Toshizo Nishio

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Toshizo Nishio(西尾 寿造, Nishio Toshizo) (1881 – 1960) was a Japanese general, considered to be one of the Japanese Imperial Army's most successful and ablest strategists during the Second Sino-Japanese War, who commanded the Japanese Second Army during the first years of the China Incident.

Nishio Toshizou was first attached to the 10th Regiment/10th Division from 1921 to 1923. Afterward he was an instructor at the War College until 1925 when he became commanding officer of the 40th Regiment/10th Division. From 1926 to 1929 he was Chief of the 1st Section, Inspectorate-General of Military Training. In 1929 he was again in command this time of the 39th Brigade/20th Division, stationed in Korea. From 1930 to 1932 he was Chairman of Military Investigation, in the Ministry of War, and then Head of 4th Bureau, of the General Staff in 1934.

On the 5h of March 1934 Nishio was appointed Chief of Staff of the Kwantung Army in Manchukuo, where he oversaw the establishment of the reorganization of the Manchukuo Imperial Army and the pacification of Manchukuo. In March of 1936 he became Vice Chief of the General Staff and Acting Head of the General Affairs Bureau, of the General Staff. In early 1937 he briefly commanded the Imperial Guards Division, before being transferred to China at the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War.

After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident the was sent to North China, and took command of the Second Army on the 26th of August 1937. He oversaw the and Tianjin–Pukou Railway Operation that took the Japanese to the Yellow River. He commanded the Battle of Hsuchow, crossing the Yellow river and overruning Shandong until 30 April 1938, shortly after the defeat his army suffered in the Battle of Taierzhuang, when he was replaced and returned to Tokyo to be Inspector-General of Military Training.

Again he was returned to China to take command of the 13th Army on the 12th of September 1939 for a month and then took Command of all the forces in China as Commander in Chief of the China Expeditionary Army on the 22nd of September, 1939. He oversaw the Battle of Zaoyang-Yichang, and the First Battle of Changsha. His force stood of the Chinese 1939-40 Winter Offensive, and rolled back their gains in the spring with many operations including the battle of Zaoyang-Yichang. His forces were again struck in North China by the Hundred Regiments Offensive, while he continued attacks in the Yangtze valley in the Central Hopei Operation and Western Hopei Operation. On 1 March 1941 he was replaced and returned to Japan to become a member of the Supreme War Council until 1943 when he retired. However he took up the governorship of the Tokyo Metropolis from 1944 to the end of the World War Two. Although arrested after World War II as a war criminal, he was not tried and was later released.