Matsui Iwane, born on 27-07-1878, in Nagoya, 
the sixth son of Takekuni Matsui, an impoverished samurai and former retainer to the daimyō of Owari during the Tokugawa shogunate. A daimyō is a Japanese warlord belonging to the samurai class. After completing elementary school, his parents insisted that he continue his education, but Matsui worried about his father’s debts and did not want to burden him financially. Though he was a short, thin, and sickly young man, Matsui opted for a career in the Army, because in Japan at that time military schools charged the lowest tuition fees.
Matsui enrolled in the Central Military Preparatory School 
in 1893 and in 1896 was accepted into the Imperial Japanese Army Academy. 
Matsui was an excellent student and graduated second in his class in November, 1897. His classmates included the future Generals Jinzaburō Masaki, 
Nobuyuki Abe, 
Shigeru Honjō, 
and Sadao Araki. 
Matsui fought in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, and graduated from the 18th class of the Army Staff College in 1906. He became commanding officer of the 29th Regiment from 1919 to 1921. From 1921 to 1922, Matsui was attached to the Vladivostok Expeditionary Force Staff for the Japanese Siberian Intervention against Bolshevik Red Army forces in eastern Russia. From 1922 to 1924, he was transferred to military intelligence and made head of the Harbin Special Services Agency in Manchuria. Matsui was then made commanding officer of the IJA 35th Infantry Brigade 
until 1925. From those posts he was sent to be head of the 2nd Bureau of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff from 1925 to 1928, then attached to the Army General Staff until 1929 when he was promoted to Major General and assigned command of the IJA 11th Division until 1931. From 1931 to 1932, Matsui was a member of the Japanese delegation to the Geneva Disarmament Conference and then again attached to the Army General Staff until 1933. Matsui attained the rank of General in 1933, and was appointed a member of the Supreme War Council until 1935, except for the period from 1933 to 1934 when he was Commander in Chief of the Taiwan Army. In 1933 he became one of the initiators of “Greater Asia Association”, and also established a “Taiwan-Asia Association”. He was also awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, 1st class 
for his career efforts, and went into retirement from active military service in 1935.
However, with the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Matsui was recalled to duty on 15-08-1937 to become the commander of the Japanese Shanghai Expeditionary Force (SEF) during the Battle of Shanghai. On leaving the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, Matsui remarked to War Minister Hajime Sugiyama 
that: “There’s no solution except to break the power of Chiang Kai-shek by capturing Nanking. That is what I must do.”
On 23 August, the SEF arrived in Shanghai, and was reinforced with the Japanese Tenth Army commanded by Lieutenant General Heisuke Yanagawa 
later in October. On 7 November, Japanese Central China Area Army (CCAA) was organized by combining the SEF and the 10th Army, with Matsui appointed as its commander-in-chief concurrently with that of the SEF. After winning the battles around Shanghai, the SEF suggested the Imperial General Headquarters in Tokyo to attack Nanking. The CCAA was rearranged and Lieutenant General Prince Asaka (Yasuhiko), 
an uncle of Emperor Hirohito, 
was appointed as the commander of the SEF, while Matsui stayed as the commander of CCAA overseeing both the SEF and the 10th Army. The real nature of Matsui’s authority is however difficult to establish as he was confronted with a member of the imperial family directly appointed by the Emperor. In anticipation of the attack on Nanking, Matsui issued orders to his armies that read:
Nanking is the capital of China and the capture thereof is an international affair; therefore, careful study should be made so as to exhibit the honor and glory of Japan and augment the trust of the Chinese people, and that the battle in the vicinity of Shanghai is aimed at the subjugation of the Chinese Army, therefore protect and patronize Chinese officials and people, as afar as possible; the Army should always bear in mind not to involve foreign residents and armies in trouble and maintain close liaison with foreign authorities in order to avoid misunderstandings.
On 10-12-1937, the SEF began its attack on Nanking, and the Kuomintang forces that remained surrendered on 13-12-1937. The Nanking massacre began immediately afterwards. Matsui and Asaka marched triumphantly into Nanking on 17-12-1937. Western countries generally recognize the estimate of 300,000 deaths. In part this is due to eyewitness accounts and surviving photographs and archaeological research. On this basis, the Tokyo Trial deemed the massacre proven. The success of Iris Chang’s The Rape of Nanking increased the fame of the massacre in the West and the estimate of 300,000 deaths. 
While Matsui himself was not present during the beginning of the atrocities (he was ill at the time), he was aware of what his men were doing in the city, as were members of the Japanese foreign service who had followed the army into the city. Word began to trickle out of Nanking, and growing pressure was placed on the Imperial government to recall the SEF’s officers.
Death and burial ground of Iwane Matsui.
Arrested by the American occupation authorities after the surrender of Japan, Matsui was charged with war crimes in connection with the actions of the Japanese army in China. In 1948, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) 
found him guilty of class B and C war crimes, and he, who was married to his wife Shizuko, 
in London, 1909. was hanged that December at Sugamo Prison, 
alongside six others, including Hideki Tōjō. He was 70 at the time of his death.
In court, Muto straightforwardly admitted that what the prosecutors dubbed “the Rape of Nanking” took place. There were many other Japanese witnesses who acknowledged that there were excesses of Japanese troops in Nanking, though their perceptions as to the scale of the atrocities varied.
Among the most candid witnesses was Ishii Itaro, the East Asia Bureau chief of the Foreign Ministry. He testified that he was briefed about the rape, arson, looting, and murders from Foreign Ministry offices in Nanjing and Shanghai. In his autobiography, Ishii wrote that he and Foreign Minister Hirota Koki
had warned the Army many times to take action.
On 23-10-1948, Matsui, along with 6 other military and political leaders, was executed by hanging. His body was cremated. Iwane Matsui is buried at the Yasukuni Jinja ShrineChiyoda-ku, Tokyo Metropolis, Japan.
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