly wounded in the Burma campaign, and this may have been the occasion for the medal.

Again Honda gave away one of his divisions, the 18th, for which Yamamoto again blamed Tsuji, but with the consolation this time that Tsuji was to go with it to 15th Army. By April, however, Yamamoto had been wounded and evacuated and Tsuji was back at Honda's side. The headquarters group was trapped in a temple at Pyinmana when the town was overrun by 161 Indian Brigade; they were joined by some private soldiers, to whom Tsuji hissed: "Keep still and be quiet--I'll kill anyone who moves." After dark, they slipped out. Tsuji took time to post a greeting on a tree outside the temple: "Last night was located here General Honda and the headquarters of the 33rd Army. If you push a little harder you may catch us. Goodbye." The group escaped to the north, guessing that the Indian troops would be watching the road to the south; then turned east until they reached the railroad, which they used to bypass the town. On his own authority, Tsuji got hold of a radio and told Burma Area Army that what remained of the 33rd Army could concentrate east of Toungoo by April 27-28 and suggested that the 15th Army cover them while they hurried down the Sittang River to reinforce 28th Army in South Burma. Honda's staff was furious; the troops were dead on their feet. "I know that crossing the Sittang River [toward Rangoon] will be dangerous," Tsuji told them. "But unless we do our duty than all the forces in Burma will be lost. Personally I do not think that the Allies have reached the estuary, but if they have we must throw them out. Do you seriously think we can slink away to Moulmein [and Thailand] and live 28th Army to its fate? If any of you haven't got the guts to come, then go and hide in the mountains with 15th Army. I will go--even if I am alone." Honda agreed that this was the proper course.

On 25 Aug, 10 days after the end of the war, Honda surrendered to General Sir Montagu Stopford of the British 12th Army. The headquarters staff was put in Rangoon Jail, and Honda eventually was put in command of all Japanese prisoners in Burma, enjoying good relations with the British. Things went harder with his staff, especially Major Abe and Colonel Tsuji. A Captain Lily of the U.S. Army Military Police turned up to investigate the incident of cannibalism in China, and the two officers feared that they would be charged with Lieutenant Parker's murder. They escaped to Thailand, with Abe posing as an enlisted man.

Underground in Bangkok

Tsuji's own account is radically different. In Underground Escape, published in 1952, he claimed that in June 1945 he was transferred to Thailand. "With my right arm in a sling and with dragging heels, I bid farewell to my comrades and soon found myself in Bangkok." He had, by his own account, been wounded seven times and carried "more than 30 odd pieces of shrapnel, both large and small" in his body.

His assignment in Bangkok, he said, was to quell a likely uprising of the 150,000-man Thai army and police force, which were being held in check with a lazy and spoiled garrison of 10,000 Japanese. He went by truck from Bilin to Moulmein, accompanied by "Lance Corporal Kubo," his orderly for the past six months. (Wherever Tsuji traveled, he seemed to find a "pure- hearted" youngster who wept upon parting from him. Whether this was a literary cliche or a reference to homosexual liaisons, I can't decide.) With his "half-useless hands and feet," he was lifted into the plane and flown to Don Maung, where he met "Commander Nakamura" (Aketo, says B), his former instructor at the Military Academy, and "Staff Officer Konishi," a classmate there. On June 8 he attended the month early-morning rites at the Shinto Daigi (Loyalty) Shrine, celebrating the December 8 breakout in 1941. He was offended by the sight of "comfort women," there and at the nightly parties. In his puritan fashion, he set about to clean them up.

Met Major Att Chalenshilba, once his student at the Military Academy. Thai garrison raised to army status under Lt Gen Hanatani, former division commander in the 15th Army in Burma. Divisions moved in from Indochina and China.

August 12 flew to Saigon, hoping to fly to Tokyo and persuade the high command to prepare for a long-range war in exile. He was brushed off, so he returned to Bangkok. Here he was asked by "Deputy Chief of Staff Hamada" of the Thai area army: "Japan must suffer for the next ten or twenty years. If possible, I'd like you to go underground in China and open up a new way for the future of Asia." Did this have anything to do with his being sought by British authorities? "Although I had not heard of my being designated as a war crimes suspect, I was fully read to meet such a fate." Says a band of seven young "special attack" (kamikaze) officers were in Thailand, disguised as priests while spying for the Japanese authorities; they "insisted on joining me."

continued in part 6