Good/best Japanese commanders compared to the west ?

Title says it, the Yamamoto threat made me think of this. I am not as good informed on the Japanese than western armies. I think Yamamoto was good, but not a genius. Right of my head I can only remember, Yamashita (army general) who seems to rank among the good ones. But others ?

 

Despite the poor decision to counter attack in the middle of the battle, General Mitsuru Ushijima and Iasmu Cho deserve a lot of credit for their defense of Okinawa. Then again a lot of the Japanese defenses were tenacious. But a lot of Japanese generals made massive mistakes/blunders.

 

So actually that means the credit goes to the tough tenacious Jap soldier who stays and holds positions and never surrenders. Here and there a "banzaaaiaiiiiiiii" counter attack.
I fail to see a Jap mastermind behind this.

If so, then the order of Hitler to stay put and not retreat, plus the certainty that you as a soldier will be executed for not obeying orders and the knowledge that you be killed as a pow by the russians and thus leading to tenacious fights on the east front..makes ALL the german commanders top quality gifted commanders ???



As with Yamashita...i picked up somewhere on internet and an article that his jap troops deployed in Malaysia were not so small as earlier assumed.
I tend to believe that. The brits and aussies may be making mistakes here or there, and have lot less aircraft, but a few good positioned 25pdrs and 2 pdr at guns (and MG) would stall a Jap column of a few 1000 infantry all the time.
But not if there are 10.000 japs swarming the place (and the extra Jap dive bombers) locally at a specific front/choke point.

 

Mikawa really was a steady ''winner'', no?..he didn't destroy the transports, but I thought he continued on in the Canal campaign...

 

Mikawa had a lot more on his mind than attacking transports. He had seen what airpower could do to Japanese cruisers at Midway, and had good cause for concern about the welfare of his cruisers. Further, due to his position in the Navy prior to the war, he also knew that any heavy cruisers lost would not be replaced, because there were none in the "pipeline." Finally, and most important, Mikawa did not know of the US carriers retreat to safer waters prior to Savo Island.

 

so ,Takao, what do you think of Mikawa overall??.....who was over him?? would you say he was more the tactical leader, and not the overall strategist for the Solomons campaign?

 

I would add Tanaka and Ozawa for the navy. Ozawa knew his business, but the odds and circumstances were against him.

Kuribayashi at Iwo Jima was a fine commander, but like his counterparts on Okinawa could do little more than impose casualties and delay on the Americans.

It's a good topic. Maybe we Westerners just don't know enough about about the Oriental side, but it's interesting that we can't come up with many noteworthy Japanese commanders.

 

Yamamoto was a very unusual officer in that he would go outside of traditional thinking. There are not a lot of "good" officers because the Japanese system did not train them to be thinkers as western armies did. Even the Soviets would allow exceptional officers some latitude.

 

Yes you can credit the soldiers for the task of defending and doing all the fighting, but it is the generals and officers who do the organization. The credit does not go to just the soldier, for it is also the generals and officers job to do the planning and organization.

 

The British soldier was in a real bad position, poorly trained, lead and equipped, with out much air support and unprepared for a defense of Malaysia from the north.

 

This is true, however in certain situation the planning isn´t that decissive it seems. Eg. these defensive battles of the Japanese. These were hardly operational masterpieces because most of it relied like mentioned already on: bulding defenses, caves etc. tell the soldiers "no step back", fanatize the solders that surrendering is against the Samurai (or whatever code it was) code... then let them fihgt to death untill they are finally eliminated. That sounds like Hitler "no step back" or "every city is a fortress". Maybe I am wrong on the Pacific battles.

To fight a good defense means also to make fighting retreats, manouvre to better positions and save as much of the troops and material as possible imo. A stand and die order hardly qualifies.

 

Tarawa, not much place to go..so, defense [ as you say ] not a masterpiece....they did better at Iwo-[ no place to step back ] and Okinawa much better.....

 

Yes I forgot probably that these islands weren´t suited to big manouvres anyway, well so guess most of you value the Japanese at Okinawa as quite good (will read it up).

It can be doubted that Malaya was so much a masterpiece because the British weren´t in the best position there anyway.

So not too much left of Japanase land commander fame, guess 2-3 admirals were good.

 

good thread here....not many of them got to write their memoirs! you are correct..a lot of this was small ''unit''/small area action, not much armor, if any at all...etc

 

Where are you going to retreat to on an island deep in the Pacific, that if you are lucky is a few square miles in area, with no hope of rescue?

The Germans, when they had the chance retreated often enough, no matter what Hitler said.

 

The common Japanese understanding was that defeated warriors did not talk of their battles. Thankfully, some did, although not near enough.

 

Malaya was a masterpiece for exactly that reason.

Read up on Sun Tzu. Only a fool would attack an enemy where he is strongest.

 

I guess that went with suicide before capture..dishonorable....your post, is another good reason why I think this is a good thread

 

I did find this on Amazon, looks like an interesting read.
http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Soldiers-Cassell-Military-Paperbacks/dp/0304359785

 

sorry if this is a double post...I like trying to think realistically....there were some fanatical Germans, but look at what Paulus did at Stalingrad!!...total disobedience..he wasn't going to die......like Takao said, the Germans retreated, to stay alive!