Masaharu Homma

Masaharu Homma, also known as the Poet General, was the Japanese General in charge of the Bataan death march in the Philippines during 1942.

The USAFFE had just surrendered Manila to the Japanese forces under Homma, and requested decent treatment for their prisoners of war.

It is not clear whether Homma was responsible for the atrocities that occurred during the Bataan Death March. He seemed remarkably tranquil and oblivious about the events that affected American POWs under him. It is thought that he was kind himself, but allowed the men under him to starve, beat, and torture Americans.

After the surrender of the Japanese, Homma was convicted by a U.S. military commission of war crimes, including the atrocities of the death march out of Bataan, and the atrocities at O'Donnell and Cabanatuan that followed, and executed on April 3, 1946 outside Manila.