Mutaguchi Renya, Lt-General

Mutaguchi Renya, Lt-General (1888–1966),Japanese army of ficer, a fervent believer in Bushidō, whose troops in 1937 fired the first shots of the China incident. By March 1938 he was Yamashita's chief of staff with the rank of maj-general and by August 1940 a lt-general commanding 18th Division which he led during the Malayan campaign in December 1941. In March 1943 he took command of Fifteenth Army in Burma with which he launched his Imphal offensive into India in March 1944, having become convinced by the operations of Wingate's Chindits that Burma's jungle terrain was passable. His principal task was to prevent Slim's Fourteenth Army moving into Burma by destroying its supply bases at Imphal, the capital of Manipur, but he was also urged to gain a foothold for the Indian National Army, part of his forces, as this might result in a general rising in India against the British. Mutaguchi's offensive was the turning-point of the Burma campaign and in an attempt to prevent it disintegrating he replaced all three divisional commanders. But by then his chance had gone and his withdrawal, begun in June 1944, soon turned into a rout. Under him the Japanese Army suffered its largest and most decisive defeat of the war, perhaps ever, and at the end of the year he was removed from his command and given an administrative post.