SOSAKU SUZUKI

'Sosaku Suzuki' (1891-April 1945) was a Japanese general who served during Second Sino-Japanese War and the World War II.
Born in Aichi prefecture, Suzuki graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1912. After leaving Army War College in 1921, he served as served as a resident officer in Germany from 1922 to 1925. Winning promotion to Major in 1927, Suzuki was assigned to the Army Ministry's Military Affairs Section the following year.
Transferred to the Kwantung (Guangdong) Army in 1933, he served in Manchuria for three years and, shortly following his promotion to Major in 1935, he became a regimental commander until 1937.
Again promoted to Major General the next year, Suzuki was named chief of staff of the Central China Expeditionary Army which he would serve until 1939, when he was reassigned to the 25th Army under General Tomoyuki Yamashita later seeing action in the Singapore-Malaysia campaign from December 8, 1941 to February 15, 1942.
After a series of administrative posts relating to military transportation, between 1943 and 1944, Suzuki was appointed commander of the 35th Army and, with his headquarters in Cebu, was charged with the defense of the southern Philippines.
With the American landings at Leyte on October 20, Suzuki sent 45,000 soldier to meet Allied forces, however, numerical superiority of land and air power would decimate Japanese forces during October-December 25. Ordering a withdrawal to Mindanao, Suzuki would prepare to make a final stand with his remaining forces, consisting of two divisions and, shortly after the American arrival in April 1945, was killed in the fighting.

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★ Dupuy, Trevor N. ''The Harper Encyclopedia of Military Biography''. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 1992. ISBN 0-7858-0437-4