Departures of note

After being convicted by an Australian military court in 1947 for failing to control his troops, who committed atrocities including the execution of Allied prisoners of war, Imamura was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. He served his time at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo and was released in 1954. Believing his punishment was too light for his responsibility, he built a replica of his prison cell in his garden and confined himself there until his death in 1968.

Imamura was born in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, in 1886, the son of a judge. He graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1907 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He later attended the Army War College and served as a military attaché in England and British India. During the 1930s, he commanded infantry units in China and held staff positions, rising to lieutenant general in 1938. He commanded the 5th Division in the Second Sino-Japanese War and later became commander of the Twenty-Third Army.

In November 1941, Imamura was appointed commander of the Sixteenth Army and led the invasion of the Dutch East Indies. During the approach to Java, his transport ship was sunk by torpedoes, and he swam to shore. He adopted a lenient policy toward the local population, which won support in Java but conflicted with the plans of senior staff. In late 1942, he took command of the Eighth Area Army, responsible for operations in the Solomon Islands and New Guinea, and was promoted to general in 1943. He surrendered Japanese forces in New Guinea and the southern Pacific to the Australians in September 1945.