The Japanese Southern China Area Army was largely a garrison force controlling Japanese-occupied Guangdong and Guangxi Provinces.

In the midst of diplomatic negotiations between Japan and its ally, Vichy France over access to air strips and seaports in French Indochina, Andō took independent initiative and ordered his forces across the border, without prior authorization from the government in Tokyo.

The unauthorized invasion of French Indochina created a diplomatic confrontation with the West and the imposition of an American oil embargo against Japan.

In the fall of 1941, Andō was recalled to service, promoted to full general, and given command of the Japanese Tenth Area Army in Taiwan.

[3] Arrested by Chinese authorities and charged with war crimes from his tenure in China, Andō committed suicide by taking poison while in prison in Shanghai before he could go to trial.