In May 1935, four Japanese soldiers were detained by Chinese army when sneaking into Zhangbei County, Chahar Province, to draw a map. Doihara took the opportunity to force Qin Dechun, head of Chahar"s Civil Affairs Department, to sign a so-called Qin-Doihara Agreement. The agreement demanded: 1. an apology from the Chinese side, while officers involved in the incident must be discharged from their posts; 2. a halt to Kuomintang"s all activities in Chahar; 3. founding of a non-armed zone in eastern Chahar, while Kuomintang"s 29th Army must be withdrawn from this area; 4. prohibition of all anti-Japanese agencies and activities in Chahar; 5. removal of Song Zheyuan from his post of Chahar"s provincial chairman.
In October 1935 Doihara moved his secret service agency to Beijing, and continued planning the "autonomy movement in north China" aiming at breaking up the country. For this purpose, according to the postwar International Military Tribunal for the Far East, he held confidential talks with Yin Rugeng, KMT administrative commissar for Luan-Yu region of eastern Hebei Province, inciting the latter to proclaim "autonomy" on November 25 in Tongxian County, establish the "Eastern Hebei Autonomous Government for Containing the Communist Party," and publish a pro-Japanese declaration. After the founding of the puppet regime in eastern Hebei, Doihara further agitated Song Zheyuan, who"s then in charge of north China"s military and political affairs, to cooperate with Yin to set up a so-called "United Autonomous Government of Five Provinces in North China." At last, with the agreement of the National Government, Song established the Hebei-Chahar Administrative Council. Doihara acted as the council"s adviser, placing many pro-Japanese elements into it.
All the above facts demonstrate that from the September 18 Incident to the start of Japan"s full-scale aggression war, Doihara had played an important role in implementing his country"s evil design to establish colonial rule in northeast China and split north China.
A "star on north China"s battleground"
In March 1937, Doihara was appointed General Officer commanding the 14th Division.
The Lugouqiao Incident broke out on July 7, 1937. Japan then launched full-scale aggression against China. On August 20, Doihara led his troops to land in Tanggu. After capturing Baoding, Shijiazhuang, Xingtai, Handan, Cixian, Daming, Anyang and Xinxiang in succession, they drove straight into the northern bank of the Yellow River. For marching with lightning speed, Doihara was acclaimed by the Japanese media as a "star on the battleground in north China."
In May 1938, Doihara led his troops to cross the Yellow River. In order to stop them from attacking Zhengzhou, Kuomintang army authorities gave orders to breach the dike in Huayuankou north of the city, which resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of Chinese people. Over 12 million therefore became destitute and homeless. Japanese force"s aggression should be blamed for this.
In June 1938, Doihara established a secret service division in Shanghai. After Wang Jingwei, a leading member of Kuomintang"s left wing, betrayed Chiang Kai-shek"s National Government in Chongqing then and fled to Shanghai in the year-end, Doihara propped him up to become head of a Japanese supported collaborationist government in Nanjing.
In 1939 Doihara was appointed General Officer commanding the 5th Army. One year later he became a member of the Supreme War Council and principal of the Japanese Military Academy concurrently. In 1941 he was promoted senior general and appointed Inspector-General of the Army Aviation. In 1943 he became Commander-in-Chief of the 7th Area Army, commanding the 29th Army stationed in Malaya, the 25th Army in Sumatra and the 16th Army in Java. He was recalled to Tokyo in 1945 to serve as Inspector-General of Military Training.
After Japan surrendered, Doihara was arrested by the Allied forces. He was tried by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East as a Class-A war criminal in November 1948 for "destroying peace," "breaking war conventions," "committing crimes against humanity" and others. On December 23, 1948, he was hanged at Sugamo Prison.