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55, a farmer, formerly a Lt. Gen., was Chief of Staff of 2nd Army (Hiroshima) from 15 April to 17 July 1945, was Vice Minister of War from 18 July to 1 November 1945. Wakamatsu recalls no reports concerning killing of PWs from WAH while Chief of Staff . The CG of an army had authority to authorize trial of captured airmen; no approval necessary from the Minister of War or Vice Minister of War. During the early part of the war the CG of any army would have the authority to put into effect a death sentence adjudicated by court martial against a PW or a captured airman. However, when the bombing became more intense, to control the indiscriminate execution of PWs or captured Allied airmen, this authority was removed, and then the only person who could authorize the execution of a convicted captured airman was the Minister of War. Wakamatsu would have knowledge of such report as against Minister of War, but received no reports of courts martials wherein the death sentence was adjudicated at WAH. In November 1945 the Minister of War gathered all the CGs in Tokyo to determine the various atrocities; Wakamatsu was not present. While the CG of the 2nd Army was superior to the CG of the WA, reports or requests of executions would not have to be sent through 2nd Army. |