Teiichi Suzuki

Teiichi Suzuki

Teiichi Suzuki (鈴木 貞一 Suzuki Teiichi, December 16, 1888 – July 15, 1989) was a Japanese army general who helped plan Japan's economy in World War II.

Life during the war

Suzuki, who served as a lieutenant general in the Imperial Army, was the last surviving member of a group of top leaders convicted of war crimes. He was the primary planner of Japan's wartime economy, serving as state minister of the Planning Board from 1941 to 1943. After Japan's defeat in 1945, he stood trial along with Prime Minister Hideki Tōjō and 26 other wartime leaders. Tojo and six others were condemned and hanged. Suzuki was given a life sentence by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in 1948, but he was released on parole from Sugamo Prison for war crimes in Tokyo in 1955 and given a full pardon. After briefly returning to government service, he dropped from public view and refused to see reporters. He died of heart failure on July 15, 1989 at 100 years old. He was the last surviving defendant of the main Tokyo/Nuremberg trials, outliving Rudolph Hess, who had committed suicide two years earlier.

Timeline

1934–1935 Instructor at the War College
1935–1936 Investigator, Cabinet Research Bureau
1936–1937 Commanding Officer 14th Regiment
1937–1938 Attached to 16th Division
1938 Chief of Staff 3rd Army
1938–1940 Head of Political Affairs Bureau, Asia Development Board
1940–1941 Head of General Affairs Bureau, Asia Development Board
1941 Retired
1941–1943 Minister of State
1941–1943 Chief of the Cabinet Planning Board
1943–1944 Advisor to the Government
1945–1948 Arrested and tried as an A class war criminal
1948 Condemned to life imprisonment as an A war criminal
1955 Released

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