Capt. Kaneyuki Koike, second from right, with, from left to right, Lieut. Larson, Lieut. Jacobs, Lieut. Sadayoshi Ishikawa and T-Sgt. Terno Odow,
during the surrender negotiations on August 28, 1945 in Maasin, Iloilo. In the background are Japanese soldiers who acted as guards for the Japanese surrender negotiation delegation.
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Capt. Kaneyuki Koike (also spelled Capt. Kaneyoki Koike) was the commander of the Iloilo Kempei Tai detachment from December 1943 until the end of the war.
During the surrender negotiations in Maasin, Iloilo on August 28, 1945, the Japanese delegation was composed of Captain Koike, 1st Lieutenant Ishikawa and 1st. Lieutenant Kumai, with Sergeant Matsuzaki as the interpreter. The NCO cadet platoon that accompanied them as escort was led by 1st Lieutenant Horimoto, with Private First Class Ueki as the interpreter.
Mentions of Capt. Kaneyuki Koike in The Blood and Mud in the Philippines of Lieut. Kumai:
Section 8.2 At the meeting, the headquarters staff all looked tense. Apart from Lieutenant Colonel Ryoichi Tozuka (unit commander). 1st Lieutenant Ishikawa, and myself, there were the following: Army Doctor Egami, Finance Officer 1st Lieutenant Kuge, 1st Lieutenant Yamamoto (deputy commander of the machine-gun force), Lieutenant Fujii of the 2nd Company, Captain Kaneyuki Koike (Kempeitai commander), and Lieutenant Noda of the 1st Company of the Tanabe unit, Commander Suzuki of the Transport Company, and 1st Lieutenant Mizutani (commander of the oil tank construction unit), a captain in charge of engineering of the airfield construction unit, Commander Ika of the Hôjin Company, 1st Lieutenant Nakamura of the remaining 102nd Division forces, President Kimura of the Japanese Association (Nihonjin-kai), and Medical Doctor Tanaka of the Iloilo Army Hospital. With a few dozen men, Captain Torao Saitô (machine gun unit commander) had left the previous night to lead the retreat of the Santo Rosario garrison at Guimaras. They managed to get back later that evening.
Section 10.1 The Kempeitai commander, Captain Kaneyuki Koike, got out manual of the Army Criminal Law and opened to the pages near the end of the book. He went through the international agreements and read aloud the important articles based on the Geneva Convention on the treatment of POWs. Though I had heard of the existence of such agreements, it was the first time I heard about their content.
Section 10.1
That day, the unit commanders’ meeting decided that, as previously planned, the Japanese Army emissaries would be Captain Koike of the Kempeitai, 1st Lieutenant Ishikawa and I, with Sergeant Matsuzaki as the interpreter. The NCO cadet platoon led by 1st Lieutenant Horimoto, with Private First Class Ueki as the interpreter, would accompany us as our escort.
Section 10.1
Early in the morning of August 30, the emissaries of the Japanese Army in Panay, Captain Koike, 1st Lieutenant Ishikawa and I, climbed down from Bocari and walked towards the town of Maasin. Moving in front, Private First Class Ueki carried a big white flag. As we advanced, the observation plane came to meet us. Sergeant Matsuzaki kept in touch using the walkie-talkie.
Section 10.1
Our escorting NCO platoon stood by while the four of us – Captain Koike, 1st Lieutenant Ishikawa, I, and the interpreter Sergeant Matsuzaki – were placed on jeeps. I rode with a battalion commander with a platoon of US soldiers guarding our front and back.
Section 10.1
Captain Koike on the Japanese side.
Section 10.2 Following the instructions of an American officer, the unit commander, Colonel Tozuka, was the first to walk through two rows of American soldiers and handed over his sword and pistol. Colonel Stanton received them with a solemn expression on his face. Following him, Captain Koike, and the six of us officers attached to the headquarters, handed over our swords. Colonel Stanton ceremoniously received them as if performing in a play. It was the ritual of surrender.
Section 11.1 One day towards the end of November, nine people were summoned: staff officer Colonel Hidemi Watanabe, unit commander Colonel Tozuka, Captain Makoto Yoshioka, 1st Lieutenant Hajime Fujii, Captain Jiro Motoki, Second Lieutenant Otsuka, and myself from the Japanese Army; also Captain Kaneyuki Koike and WO Fusataro Shin of the Kempeitai. Seeing the line up of the nine, I felt a chill in my heart.
Kaneyoki Koike
Kaneyoki Koike was drafted into the army in January, 1927 and was assigned to the Konoe Second Regiment for two years; from June to September, 1928 he received training at the Tokyo Kempei Tai Training Regiment after which he was promoted to the rank of private first class; in 1929 he was promoted to the rank of leading private after which he was assigned to a Kempei Unit in Tokyo; in August, 1932 he was promoted to the rank of corporal; in April, 1934 he was assigned to the Hiroshima Kempei detachment where he was promoted to the rank of sergeant; from May to December, 1936, he attended the Tokyo Kempei School for non-commissioned officers; in June, 1937
he was assigned to the Tokyo Kempei Headquarters as a clerk; in August, 1937 he was promoted to the rank of sergeant-major; from December, 1938 to September, 1939, he studied at the Kempei Tai School for Commissioned Officers. Some of the subjects that he took there were Constitution, Administrative Law, Criminal Law, Civil Law, Army Court Martial Procedures, Sociology, International Law, History of the Japanese Society, Crime Detection Methods, Science of Military Affairs, Defense, Elementary Strategy and Photography; in October, 1939 he became the commanding officer of the Yamaguchi City Kempei detachment as a second lieutenant; in December, 1940 he was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant; in July, 1941 he became a member of the newly mobilized First
Field Kempei Unit organized in Tokyo; in the early part of August, 1941, he left Tokyo for Towan, Manchuria where he was stationed from August to November, 1941. On December 8, 1941, he was stationed at Takao, Formosa.
Koike was 34 years old when he arrived in Lingayen on January 1, 1942. He came to Manila on January 3, 1942 and he was assigned to the Manila Kempei Tai Headquarters under Major Nishimura.
In November, 1942, Koike was sent to Tokyo to gather information about the goods that were transported by Japanese soldiers from the Philippines to Japan. He returned to the Manila Kempei Tai Headquarters in December, 1942 where he remained for a year.
On December 20, 1943, Akira Nagahama assigned Koike (who was promoted to the rank of captain) to Iloilo for the following reasons:
First, the majority of the civilians in Panay hated the Japanese there because the Tezuka (Tozuka) Battalion (the Japanese Army Garrison in Iloilo) had killed several civilians during their punitive expeditions against the guerrillas. The Kempei Tai stationed in Iloilo, through Koike, must therefore try to win the confidence and cooperation of the civilians there.
Second, Lieutenant Okura (the Kempei commander of the Iloilo Kempei Tai detachment) had been sick for a long time; therefore, the discipline and morale of his detachment was very low. Koike, as the newly appointed successor to Lieutenant Okura, was assigned to restore the discipline and morale of the Kempeis at the Iloilo Kempei Tai detachment.
Koike was the commander of the Iloilo Kempei Tai detachment until the end of the war. He formally surrendered* on September 2,* 1945 to Colonel Stanton of the 160th Infantry Regiment, Fourtieth Division.
- The Kempei Tai in the Philippines, 1941 to 1945
by Maria Felisa A. Syjuco
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