Hiroshi Nemoto (根本 博, June 6, 1891 – May 24, 1966) was a lieutenant general for Japan[1] who served in the Second World War and the Battle of Guningtou.

Born in Fukushima Prefecture, he served in the Imperial Japanese Army and the Republic of China Armed Forces.

When Japan surrendered in World War II, he served as the commanding officer of the garrison in Mengjiang (modern-day Inner Mongolia).

Under the attack of the Soviet Army, he still resisted, protecting 40,000 Japanese nationals stranded near Zhangjiakou in Inner Mongolia.

After the Huanggutun incident took place in June 1928, he began to specialize in solving the Manchuria-Mongolia problem, conducting research and proposing plans for the nation.

Later, he joined a group led by Kanji Ishiwara, Teiichi Suzuki, Keisaku Murakami, Akira Mutō and composing mainly of youth officers.

In May 1929, the group aimed at military reform and personnel refreshment, separation of commanding power from state affairs, and establishment of a legitimate national general mobilization system.

In order to protect the 40,000 Japanese immigrants stranded in the area, he issued this order to the Japanese defense team:[6] Regardless of reason, the Soviet forces that invade us will be killed, and all responsibility for this will be borne by me, the commander.During the desperate guarding of the trains and routes used by civilians, several attempts were made to negotiate a ceasefire with the Soviets.

After the Eighth Route Army of the Chinese Communist Party also came to help the Soviets, Nemoto fought more vigorously to block the attacks.

On the other hand, the 40,000 civilians who fled from Inner Mongolia on August 20 arrived in Tianjin after a three-day trek, and boarded a ship to return to Japan.

Arriving in Keelung on July 10, the local gendarmerie and police officers were unaware of the situation, so the people who sailed on the ship were imprisoned.

Nemoto was transferred from Taiwan to Xiamen on August 18, under the pseudonym "Lin Baoyuan" ("Yuan", meaning "the root") and was appointed Lieutenant General.

[11][12][13] At that time, the general convener of the Kuomintang and the Paidan in Japan, Yasuji Okamura, considered recruiting the Japanese army to defend the attack of the People's Republic of China again.

Later, it was widely reported by the international media under the name "Taiwan Recruitment Issue", which aroused the attention of the Allied Command in Japan and declared abortion.

[14] In addition, before their return to Japan, Lieutenant General Huang Yibing, the Deputy Secretary of Defense of the Republic of China, stated in front of the media as "the representative of the Ministry of National Defense" said: "In the Battle of Guningtou in the past, we thank the Japanese friends for their assistance."

By then, the government of the Republic of China finally officially announced the participation of the Japanese in the Battle of Guningtou.