Takuro Matsui

General lieutenant Takuro Matsui, Commander of the 5th Division, at the Battle of Singapore

Takurō Matsui (松井 太久郎; Fukuoka Prefecture, 3 December 1887 – 10 June 1969) was a Lieutenant General in the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II.

Matsui commanded the Western District Army between 15 July 1938 and 9 March 1940.

He received command of the 5th Japanese Division on 15 October 1940, which fought at that time in China in the Second Sino-Japanese War.[1] On 8 December 1941, his division landed on the beaches of Southern Thailand and fought with success in the Malayan Campaign and the following Battle of Singapore.[2]

On 11 May 1942, he was replaced at the head of the division by Lieutenant General Yamamoto Tsutomi.

On 18 March 1943 he became Chief of Staff of the China Expeditionary Army, a post he would hold until 1 February 1945, when he became commander until the end of the War of the Thirteenth Army, posted in the lower Yangtze River area of east central China.

  1. ^ Rottmann, p. 17
  2. ^ Yenne, p. 96