Sadae Inoue

Infobox Military Person
name= Sadae Inoue
lived= November 5, 1886 – October 26, 1961
placeofbirth=Kumamoto prefecture, Japan
placeofdeath=


caption=General Sadae Inoue
nickname=
allegiance=Empire of Japan
branch=
serviceyears=1908 -1945
rank=Lieutenant General
commands= IJA 33rd Division, IJA 69th Division, IJA 14th Division
unit=
battles= Siberian Intervention
Second Sino-Japanese War
World War II
awards=
family=
laterwork=nihongo|Sadae Inoue|井上貞衛| Inoue Sadae |extra= November 5, 1886 – October 26, 1961 was general in the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II. He commanded the Japanese forces at the Battle of Angaur.

Biography

Inoue was born in Kumamoto prefecture as the third son of a local police officer; however, he listed his official residence as Kochi prefecture. He attended military preparatory schools and was a graduate of the 20th class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1908. He was assigned to the IJA 44th infantry Regiment, and served during Japan's Siberian Intervention against Bolshevik forces in eastern Russia. With the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Inoue was commander of the IJA 5th Infantry Regiment.

After having risen steadily through the ranks, Inoue was commissioned as a major general in March 1939 and became commander of the IJA 33rd Division. In 1941, he was attached to the headquarters staff of the Taiwan Army of Japan. Inoue was promoted to lieutenant general in 1942, and from 1942-1943, was commanding general of the IJA 69th Division, stationed in Shanxi province, China.

He assumed command of the IJA 14th Division in 1943, which was based in Manchukuo. However, as the war situation in the Pacific War continued to deteriorate against the Japanese, the 14th Division was reassigned to the Southern Expeditionary Army Group, and was personally tasked with the defense of Palau by General Hideki Tojo. Both Inoue and Tojo knew that the 14th Division would not be able to hold the island group against the numerically superior Allied forces, but the Japanese government felt that it was critical to defend the islands to the death, which would result in a Pyrrhic victory for the Allies and would serve to discourage further invasions of the Japanese South Pacific Mandate. [ [http://www.nps.gov/archive/wapa/indepth/extContent/usmc/pcn-190-003137-00/sec2.htm] Bloody beaches – The Marines at Peleliu ]

Two major battles were fought in Palau under Inoue's command: the Battle of Anguar and the Battle of Peleliu. [Ammenthorp, The Generals of World War II] Both were among the costliest of the war in terms of number of casualties on both sides, as Inoue deviated from previous Japanese tactics, eschewing banzai charges and making the best use of terrain and artificial fortifications in an attempt to create a war of attrition. [Ross, Peleliu: Tragic Triumph ]

After the war, Inoue was arrested by the American occupation authorities and deported to Guam, where he was tried for Class B and Class C war crimes and condemned to death in 1949 for negligence of command responsibility in permitting subordinates to execute three downed American airmen captured in Palau. [ [http://www.ijnhonline.org/volume1_number1_Apr02/article_welch_crimes_trial.doc.htm] International Journal of Naval History] His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1951, and he was released in 1953. Inoue died in Japan in 1961.

References

Books

*cite book
last = Hallas
first = James H.
authorlink =
coauthors =
year = 1994
chapter =
title = The Devil's Anvil: The Assault on Peleliu
publisher = Praeger Publishers
location =
id = ISBN 0275946460
*cite book
last = Hayashi
first = Saburo
coauthors = Cox, Alvin D
year = 1959
title = Kogun: The Japanese Army in the Pacific War
publisher = The Marine Corps Association.
location = Quantico, VA
id =
*cite book
last = Morison
first = Samuel Eliot
authorlink = Samuel Eliot Morison
coauthors =
year = 1958
chapter =
title = Leyte: June 1944 - Jan 1945, "vol. 12 of "History of United States Naval Operations in World War II
publisher = Little, Brown and Company
location =
id = ISBN 0316583170
*cite book
last = Ross
first = Bill D.
year = 1991
title = Peleliu: Tragic Triumph
publisher = Random House
location =
id = ISBN 0394565886

External links

*cite web| last = Ammenthorp| first = Steen| url = http://www.generals.dk/general/Inoue/Sadae/Japan.html| title = Inoue Sadae | work = The Generals of World War II
* [http://www.nps.gov/archive/wapa/indepth/extContent/usmc/pcn-190-003137-00/sec2.htm Bloody beaches – The Marines at Peleliu]
* [http://www.ijnhonline.org/volume1_number1_Apr02/article_welch_crimes_trial.doc.htm International Journal of Naval History]

Notes