Yamashita Tomoyuki - Japanese general

Yamashita Tomoyuki, also known as Yamashita Hbun and known as the Tiger of Malaya, was a Japanese general known for his successful attacks on Malaya and Singapore during World War II. He was born on November 8, 1885 in Chi, Japan, and died on February 23, 1946 in Manila, Philippines.

Yamashita joined the Army General Staff Office after graduating from the Army Academy in 1905 and the Army War College in 1916. He rose quickly through the Imperial Army's ranks, eventually becoming the highest-ranking general of its air force.

He was a skilled strategist who trained Japanese soldiers in jungle warfare and helped devise the military strategy for the Japanese invasion of the Thai and Malay peninsulas in 1941-42. Yamashita's 25th Army overran all of Malaya in a 10-week campaign and captured the massive British naval base at Singapore on Feb. 15, 1942.

Yamashita was soon retired to an army training command in Manchuria by Prime Minister Tojo Hideki, and he did not see active service again until after Tojo's fall in 1944, when he was assigned to command the defense of the Philippines.

His forces were badly defeated in both the Leyte and Luzon campaigns, but he held out until August 1945, when the general surrender was announced from Tokyo. Yamashita was tried for war crimes, and despite his denials that he was aware of atrocities committed under his command, he was found guilty and eventually hanged.