Tomitarō Horii

Tomitarō Horii
Tomitarō Horii
	Rikugun Shōshō Tomitarō Horii
Born	7 November 1890; Hyōgo prefecture, Japan
Died	23 November 1942 (aged 52); New Guinea
Allegiance	Empire of Japan
Service/branch	Imperial Japanese Army
Years of service	1911 -1942
Rank	Rikugun Shōshō (Major General)
Commands held	IJA 55th Division
Battles/wars	Second Sino-Japanese War; World War II

Template:Japanese name Tomitarō Horii (堀井富太郎, Horii Tomitarō, November 7, 1890 – November 23, 1942) was a rikugun shōshō (equivalent to major general) in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.

Biography

Born in Hyōgo Prefecture, Horii became an infantry officer following his graduation from the 23rd class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1911.^[1]

He was later assigned to the headquarters of the Shanghai Expeditionary Army during the January 28 Incident from January 28-March 4, 1932.^[2]

From 1935-1937, he was attached to the IJA 12th Infantry Regiment, and became commander of the IJA 78th Infantry Regiment in 1938, after his promotion to rikugun taisa (equivalent to colonel) the previous year. Horii was appointed commander of the IJA 55th Division (part of the South Seas Force) in 1941.

During the New Guinea campaign, Horii and his South Seas Detachment were assigned to the invasion of Port Moresby, but were turned back by Allied forces during the Battle of the Coral Sea. As a result, after landing in the Buna-Garara area in July 1942, Horii led a column of 8,500 men of the IJA 144th Regiment overland on the Kokoda Trail over the treacherous Owen Stanley mountain range in an attempt to capture Port Moresby.^[3] However, after heavy fighting against a small Australian Army and Militia force, the Japanese were delayed and defeated, and Horii was forced to withdraw with his surviving soldiers in the Kokoda Track campaign from September 1942. Horii drowned while crossing the Kumusi River when his raft capsized in November 1942.^[4]

Dupuy, Trevor N. (1992). Encyclopedia of Military Biography. London: I B Tauris & Co Ltd. ISBN 1-85043-569-3. OCLC 59974268.
Hayashi, Saburō (1959). Kogun: The Japanese Army in the Pacific War. Quantico, VA: Marine Corps. Association. OCLC 1133179.
Gamble, Bruce (2001). Darkest Hour: The True Story of Lark Force at Rabaul - Australia's Worst Military Disaster of World War II. St. Paul, MN: Zenith Press. ISBN 0-7603-2349-6. OCLC 71288724.

Government offices
Preceded by Walter Ramsay McNicoll as Administrator of New Guinea	Commander of Occupied New Guinea 1942	Succeeded by Hyakutake Seikichi