Education
He graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1916 and from the Army Staff College in 1928.
長 勇
He graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1916 and from the Army Staff College in 1928.
Chō was a native of Fukuoka prefecture. After he received his commission, Chō was assigned to his first duty outside Japan with the politicized Kwantung Army based in eastern China. He returned to play a very active role in internal politics within the Japanese army, and was an active or indirect participant in the March Incident and the Imperial Colors Incident (with other leaders: Kingoro Hashimoto, Jirō Minami, Sadao Araki for the military, and nationalists Ikki Kita, Shūmei Ōkawa, Kanichiro Kamei, Kozaburo Tachibana and Mitsuru Toyama).
At the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Chō was commander of the IJA 74th Infantry Regiment of the Shanghai Expeditionary Force, attached to Japanese Central China Area Army, and based in Manchukuo.
At the Battle of Nanjing, he was aide-de-camp to Prince Asaka and is thought to have been complicit in ordering the massacre of prisoners of war, but it is disputed whether he obeyed an order from the prince, or whether he acted on his own. From 1941 to 1942 he accompanied the Southern Army to French Indochina to oversee implementation of Japanese strategy, and served as a liaison officer between the Southern Army and the 14th Army in the Philippines.
From 1942 until 1944 Chō was commander of the IJA 10th Division, a garrison force based in Manchukuo. Promoted to lieutenant general in 1944, he served in the Kwangtung Army Headquarters, and later as commander of the 1st Mobile Brigade.
Cho was regarded as a quick-tempered, offensive, zealous officer who was known to strike subordinates when angry or frustrated.
He masterminded the elaborate underground fortifications around Shuri Castle, but favored a highly aggressive response to the American invasion rather than a passive defense. He persuaded General Mitsuru Ushijima to launch the disastrous 5 May 1945 counteroffensive. He committed seppuku—suicide—alongside Ushijima on 22 June 1945 rather than surrender to the American forces.
He was a founder of the radical "Sakura Kai" secret society, whose aim was to overthrow the democratic government in favor of a state socialist regime which would stamp out corruption.