history · 15 September 1945 · 79 years ago
General Hatazo Adachi surrendered the remnants of his 18th Army to the Australians near Wewak in New Guinea. Of his original force of 100,000 men, only 13,000 survived, sick and half starved after being abandoned without supplies for months. Adachi was so weak that he had to be carried to the surrender table. Later sentenced to death for war crimes against prisoners of war and natives, he cheated the hangman by committing suicide in 1947.
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