Hiromichi Yahara

After the war Yahara wrote his account of the battle. His Okinawa Kessen (Decisive Battle for Okinawa), first published in Japanese in 1973, was an account of his first-hand experience directing Japanese operations on Okinawa during the invasion.

After the two generals had committed suicide, Yahara hid with several other staff officers in a small cave whose entrance they had blocked with stone and waited for the opportunity to escape. After hearing American troops drilling into the rock above them they relocated to another cave before deciding to split up. Disguising himself as a civilian, he made his way down Mahuni Hill and eventually joined two other soldiers, the three of them joining a large group of approximately 50 civilians sheltering in a cave. The group was discovered by the Americans who following an air attack on the cave convinced the group to surrender. Yahara lead them out and was mistakenly judged to be a Japanese English teacher. He was taken to a holding camp before being taken to a house on Chinen Peninsula which he shared with 30 other civilian refugees. He later joined a work detail before eventually three weeks after his escape from the 32nd Army headquarters his true identity was discovered by the U.S. military. Now a prisoner of war with privileges due to his rank as having been the third highest ranked Japanese officer on the island, he was transferred to 10th Army headquarters where he was interrogated.

Following the end of the war Yahara was repatriated back home to Japan in January 1946.

1945 – July 15: captured by American military at the Yakibu Civilian Compound.

(Source: U.S. Tenth Army Interrogation Report #28, dated 6 August 1945.)

1944 – 16 March: Assigned to Okinawa as advisor from Imperial Staff. 32nd Army Headquarters soon formed (March 22, 1944) and assigned as Senior Staff Officer.

1941 – July: to Bangkok as Assistant Military Attaché. November 15: received secret orders to staff of 15th Army (Saigon). Remained at Bangkok and participated in the negotiations for the peaceful occupation of Siam. Then participated in the Burma operation with the 15th Army.

1940 – September: assigned as Japanese agent to Siam, Burma, Malaya. November–December: reported to General Staff as expert on southeast Asia.

1938 – Returned to Army War College as instructor.

1937 – Appointed as instructor (strategy and tactics) at the Army War College. Spent three months in China as staff officer with the 2nd Army (N. China Expeditionary Force).

1935 – Returned to Personnel Department, War Ministry.

1933 – Sent to the United States as an exchange officer. Traveled Wilmington, Delaware, Boston, Massachusetts, Washington, D.C. Attached to the 8th Infantry Regiment for six months at Fort Moultrie.

1930 – Assigned to Personnel Department of the War Ministry.

1929 – Graduated from War College. Returned to the 63rd Regiment.

Won appointment to the Military Academy. 1923 – Graduated from Military Academy. Assigned to 54th Infantry Regiment.

Hiromichi Yahara (Japanese: 八原博通, October 12, 1902 – May 7, 1981) was the senior staff officer in charge of operations of the 32nd Japanese Army at Okinawa during the American invasion of that island during World War II.

1902 – Born. Son of a small country landowner in Tottori Prefecture (Japan).