Were there any Japanese officers in the Chinese army during the Anti-Japanese War?

Yes - Sugimoto Kazuo, Kobayashi Takeo, Okada Yoshio

On January 2, 1939, in Wangjiayu Village, Wuxiang County, Shanxi Province, at a meeting held by the Eighth Route Army Frontline Headquarters At a New Year's Day celebration rally, three Japanese prisoners, Kazuo Sugimoto, Takeo Kobayashi, and Yoshio Okada, walked onto the stage and announced on the spot that they would join the Eighth Route Army. Zhu De, commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army, walked onto the stage and shook hands with them. They were the first batch of "Japanese Eighth Route Army" inspired by the captive policy of the Communist Party of China and the Eighth Route Army.

On November 7, 1939, Kazuo Sugimoto initiated the establishment of the North China Japanese Soldiers Awakening Alliance in Matian Town, Liao County, Shanxi Province (now Zuoquan County). This was the first Japanese anti-war organization established after Japanese prisoners changed their stance on the Chinese battlefield. Since then, anti-war organizations have been established one after another, spreading all over the anti-Japanese battlefields behind enemy lines. Among them, the Yan'an branch of the Japanese Anti-War Alliance in China, established under the direct leadership of Nosaka Sanzo, the representative of the Central Committee of the Japanese Communist Party, actually served as the headquarters of the Japanese anti-war organization in the entire battlefield behind enemy lines. After the anti-war organization evolved and grew from the Japanese Soldiers Awakening Alliance in North China to the Japanese Anti-War Alliance in China to the Japanese People's Liberation Alliance, by August 1945, the Communist Party had developed and established two local councils. , 4 regional conferences, 20 branches, and more than 1,000 members. From September 1945 to the first half of 1946, with the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, most members of the Japanese People's Liberation Alliance returned to China one after another, and the alliance disbanded on its own.

Brief introduction of representative figure Sugimoto Kazuo:

Sugimoto Kazuo, formerly known as Maeda Mitsushige. Born in Japan in 1916. In June 1937, he came to China with a large number of Japanese immigrants. In early 1938, he was recruited by the Civil Engineering Company of the Manchuria Railway and became a staff member of the military-affiliated Manchuria Railway. On July 29, he went to work at the Shuangmiao Station of the Jinghan Railway in Xingtai City, Hebei Province, and was captured by the Eighth Route Army on the same day. At that time, the Japanese warlords taught the army that being a prisoner of the enemy during a battle was the greatest shame. "It is better to commit suicide and die for the country than to be humiliated as a prisoner." When Kazuo Sugimoto first became a prisoner, he was placed in the temporary headquarters of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army—Wangbao Village, Shexian County, Hebei Province. His mind was filled with the question of "death or life". The Eighth Route Army soldiers told him about the "Communist Party's policy of not killing prisoners", but he couldn't listen at all. They showed him the order for preferential treatment of prisoners signed by Zhu De and Peng Dehuai. He still didn't believe it. "It will be bad if we don't kill him." Kazuo Sugimoto's words confused the Eighth Route Army cadres. "If you don't kill, then you have to commit suicide. Isn't this more cruel?" Kazuo Sugimoto said what was in his heart. The Eighth Route Army cadres patiently did his ideological work, while giving him preferential treatment in life, while pointing out his wrong views on many issues. Gradually, Sugimoto Kazuo's thoughts began to waver. He finally chose the path of life and no longer worried about whether to live or die. Later, through further reading and study, Sugimoto Kazuo began to understand: war is a war in which a few people in Japan benefit and the majority suffers; China is self-defensive, and Japan is aggressive. When he witnessed with his own eyes the great harm caused to the Chinese people by the Japanese army's burning, killing and looting during the march, he was so angry that he was shaking all over and felt as ashamed as if he had done bad things himself. He decided to side with the Chinese people and oppose this barbaric war. Due to work needs, Kazuo Sugimoto returned to Japan in 1958. He was considered a dangerous red element and could not find a suitable job, so he had to do odd jobs. Until he was 80 years old, he was still working as a boiler burner with little income. He often participated in Sino-Japanese friendship activities, talked about his unique experiences everywhere, talked about the crimes of the Japanese invasion of China, talked about the humanitarianism of the Eighth Route Army, and wrote a lot of articles in newspapers and periodicals. In 1984, he and another veteran of the Anti-War Alliance, Takashi Kagawa, co-authored a book "Japanese Soldiers of the Eighth Route Army", which truly reflected their experiences in China. On August 18, 1995, Kazuo Sugimoto, as the leader, led an 8-member "Friendly Visit to China Delegation of Members of the Japanese Anti-War Alliance" to Beijing for a visit. Now, the old man has retired and lives on a pension, living a very simple life.