Background
Kenji Doihara was born in Okayama, Japan on August 8, 1883.
Kenji Doihara was born in Okayama, Japan on August 8, 1883.
He attended a military academy where he specialized in Chinese language and history and graduated at the head of his class. In 1912 he graduated from the Military Staff College at Tokyo.
He was sent to China, where he served for several years as adviser to the Chinese minister of war. His activities in this position, however, aroused the suspicions of the war minister and Doihara was dismissed. He next served as assistant military attaché to the Japanese legation in Peiping, working under General Hojo. When Hojo became commander of the Kwantung Army in 1931, he appointed Colonel Doihara chief of the Bureau of Military Relations (the intelligence office), with headquarters at Mukden, Manchuria, thus giving Doihara an opportunity to use his knowledge of the Chinese and his talent for intrigue. He took a leading part in engineering the "Mukden Incident" of September 18, 1931, which gave the Japanese their pretext for the invasion of Manchuria. On September 19 Doihara was appointed governor of Mukden, directing Japanese intelligence and fifth-column activities. He had a prominent role in the conquest of Manchuria and north China. When the Kwantung Army "young officers" clique gained complete control of the Tokyo government under General Tojo, Doihara was made a full general in 1931 and supreme war councilor in 1943. After Japan's defeat in World War II he was appointed commander in chief of the surrendered Japanese Army on September 12, 1945. Arrested as a war criminal, he was convicted, and hanged.
He was instrumental in the Japanese invasion of Manchuria for which he earned fame taking the nickname 'Lawrence of Manchuria'.
As a leading intelligence officer he played a key role to the Japanese machinations leading to the occupation of large parts of China, the destabilization of the country and the disintegration of the traditional structure of Chinese society in order to diminish reaction to the Japanese plans using highly unconventional methods. He became the mastermind of the Manchurian drug trade, and the real boss and sponsor behind every kind of gang and underworld activity in China.
