1.
Empire of Japan
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The Empire of Japan was the historical Japanese nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 to the enactment of the 1947 constitution of modern Japan. Imperial Japans rapid industrialization and militarization under the slogan Fukoku Kyōhei led to its emergence as a world power, after several large-scale military successes during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War, the Empire also gained notoriety for its war crimes against the peoples it conquered. A period of occupation by the Allies followed the surrender, Occupation and reconstruction continued well into the 1950s, eventually forming the current nation-state whose full title is the State of Japan or simply rendered Japan in English. The historical state is referred to as the Empire of Japan or the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan in English. In Japanese it is referred to as Dai Nippon Teikoku, which translates to Greater Japanese Empire and this is analogous to Großdeutsches Reich, a term that translates to Greater German Empire in English and Dai Doitsu Teikoku in Japanese. This meaning is significant in terms of geography, encompassing Japan, due to its name in kanji characters and its flag, it was also given the exonym Empire of the Sun. After two centuries, the policy, or Sakoku, under the shoguns of the Edo period came to an end when the country was forced open to trade by the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854. The following years saw increased trade and interaction, commercial treaties between the Tokugawa shogunate and Western countries were signed. In large part due to the terms of these Unequal Treaties, the Shogunate soon faced internal hostility, which materialized into a radical, xenophobic movement. In March 1863, the Emperor issued the order to expel barbarians, although the Shogunate had no intention of enforcing the order, it nevertheless inspired attacks against the Shogunate itself and against foreigners in Japan. The Namamugi Incident during 1862 led to the murder of an Englishman, Charles Lennox Richardson, the British demanded reparations but were denied. While attempting to exact payment, the Royal Navy was fired on from coastal batteries near the town of Kagoshima and they responded by bombarding the port of Kagoshima in 1863. For Richardsons death, the Tokugawa government agreed to pay an indemnity, shelling of foreign shipping in Shimonoseki and attacks against foreign property led to the Bombardment of Shimonoseki by a multinational force in 1864. The Chōshū clan also launched the coup known as the Kinmon incident. The Satsuma-Chōshū alliance was established in 1866 to combine their efforts to overthrow the Tokugawa bakufu, in early 1867, Emperor Kōmei died of smallpox and was replaced by his son, Crown Prince Mutsuhito. On November 9,1867, Tokugawa Yoshinobu resigned from his post and authorities to the Emperor, however, while Yoshinobus resignation had created a nominal void at the highest level of government, his apparatus of state continued to exist. On January 3,1868, Satsuma-Chōshū forces seized the palace in Kyoto. On January 17,1868, Yoshinobu declared that he would not be bound by the proclamation of the Restoration, on January 24, Yoshinobu decided to prepare an attack on Kyoto, occupied by Satsuma and Chōshū forces
2.
Imperial Japanese Army
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The Imperial Japanese Army or IJA, literally Army of the Greater Japanese Empire, was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan, from 1871 to 1945. Later an Inspectorate General of Military Aviation became the agency with oversight of the army. During the Meiji Restoration, the forces loyal to Emperor Meiji were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist daimyōs of Satsuma. This central army, the Imperial Japanese Army, became even more essential after the abolition of the han system in 1871. One of the differences between the samurai and the peasant class was the right to bear arms, this ancient privilege was suddenly extended to every male in the nation. In 1878, the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office, based on the German General Staff, was established directly under the Emperor and was given broad powers for military planning and strategy. The Japanese invasion of Taiwan under Qing rule in 1874 was an expedition by Japanese military forces in response to the Mudan Incident of December 1871. The Paiwan people, who are indigenous peoples of Taiwan, murdered 54 crewmembers of a merchant vessel from the Ryukyu Kingdom on the southwestern tip of Taiwan. 12 men were rescued by the local Chinese-speaking community and were transferred to Miyako-jima in the Ryukyu Islands and it marked the first overseas deployment of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy. Not surprisingly, the new led to a series of riots from disgruntled samurai. One of the riots, led by Saigō Takamori, was the Satsuma Rebellion. Thenceforth, the military existed in an intimate and privileged relationship with the imperial institution, top-ranking military leaders were given direct access to the Emperor and the authority to transmit his pronouncements directly to the troops. The sympathetic relationship between conscripts and officers, particularly junior officers who were mostly from the peasantry, tended to draw the military closer to the people. In time, most people came to look more for guidance in matters more to military than to political leaders. By the 1890s, the Imperial Japanese Army had grown to become the most modern army in Asia, well-trained, well-equipped, however, it was basically an infantry force deficient in cavalry and artillery when compared with its European contemporaries. The Sino-Japanese War would come to symbolize the weakness of the military of the Qing dynasty and this was the result by Japans 120, 000-strong western-style conscript army of two armies and five divisions, which was well-equipped and well-trained when compared with their Qing counterparts. The Treaty of Shimonoseki made the Qing defeat official, with a shift in regional dominance in Asia from China to Japan. In 1899–1900, Boxer attacks against foreigners in China intensified eventually resulting in the siege of the legations in Beijing
3.
Infantry
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Infantry is the general branch of an army that engages in military combat on foot. As the troops who engage with the enemy in close-ranged combat, infantry units bear the largest brunt of warfare, Infantry can enter and maneuver in terrain that is inaccessible to military vehicles and employ crew-served infantry weapons that provide greater and more sustained firepower. In English, the 16th-century term Infantry describes soldiers who walk to the battlefield, and there engage, fight, the term arose in Sixteenth-Century Spain, which boasted one of the first professional standing armies seen in Europe since the days of Rome. It was common to appoint royal princes to military commands, and the men under them became known as Infanteria. in the Canadian Army, the role of the infantry is to close with, and destroy the enemy. In the U. S. Army, the closes with the enemy, by means of fire and maneuver, in order to destroy or capture him, or to repel his assault by fire, close combat. In the U. S. Marine Corps, the role of the infantry is to locate, close with, and destroy the enemy fire and maneuver. Beginning with the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century, artillery has become a dominant force on the battlefield. Since World War I, combat aircraft and armoured vehicles have become dominant. In 20th and 21st century warfare, infantry functions most effectively as part of a combined arms team including artillery, armour, Infantry relies on organized formations to be employed in battle. These have evolved over time, but remain a key element to effective infantry development and deployment, until the end of the 19th century, infantry units were for the most part employed in close formations up until contact with the enemy. This allowed commanders to control of the unit, especially while maneuvering. The development of guns and other weapons with increased firepower forced infantry units to disperse in order to make them less vulnerable to such weapons. This decentralization of command was made possible by improved communications equipment, among the various subtypes of infantry is Medium infantry. This refers to infantry which are heavily armed and armored than heavy infantry. In the early period, medium infantry were largely eliminated due to discontinued use of body armour up until the 20th century. In the United States Army, Stryker Infantry is considered Medium Infantry, since they are heavier than light infantry, Infantry doctrine is the concise expression of how infantry forces contribute to campaigns, major operations, battles, and engagements. It is a guide to action, not a set of hard, doctrine provides a very common frame of reference across the military forces, allowing the infantry to function cooperatively in what are now called combined arms operations. Doctrine helps standardise operations, facilitating readiness by establishing common ways of accomplishing infantry tasks, doctrine links theory, history, experimentation, and practice
4.
Russo-Japanese War
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The Russo-Japanese War was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and Korea. The major theatres of operations were the Liaodong Peninsula and Mukden in Southern Manchuria and the seas around Korea, Japan, Russia sought a warm-water port on the Pacific Ocean for their navy and for maritime trade. Vladivostok was operational only during the summer, whereas Port Arthur, since the end of the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, Japan feared Russian encroachment on its sphere of influence. Russia had demonstrated an expansionist policy in the Siberian Far East from the reign of Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century, through threat of Russian expansion, Japan offered to recognize Russian dominance in Manchuria in exchange for recognition of Korea as being within the Japanese sphere of influence. Russia refused and demanded Korea north of the 39th parallel to be a buffer zone between Russia and Japan. The Japanese government perceived a Russian threat to its strategic interests, after negotiations broke down in 1904, the Japanese Navy opened hostilities by attacking the Russian Eastern Fleet at Port Arthur, China, in a surprise attack. The war concluded with the Treaty of Portsmouth, mediated by US President Theodore Roosevelt, the complete victory of the Japanese military surprised world observers. The consequences transformed the balance of power in East Asia, resulting in a reassessment of Japans recent entry onto the world stage and it was the first major military victory in the modern era of an Asian power over a European one. Scholars continue to debate the historical significance of the war, after the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the Meiji government endeavored to assimilate Western ideas, technological advances and ways of warfare. By the late 19th century, Japan had transformed itself into an industrial state. The Japanese wanted to be recognized as equal with the Western powers, the Meiji restoration had always been intended to make Japan a modernized state, not a Westernized one, and Japan was always an imperialist power, looking towards overseas expansionism. By the 1890s it had extended its realm across Central Asia to Afghanistan, the Russian Empire stretched from Poland in the west to the Kamchatka Peninsula in the east. With its construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway to the port of Vladivostok, in the Tsushima incident of 1861 Russia had directly assaulted Japanese territory. Between the Meiji Restoration and its participation in World War I, the first war Japan fought was the First Sino-Japanese War, fought in 1894 and 1895. The war revolved around the issue of control and influence over Korea under the rule of the Joseon dynasty, from the 1880s onward, there had been vigorous competition for influence in Korea between China and Japan. The Korean court was prone to factionalism, and was divided by a reformist faction that was pro-Japanese. In 1884, a coup attempt was put down by Chinese troops. A peasant rebellion led by the Tonghak religious movement led to a request by the Korean government for the Qing dynasty to send in troops to stabilize the country
5.
Second Sino-Japanese War
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The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan from July 7,1937 to September 9,1945. The First Sino-Japanese War was fought from 1894 to 1895, China fought Japan, with some economic help from Germany, the Soviet Union and the United States. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the war merged into the conflict of World War II as a major front of what is broadly known as the Pacific War. Many scholars consider the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 to have been the beginning of World War II, the Second Sino-Japanese War was the largest Asian war in the 20th century. The war was the result of a decades-long Japanese imperialist policy to expand its influence politically and militarily in order to access to raw material reserves, food. The period after World War One brought about increasing stress on the Japanese polity, leftists sought universal suffrage and greater rights for workers. Increasing textile production from Chinese mills was adversely affecting Japanese production, the Depression brought about a large slowdown in exports. All of this contributed to militant nationalism, culminating in the rise to power of a militarist fascist faction and this faction was led at its height by the Imperial Rule Assistance Associations Hideki Tojo cabinet under the edict from Emperor Shōwa. Before 1937, China and Japan fought in small, localized engagements, the last of these incidents was the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937, which is traditionally seen as the beginning of total war between the two countries. Since 2017 the Chinese Government has regarded the invasion of Manchuria by the Kwantung Army in 1931, initially the Japanese scored major victories, such as the Battle of Shanghai, and by the end of 1937 captured the Chinese capital of Nanjing. After failing to stop the Japanese in Wuhan, the Chinese central government was relocated to Chongqing in the Chinese interior, by 1939, after Chinese victories in Changsha and Guangxi, and with Japans lines of communications stretched deep into the Chinese interior, the war reached a stalemate. The Japanese were also unable to defeat the Chinese communist forces in Shaanxi, on December 7,1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and the following day the United States declared war on Japan. The United States began to aid China via airlift matériel over the Himalayas after the Allied defeat in Burma that closed the Burma Road, in 1944 Japan launched the invasion, Operation Ichi-Go, that conquered Henan and Changsha. However, this failed to bring about the surrender of Chinese forces, in 1945, the Chinese Expeditionary Force resumed its advance in Burma and completed the Ledo Road linking India to China. At the same time, China launched large counteroffensives in South China and retook the west Hunan, the remaining Japanese occupation forces formally surrendered on September 9,1945 with the following International Military Tribunal for the Far East convened on April 29,1946. China was recognized as one of the Big Four of Allies during the war, in the Chinese language, the war is most commonly known as the War of Resistance Against Japan, and also known as the Eight Years War of Resistance, simply War of Resistance. It is also referred to as part of the Global Anti-Fascist War, which is how World War 2 is perceived by the Communist Party of China, in Japan, nowadays, the name Japan–China War is most commonly used because of its perceived objectivity. In Japan today, it is written as 日中戦争 in shinjitai, the word incident was used by Japan, as neither country had made a formal declaration of war
6.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
7.
Third Army (Japan)
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The Japanese 3rd Army was initially raised during the Russo-Japanese War under the command of General Nogi Maresuke. In the initial stages of the war, its mission was the Siege of Port Arthur. After the fall of that Russian stronghold, it was transferred north and it was disbanded at the end of the war. The Japanese 3rd Army was raised again on January 13,1938 in Manchukuo as a force to guard the eastern borders against possible incursions by the Soviet Red Army. It afterwards came under the command of the Japanese First Area Army in July 1942, as the war situation deteriorated for the Japanese in southeast Asia, the more experienced units and much of the equipment of the IJA 3rd Army were transferred to other units. Downfall, The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire, Japanese Armed Forces Order of Battle, 1937-1945. The Pacific War Companion, From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima, the Soviet Strategic Offensive in Manchuria,1945. Lt. Col. David Glantz, August Storm, The Soviet 1945 Strategic Offensive in Manchuria, Leavenworth Paper No.7, Command and General Staff College, kwantung Army Order of Battle 30 July 1945 Wendel, Marcus
8.
Division (military)
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A division is a large military unit or formation, usually consisting of between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers. Infantry divisions during the World Wars ranged between 10,000 and 30,000 in nominal strength, in most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, in turn, several divisions typically make up a corps. In the West, the first general to think of organising an army into smaller units was Maurice de Saxe, Marshal General of France. He died at the age of 54, without having implemented his idea, victor-François de Broglie put the ideas into practice. He conducted successful practical experiments of the system in the Seven Years War. The first war in which the system was used systematically was the French Revolutionary War. It made the more flexible and easy to manoeuvre. Under Napoleon, the divisions were grouped together into corps, because of their increasing size, napoleons military success spread the divisional and corps system all over Europe, by the end of the Napoleonic Wars, all armies in Europe had adopted it. In modern times, most military forces have standardized their divisional structures, the peak use of the division as the primary combat unit occurred during World War II, when the belligerents deployed over a thousand divisions. With technological advances since then, the power of each division has increased. Divisions are often formed to organize units of a particular type together with support units to allow independent operations. In more recent times, divisions have mainly been organized as combined arms units with subordinate units representing various combat arms, in this case, the division often retains the name of a more specialized division, and may still be tasked with a primary role suited to that specialization. For the most part, large cavalry units did not remain after World War II, in general, two new types of cavalry were developed, air cavalry or airmobile, relying on helicopter mobility, and armored cavalry, based on an autonomous armored formation. The former was pioneered by the 11th Air Assault Division, formed on 1 February 1963 at Fort Benning, on 29 June 1965 the division was renamed as the 1st Cavalry Division, before its departure for the Vietnam War. After the end of the Vietnam War, the 1st Cavalry Division was reorganised and re-equipped with tanks, the development of the tank during World War I prompted some nations to experiment with forming them into division-size units. Many did this the way as they did cavalry divisions, by merely replacing cavalry with AFVs. This proved unwieldy in combat, as the units had many tanks, instead, a more balanced approach was taken by adjusting the number of tank, infantry, artillery, and support units. A panzer division was a division of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS of Germany during World War II
9.
First Sino-Japanese War
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The First Sino-Japanese War was fought between the Qing Empire of China and the Empire of Japan, primarily over influence of Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the Chinese port of Weihaiwei, the Qing government sued for peace in February 1895. The war demonstrated the failure of the Qing Empires attempts to modernize its military and fend off threats to its sovereignty, especially when compared with Japans successful Meiji Restoration. For the first time, regional dominance in East Asia shifted from China to Japan, the humiliating loss of Korea as a tributary state sparked an unprecedented public outcry. Within China, the defeat was a catalyst for a series of political upheavals led by Sun Yat-sen and Kang Youwei, the war is commonly known in China as the War of Jiawu, referring to the year as named under the traditional sexagenary system of years. In Japan, it is called the Japan–Qing War, in Korea, where much of the war took place, it is called the Qing–Japan War. After two centuries, the Japanese policy of seclusion under the shoguns of the Edo period came to an end when the country was forced open to trade by British and American intervention in 1854. The years following the Meiji Restoration of 1868 and the fall of the Shogunate had seen Japan transform itself from a society into a modern industrial state. The Japanese had sent delegations and students around the world to learn and assimilate Western arts and sciences, Korea continued to try to exclude foreigners, refusing embassies from foreign countries and firing on ships near its shores. At the start of the war, Japan had the benefit of three decades of reform, leaving Korea outdated and vulnerable, as a newly risen power, Japan turned its attention toward its neighbor, Korea. Japan wanted to block any other power from annexing or dominating Korea, as Prussian advisor Major Klemens Meckel put it to the Japanese, Korea was a dagger pointed at the heart of Japan. On February 27,1876, after confrontations between Korean isolationists and Japanese, Japan imposed the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876, forcing Korea open to Japanese trade. Similar treaties were signed between Korea and other nations, Korea had traditionally been a tributary state of Chinas Qing Empire, which exerted large influence over the conservative Korean officials who gathered around the royal family of the Joseon kingdom. Opinion in Korea itself was split, conservatives wanted to retain the traditional relationship under China, while reformists wanted to approach Japan and Western nations. After fighting two Opium Wars against the British in 1839 and 1856, and another war against the French in 1885, Japan saw the opportunity to take Chinas place in the strategically vital Korea. In 1882, the Korean peninsula experienced a drought which led to food shortages, causing much hardship. Korea was on the verge of bankruptcy, even falling months behind on military pay, on July 23, a military mutiny and riot broke out in Seoul in which troops, assisted by the population, sacked the rice granaries. The next morning, the crowd attacked the palace and barracks
10.
Shikoku
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Shikoku is the smallest and least populous of the four main islands of Japan, located south of Honshu and east of the island of Kyushu. Its ancient names include Iyo-no-futana-shima, Iyo-shima, and Futana-shima, the current name refers to the four former provinces that made up the island, Awa, Tosa, Sanuki, and Iyo. Shikoku island, comprising Shikoku and its islets, covers about 18,800 square kilometres and consists of four prefectures, Ehime, Kagawa, Kōchi. Across the Inland Sea lie Wakayama, Osaka, Hyōgo, Okayama, Hiroshima, to the west lie Ōita and Miyazaki Prefectures on Kyushu. The 50th largest island by area in the world, Shikoku is smaller than Sardinia and Bananal, by population, it ranks 23rd, having fewer inhabitants than Sicily or Singapore, but more than Puerto Rico or Negros. Mountains running east and west divide Shikoku into a narrow northern subregion, fronting on the Inland Sea, most of the 4.5 million inhabitants live in the north, and all but one of the islands few larger cites are located there. Mount Ishizuchi in Ehime at 1,982 m is the highest mountain on the island, industry is moderately well developed and includes the processing of ores from the important Besshi copper mine. Wide alluvial areas, especially in the part of the zone, are planted with rice and subsequently are double cropped with winter wheat. Fruit is grown throughout the area in great variety, including citrus fruits, persimmons, peaches. Because of wheat production Sanuki udon became an important part of the diet in Kagawa Prefecture in the Edo period, the larger southern area of Shikoku is mountainous and sparsely populated. The only significant lowland is an alluvial plain at Kōchi. The areas mild winters stimulated some truck farming, specializing in growing out-of-season vegetables under plastic covering, two crops of rice can be cultivated annually in the southern area. The pulp and paper industry took advantage of the abundant forests, the major river in Shikoku is the Yoshino River. It runs 196 km from its close to Mount Ishizuchi, flowing basically west to east across the northern boundaries of Kōchi and Tokushima Prefectures. The Yoshino is famous for Japans best white-water rafting, with trips going along the Oboke Koboke sections of the river, gamōda in Anan, Tokushima is the easternmost point on the island, and Sada in Ikata, Ehime the westernmost. Muroto in Muroto, Kōchi and Ashizuri, the extreme of Shikoku, in Tosashimizu, Kōchi. The islands northernmost point is in Takamatsu, Kagawa, unlike the other three major islands of Japan, Shikoku has no volcanoes. Shikoku is connected to Honshu by three expressways, which form the Honshū–Shikoku Bridge Project
11.
Nogi Maresuke
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Count Nogi Maresuke, also known as Kiten, Count Nogi, was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army and a governor of Taiwan. He was one of the commanders during the 1894 capture of Port Arthur from China and he was a prominent figure in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05, as commander of the forces which captured Port Arthur from the Russians. He was a hero in Imperial Japan as a model of feudal loyalty and self-sacrifice. In the Satsuma Rebellion, he lost a banner of the emperor in battle, for which he tried to atone with suicidal bravery in order to recapture it, until ordered to stop. In the Russo-Japanese War, he captured Port Arthur but he felt that he had lost too many of his soldiers, so requested permission to commit suicide, which the emperor refused. These two events, as well as his desire not to outlive his master, motivated his suicide on the day of the funeral of the Emperor Meiji and his example revitalized the Japanese tradition of ritual suicide. Nogi was born as the son of a samurai at the Edo residence and he was born on 11 November 1849, according to the old Japanese lunar calendar, or Christmas day, according to the new one. His childhood name was Mujin, literally no one, to prevent evil spirits from coming to harm him, on turning 18, he was renamed Nogi Bunzō. In November 1869, by the order of the Nagato domains lord, after completing the training, he was reassigned to the Kawatō Barrack in Kyoto as an instructor, and then as Toyōra domains Army trainer in charge of coastal defense troops. In 1871, Nogi was commissioned as a major in the fledgling Imperial Japanese Army, around this time, he renamed himself Maresuke taking a kanji from the name of his father. In 1875, he became the 14th Infantry Regiments attaché, in a fierce battle at that time, he lost the 14th Infantry Regiment’s regimental banner to the enemy, which was considered to be the property of the Emperor. Its loss was an extreme disgrace, Nogi considered this such a grave mistake that he listed it as one of the reasons for his later suicide. On 27 August 1876, Nogi married Shizuko, the daughter of Satsuma samurai Yuji Sadano. As Nogi was 28 years old, it was a late marriage for that time. On 28 August 1877, their first son Katsunori was born, in 1879, his second son Yasunori, was born. He was promoted to colonel on 29 April 1880, promoted major general on 21 May 1885, in 1887 Nogi went to Germany with Kawakami Soroku to study European military strategy and tactics. As such, he was a commander during the Port Arthur massacre. The following year, he was promoted to lieutenant general and assigned to the Second Division, Nogi remained with the occupation forces in Taiwan until 1898
12.
Siberian Intervention
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The Imperial Japanese Army continued to occupy Siberia even after other Allied forces withdrew in 1920. Following the Russian October Revolution of 1917, the new Bolshevik government signed a treaty with Germany. Faced with these concerns, the United Kingdom and France decided on military intervention in the Russian Civil War against the Bolshevik government. In the same month, the Beiyang government of the Republic of China accepted an invitation by the Chinese community in Russia, the Chinese later occupied Outer Mongolia and Tuva and sent a battalion to the North Russian Campaign as part of their anti-Bolshevik efforts. The British, short on personnel, only deployed 1,500 troops to Siberia and these men came from the 1/9th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment and the 25th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment. The Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force, commanded by Major General James H. Elmsley, composed of 4,192 soldiers, the force returned to Canada between April and June 1919. Most Canadians remained in Vladivostok, undertaking routine drill and policing duties in the port city. At the request of Chinese merchants,2300 Chinese troops were sent to Vladivostok to protect Chinese interests there, the Chinese army fought against both Bolsheviks and Cossacks. The Corpo di Spedizione Italiano in Estremo Oriente was made of Alpini troops, supported by 2,500 Italian ex-POWs who had fought in the Austro-Hungarian Army, the main areas of operation were the Irkutsk, Harbin and Vladivostok regions. The Japanese were initially asked in 1917 by the French to intervene in Russia, the Japanese government in the beginning refused to undertake such an expedition and it was not until the following year that events were set in motion that led to a change in this policy. Once the political decision had been reached, the Imperial Japanese Army took over full control under Chief of Staff Yui Mitsueh, the American Expeditionary Force Siberia was commanded by Major General William S. Graves and eventually totaled 7,950 officers and enlisted men. The AEF Siberia included the U. S. Armys 27th and 31st Infantry Regiments, plus large numbers of volunteers from the 13th, to operate the Trans-Siberian railroad, the Russian Railway Service Corps was formed of US personnel. Although General Graves did not arrive in Siberia until September 4,1918 and they were quickly assigned guard duty along segments of the railway between Vladivostok and Nikolsk-Ussuriski in the north. The joint Allied intervention began in August 1918, the Japanese entered through Vladivostok and points along the Manchurian border with more than 70,000 Japanese troops being involved. The deployment of a force for a rescue expedition made the Allies wary of Japanese intentions. On September 5, the Japanese linked up with the vanguard of the Czechoslovak Legion, the Japanese, with their own objectives in mind, refused to proceed west of Lake Baikal and stayed behind. The Americans, suspicious of Japanese intentions, also stayed behind to keep an eye on the Japanese, by November, the Japanese occupied all ports and major towns in the Russian Maritime Provinces and in Siberia east of the city of Chita. With the end of the war in Europe, the Allies decided to support the anti-Bolshevik White forces, Allied army support was given to Admiral Kolchaks White government at Omsk, while the Japanese continued to support Kolchaks rivals in Grigory Semyonov and Ivan Kalmykov
13.
Tsuchiya Mitsuharu
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Baron Tsuchiya Mitsuharu was a general in the early Imperial Japanese Army. Tsuchiya was born as the son to a samurai family named Watari of the Okazaki Domain. He participated in the suppression of the Saga Rebellion and the Satsuma Rebellion, during the First Sino-Japanese War, Tsuchiya served on the staff of the Imperial General Headquarters. After the war, he commanded the IJA 27th Infantry Brigade, the IJA 1st Taiwan Reserve Combined Brigade, in 1902, he was promoted to lieutenant general. After the start of the Russo-Japanese War, Tsuchiya was given command of the IJA 11th Infantry Division under General Nogi Maresuke’s Japanese Third Army at the Siege of Port Arthur. His forces took heavy casualties, and Tsuchiya himself was wounded by a gunshot to the head while leading his troops in combat, after a period back in Japan to recover, he returned to Manchuria as commander of the newly formed IJA 14th Infantry Division. In September 1907, Tsuchiya was ennobled with the title of baron under the kazoku peerage system, in December 1908, Tsuchiya became commander of the IJA 4th Infantry Division. On 28 August 1910, he was promoted to general, and he retired on 1 April 1915, and died after illness in November 1920. His son, Tsuchiya Mitsukane was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during the First Sino-Japanese War and Russo-Japanese War. Historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War
14.
Siege of Port Arthur
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The Siege of Port Arthur, the deep-water port and Russian naval base at the tip of the Liaodong Peninsula in Manchuria, was the longest and most violent land battle of the Russo-Japanese War. Port Arthur was widely regarded as one of the most strongly fortified positions in the world at the time, however, during the First Sino-Japanese War, General Nogi Maresuke had taken the city from the forces of Qing China in only a few days. The Russian forces manning the defenses of Port Arthur under Major-General Baron Anatoly Stoessel consisted of almost 50,000 men and 506 guns and he also had the option of removing the guns from the fleet to bolster the land defenses. The total population of Port Arthur at the time was around 87,000, Russian improvements to the defences of Port Arthur included a multi-perimeter layout with overlapping fields of fire and making the best possible use of the natural terrain. All of these hills were heavily fortified, approximately 1.5 kilometers behind this defensive line was the original stone Chinese wall, which encircled the Old Town of Lushun from the south to the Lun-ho River at the northwest. General Stoessel withdrew to Port Arthur on July 30,1904, facing the Russians was the Japanese Third Army, about 150,000 strong, backed by 474 artillery guns, under the command of General Baron Nogi Maresuke. The shelling of Port Arthur began on August 7,1904, by a pair of land-based 4. 7-inch guns, and was carried on intermittently until August 19,1904. These hills were not heavily fortified, but had steep slopes and were fronted by the Ta River, which had been dammed by the Russians to provide a stronger obstacle. The hills commanded a view over almost a kilometer of flat ground to the Japanese lines, the Japanese were able to advance only as far as the forward slopes of both hills, and many soldiers drowned in the Ta River. Even night attacks resulted in high casualties, as the Russians used powerful searchlights to expose the attackers to artillery and machine gun cross-fire. Undeterred, Nogi resumed artillery bombardment the following day, August 8,1904, but his assault stalled again. Nogi ordered his men to press on regardless of casualties, takushan was captured at 20,00, and the following morning, August 9,1904, Hsiaokushan also fell to the Japanese. Gaining these two hills cost the Japanese 1,280 killed and wounded, vitgeft put to sea at 08,30 on August 10,1904, and engaged the waiting Japanese under Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō in what was to become known as the Battle of the Yellow Sea. On August 11,1904, the Japanese sent an offer of temporary cease-fire to Port Arthur, the offer was rejected, but the foreign military observers all decided to leave for safety on August 14,1904. At noon on August 13,1904, General Nogi launched a reconnaissance balloon from the Wolf Hills. Given his previous high casualty rate and his lack of heavy artillery, after sending a message to the garrison of Port Arthur demanding surrender, the Japanese began their assault at dawn on August 19,1904. The main thrust was directed at 174 Meter Hill, with flanking, on the following day, August 20,1904, Tretyakov asked for reinforcements but, just as at Nanshan, none was forthcoming. The assault on 174 Meter Hill alone had cost the Japanese some 1,800 killed and wounded, the assaults on the other sections of the Russian line had also cost the Japanese heavily, but with no results and no ground gained. When Nogi finally called off his attempt to penetrate the Wantai Ravine on August 24,1904, he had only 174 Meter Hill, with all other positions remaining firmly under Russian control, Nogi at last decided to abandon frontal assaults in favor of a protracted siege
15.
Kawamura Kageaki
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Viscount Kawamura Kageaki was a field marshal in the Imperial Japanese Army. Kawamura was born in Kagoshima in the Satsuma han feudal domain (present day Kagoshima prefecture and he first fought as a samurai in the Anglo-Satsuma War. He was part of the Satsuma forces in the Boshin War to overthrow the Tokugawa Shogunate, after the Meiji Restoration he was appointed commander of the Imperial Guards. He also served as commander in the suppression of various insurrections during the early years of the Meiji era, including the Hagi Rebellion. Kawamura led his Imperial Guards Division in the First Sino-Japanese War, on the conclusion of that war, he was ennobled by Emperor Meiji with the title of danshaku under the kazoku peerage system. In the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, Kawamura succeeded Prince Fushimi Sadanaru as commander of the Japanese 10th Division, in January 1905, being promoted to General, he was appointed Commander of the Japanese Fifth Army and took part in the Battle of Mukden. After Japans victory, Emperor Meiji elevated him to the title of shishaku, after the war, Kawamura served as chief of the Tokyo Garrison, and in 1915 he became a field marshal. His Japanese decorations included the Order of the Golden Kite, Order of the Rising Sun, kawamuras grave is at Aoyama Cemetery in Tokyo. Dupuy, Trevor N. Encyclopedia of Military Biography, jansen, Marius B. and Gilbert Rozman, eds. Japan in Transition, from Tokugawa to Meiji, ISBN9780674003347, OCLC44090600 Keene, Donald. Emperor of Japan, Meiji and His World, 1852-1912, ISBN 978-0-231-12340-2, OCLC46731178 Kowner, Rotem. The A to Z of the Russo-Japanese War
16.
Samejima Shigeo
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Baron Samejima Shigeo was a lieutenant general of the Imperial Japanese Army during the Russo-Japanese War. A native of Kagoshima prefecture, Samejima was the son of a samurai of Satsuma Domain. He joined the fledgling Imperial Japanese Army in 1871, and rose up from the ranks and he attended the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in March 1874 and was commissioned as an ensign with the Tokyo Garrison. He was a participant of the 1874 Taiwan Expedition and promoted to second lieutenant and he fought in the suppression of the Satsuma Rebellion in 1877 and was promoted to lieutenant in military engineering in the IJA 1st Infantry Brigade. In March 1879, he was assigned to the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff and he subsequently served in numerous staff positions, including on the Imperial Guard and as vice-commandant of the Army Staff College. He served in combat during the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 and was promoted to general in September 1897. From April 1900, Samejima was commander of Yura Fortress and from May 1902 was commander of Tokyo Bay Fortress, the 11th Division subsequently became the core of the new Japanese Fifth Army at the Battle of Mukden. In April 1906, he was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun, in September 1907, Samejima was elevated to the kazoku peerage with the title of baron. In September 1911, he was promoted to general. He officially retired in April 1916, Samejima had no children, and his title became extict on his death in 1928. Historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War
17.
Battle of Mukden
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The city is now called Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning province in China. Following the Battle of Liaoyang, Russian forces retreated to the river Sha Ho south of Mukden, from 5 October 1904 to 17 October 1904, during the Battle of Shaho, the Russians unsuccessfully counter-attacked, but managed to temporarily slow the Japanese advance. A second Russian counter-offensive, the Battle of Sandepu, fought from was likewise unsuccessful, the fall of Port Arthur to General Nogi freed up the Japanese 3rd Army, which advanced north to reinforce the Japanese lines near Mukden in preparation for an attack. By February 1905, the reserves of the Japanese army had been drained. With the arrival of General Nogis Third Army, Japans entire fighting strength was concentrated at Mukden, the Russian line to the south of Mukden was 90 miles long, with little depth and with a central reserve. On the right flank, in ground, was the Second Manchurian Army under General Baron von Kaulbars. In the center, holding the railway and the highway was the Third Manchurian Army under General Baron von Bilderling, the hilly terrain on the east flank was held by the First Manchurian Army under General Nikolai Linevich. This flank also held two-thirds of the Russian cavalry, under General Paul von Rennenkampf, General Kuropatkin had thus disposed his forces in a purely defensive layout, from which it would be difficult to impossible to execute an offensive without opening a major gap in the lines. On the Japanese side, the Japanese First Army and Japanese Fourth Army advanced to the east of the line. General Nogis Japanese Third Army was kept concealed behind the 2nd Army until the start of battle, a newly formed Japanese Ōryokukō Army under General Kawamura provided a major diversion on the Russian eastern flank. The Yalu River Army was much under strength, and consisted only of the IJA 11th Division, Field Marshal Ōyamas plan was to form his armies into a crescent to encircle Mukden, cutting off the possibility of Russian escape. He was explicit in his orders that combat within the city of Mukden itself was to be avoided, the battle opened with the Japanese 5th Army attacking the left flank of the Russian forces on 20 February. On 27 February 1905 the Japanese 4th Army attacked the right flank, on the same day, the Japanese 3rd Army began its movement in a wide circle northwest of Mukden. By 1 March 1905, action on the eastern and center fronts was largely static, the Japanese had made small advances but under heavy casualties. The shifting of forces from east to west was not well coordinated by the Russians, causing the 1st and 3rd Manchurian Armies to all but disintegrate into chaos. Then Kuropatkin decided to withdraw his troops north towards Mukden to face the Japanese forces head-on on the citys southwest, then Field Marshal Ōyama seized the chance he had been waiting for, and his orders to attack were changed to pursue and destroy. Luck was further with the Japanese due to the thaw in the weather. The Hun River, guarded by the Russian left flank commanded by Major General Mikhail Alekseyev, remained frozen, at the same time a salient was formed just 15 kilometers west of Mukden, enabling the Japanese to totally encircle the Russians on their right flank in the process
18.
Manchuria
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Manchuria is a modern name, first created by the Japanese, given to a large geographic region in Northeast Asia. Depending on the context, Manchuria can either refer to a region that falls entirely within the Peoples Republic of China, the definition of Manchuria can be any one of several regions of various size. These are, from smallest to largest, Northeast China, consisting of Heilongjiang, Jilin and this is the area referred to as Manchuria in the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions. Inner Manchuria, the above, plus parts of modern Inner Mongolia, The above, plus Outer Manchuria, the area from the Amur and Ussuri rivers to the Stanovoy Mountains, in Russian administrative terms, Ussuri krai, southern Harbin oblast, Primorskiy kray. The above, plus Sakhalin Island, which is included on Qing dynasty maps as part of Outer Manchuria even though it is not explicitly mentioned in the Treaty of Nerchinsk. The island was included in Manchuria on maps made by the Japanese Shogunate. Despite of lines on maps and empiress political claims, the island was inhabited by Ainu people until the Soviet Union enforced a policy after 1945. Three centuries and a half must now pass away before entering upon the act of the Manchu drama. During the ensuing two hundred years the Nü-chêns were scarcely heard of, the House of Ming being busily occupied in other directions and it may be noted here that Manchuria is unknown to the Chinese or to the Manchus themselves as a geographical expression. The present extensive home of the Manchus is usually spoken of as the Three Eastern Provinces, namely, Shêngking, or Liao-tung, or Kuan-tung, Kirin, and Heilungchiang or Tsitsihar. — Herbert A. Giles, China and the Manchus,1912 Manchuria is a translation of the Japanese word Manshū, the Manchu and Chinese languages had no such word as Manchuria and the word has imperialist connotations. According to Bill Sewell, it was Europeans who first started using the name Manchuria to refer to the location, the historian Gavan McCormack agreed with Robert H. G. The Japanese had their own motive for deliberately spreading the usage of the term Manchuria, the historian Norman Smith wrote that The term Manchuria is controversial. Professor Mariko Asano Tamanoi said that she should use the term in quotation marks when referring to Manchuria, in his 2012 dissertation on the Jurchen people to obtain a Doctor of Philosophy degree in History from the University of Washington, Professor Chad D. In the 18th-century Europe, the later known as Manchuria was most commonly referred to as Tartary. However, the term Manchuria started appearing by the end of the century, in current Chinese parlance, an inhabitant of the Northeast, or Northeast China, is a Northeasterner. In China, the term Manchuria is rarely used today, and this usage is seen in the expression Chuǎng Guāndōng referring to the mass migration of Han Chinese to Manchuria in the 19th and 20th centuries. The name Guandong later came to be used more narrowly for the area of the Kwantung Leased Territory on the Liaodong Peninsula and it is not to be confused with the southern province of Guangdong
19.
Japanese intervention in Siberia
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On August 23,1914, the Empire of Japan declared war on Germany, in part due to the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, and Japan became a member of the Entente powers. The overthrow of Tsar Nicholas II and the establishment of a Bolshevik government in Russia led to a peace with Germany. The spread of the anti-monarchial Bolshevik revolution eastward was of concern to the Japanese government. Vladivostok, facing the Sea of Japan was a port, with a massive stockpile of military stores. The Japanese were initially asked by the French in 1917, to intervene in Russia, the Army proposed attacking on two fronts, from Vladivostok to Khabarovsk along the Amur River and also via the Chinese Eastern Railway to cut off the Russian Trans-Siberian Railway at Lake Baikal. The Japanese government, then under the leadership of Prime Minister Hara Takashi refused to undertake such an expedition. In December 1917, the British agreed that such a force should include Japan, but before the details could be worked out, Japanese Prime Minister Terauchi Masatake was outraged and ordered the Imperial Japanese Navy to reach Vladivostok first. The task was assigned to Rear Admiral Katō Kanji with the battleships Iwami, Asahi arrived in January 17, and became Kato’s flagship. The USS Brooklyn, which had been stationed at Vladivostok until December 1917, after an armed mob looted a Japanese-owned store, killing its owner, the Japanese government permitted the landing of marines, who proceeded to occupy the entire city. The British also landed 100 marines to protect their consulate, after heated debate in the Diet, the administration of Prime Minister Terauchi agreed to send 12,000 troops, but under the command of Japan, rather than as part of an international coalition. Once the political decision had been reached, the Imperial Japanese Army took over full control under Chief of Staff Yui Mitsue, the Japanese eventually deployed 70,000 troops - far more than any of the other Allied powers had anticipated. After the international coalition withdrew its forces, the Japanese Army stayed on, however, political opposition prevented the Army from annexing the resource-rich region. In March and April 1922, the Japanese Army repulsed large Bolshevik offensives against Vladivostok, public opinion in Japan mounted against the cost of the Siberian Intervention, which had absorbed over half the national budget for two years. Japans motives in the Siberian Intervention were complex and poorly articulated, overtly, Japan was in Siberia to safeguard stockpiled military supplies and to rescue the Czech Legion. The intervention tore Japans wartime unity to shreds, leading to the army and government being involved in bitter controversy, Japanese casualties from the Siberian Expedition included some 5,000 dead from combat or illness, and the expenses incurred were in excess of 900 million yen. Nikolayevsk incident Harries, Meirion and Susie, military Intervention in Pre-War Japanese Politics, Admiral Kato Kanji and the Washington System. The Way of the Heavenly Sword, The Japanese Army in the 1920s
20.
IJA 14th Division
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The 14th Division was an infantry division in the Imperial Japanese Army. Its tsūshōgō code name was the Shining Division, and its symbol was 14D. The 14th Division was initially established in Kokura under the command of Lieutenant General Tsuchiya Mitsuharu, with men recruited from Osaka, Zentsūji, Kagawa, Hiroshima and it was the only one of the four emergency divisions raised that was considered combat-ready prior to the end of the war. It was dispatched to the front in August 1905, where it joined General Nogi Maresukes IJA Third Army, however, it arrived too late to see any combat, and was assigned policing duties in the Japanese-occupied Liaodong Peninsula and along the South Manchurian Railway in August 1905. It was replaced by the 10th division in 1906, and was withdrawn to Himeji, in September 1907 the divisional headquarters was established in what is now the city of Utsunomiya, Tochigi, and its composition totally reorganized. The 53rd Infantry Regiment was transferred to the 16th division in Kyoto, the 55th Infantry Regiment and 56th Infantry Regiments were transferred to the newly created 18th division, based in Kurume, Fukuoka. The 59th infantry regiment also joined division in 1909, been relocated to Utsunomiya from Narashino, in April 1918, the 14th Division was one of the Japanese divisions earmarked for the Japanese intervention in Siberia, actually starting to participate in August 1919. In March–May 1920, the 3rd Battalion of the IJA 2nd Infantry Regiment stationed at Nikolayevsk-on-Amur was massacred by Bolshevik irregulars in what came to be known as the Nikolaevsk Incident, the 14th division has returned to Japan in August-November 1920. In March 1925, the 66th Infantry Regiment was disbanded, also, the 27th infantry brigade headquarters was moved from Mito to Utsunomiya while 28th infantry brigade headquarters transferred to Takasaki. The 14th Division was deployed to Ryojun in the Kwantung Leased Territory in April 1927, units from the division were deployed to Jinan and Tsingtao in 1928 in the aftermath of the Jinan Incident. The 14th Division returned to Japan in 1929, in 1932, the 14th Division was again deployed to Manchuria under the aegis of the Kwantung Army and was involved in the January 28 Incident. It also participated in the March 1932 Mukden Incident and its 2nd battalion of the 2nd Infantry regiment also participated in the Battle of Rehe in May 1932. The 14th Division was withdrawn back to Japan in 1934, in 1938, the 14th division has participated in the campaign of Northern and Eastern Honan where it was involved in the Battle of Lanfeng. Meanwhile, in April 1938, the relocation of the 14th division to the China was made permanent, after finishing a term on the front-line in 1939, the 14th Division was sent to Qiqihar in Manchukuo to serve as a garrison force. In August 1940, the division was re-organized into a triangular division, approximately at this period, demobilized Japanese soldiers have brought the fried Jiaozi local recipe, known in Japanese as gyōza, from Manchukuo to Japan. As the troops from the 14th Division were mostly from Utsunomiya, in September 1941, the division was ordered back to line at the Mongolian border at Handagai. In August 1942, the 14th Division was sent back to Manchukuo, as the situation in the Pacific War against the United States continued to deteriorate, the Supreme War Council began transferring forces out of Manchukuo to the southern operational areas. Before departure, the regiments were reorganized, absorbing divisional engineers, artillery, transport
21.
Pacific War
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The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in the Pacific and East Asia. It was fought over a vast area that included the Pacific Ocean and islands, the South West Pacific, South-East Asia, and in China. The Pacific War saw the Allied powers pitted against the Empire of Japan, the formal and official surrender of Japan took place aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945. In Allied countries during the war, The Pacific War was not usually distinguished from World War II in general, or was known simply as the War against Japan. Japan used the name Greater East Asia War, as chosen by a decision on 10 December 1941. Japanese officials integrated what they called the Japan–China Incident into the Greater East Asia War, in Japan, the Fifteen Years War is also used, referring to the period from the Mukden Incident of 1931 through 1945. The Phayap Army sent troops to invade and occupy northeastern Burma, also involved were the Japanese puppet states of Manchukuo and Mengjiang, and the collaborationist Wang Jingwei regime. The official policy of the U. S. Government is that Thailand was not an ally of the Axis, Japan conscripted many soldiers from its colonies of Korea and Formosa. To a small extent, some Vichy French, Indian National Army, Germany and Italy both had limited involvement in the Pacific War. The German and the Italian navies operated submarines and raiding ships in the Indian, the Italians had access to concession territory naval bases in China, while the Germans did not. After Japans attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent declarations of war, mexico, Free France and many other countries also took part, especially forces from other British colonies. Between 1942 and 1945, there were four main areas of conflict in the Pacific War, China, the Central Pacific, South East Asia, U. S. sources refer to two theaters within the Pacific War, the Pacific theater and the China Burma India Theater. However these were not operational commands, in the Pacific, the Allies divided operational control of their forces between two supreme commands, known as Pacific Ocean Areas and Southwest Pacific Area. In 1945, for a period just before the Japanese surrender. By 1937, Japan controlled Manchuria and was ready to move deeper into China, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident on 7 July 1937 provoked full-scale war between China and Japan. In August 1937, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek deployed his best army to fight about 300,000 Japanese troops in Shanghai, the Japanese continued to push the Chinese forces back, capturing the capital Nanking in December 1937 and committed which was known as Nanking Massacre. In March 1938, Nationalist forces won their first victory at Taierzhuang, but then the city of Xuzhou was taken by Japanese in May. In June 1938, Japan deployed about 350,000 troops to invade Wuhan, the Japanese achieved major military victories, but world opinion—in particular in the United States—condemned Japan, especially after the Panay incident
22.
Shanghai
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Shanghai is the most populous city proper in the world, with a population of more than 24 million as of 2014. As one of the four direct-controlled municipalities of the Peoples Republic of China, it is a financial centre and transport hub. Located in the Yangtze River Delta in East China, Shanghai sits on the edge of the mouth of the Yangtze in the middle portion of the eastern Chinese coast. The municipality borders the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the north, south and west, as a major administrative, shipping and trading city, Shanghai grew in importance in the 19th century due to trade and recognition of its favourable port location and economic potential. The city was one of five treaty ports forced open to foreign trade following the British victory over China in the First Opium War, the subsequent 1842 Treaty of Nanking and 1844 Treaty of Whampoa allowed the establishment of the Shanghai International Settlement and the French Concession. The city then flourished as a center of commerce between China and other parts of the world, and became the financial hub of the Asia-Pacific region in the 1930s. However, with the Communist Party takeover of the mainland in 1949, trade was limited to other socialist countries, and the citys global influence declined. In the 1990s, the reforms introduced by Deng Xiaoping resulted in an intense re-development of the city, aiding the return of finance. The two Chinese characters in the name are 上 and 海, together meaning Upon-the-Sea. The earliest occurrence of this dates from the 11th-century Song Dynasty, at which time there was already a river confluence. There are disputes as to exactly how the name should be understood, Shanghai is officially abbreviated 沪 in Chinese, a contraction of 沪渎, a 4th- or 5th-century Jin name for the mouth of Suzhou Creek when it was the main conduit into the ocean. This character appears on all motor vehicle license plates issued in the municipality today, another alternative name for Shanghai is Shēn or Shēnchéng, from Lord Chunshen, a third-century BC nobleman and prime minister of the state of Chu, whose fief included modern Shanghai. Sports teams and newspapers in Shanghai often use Shen in their names, such as Shanghai Shenhua F. C. Huating was another early name for Shanghai. In AD751, during the dynasty, Huating County was established at modern-day Songjiang. Today, Huating appears as the name of a hotel in the city. The city also has various nicknames in English, including Pearl of the Orient, during the Spring and Autumn period, the Shanghai area belonged to the Kingdom of Wu, which was conquered by the Kingdom of Yue, which in turn was conquered by the Kingdom of Chu. During the Warring States period, Shanghai was part of the fief of Lord Chunshen of Chu and he ordered the excavation of the Huangpu River. Its former or poetic name, the Chunshen River, gave Shanghai its nickname of Shen, two important events helped promote Shanghais development in the Ming dynasty
23.
January 28 Incident
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The January 28 Incident or Shanghai Incident was a conflict between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan, before official hostilities of the Second Sino-Japanese War commenced in 1937. In Chinese literature it is known as the January 28 Incident, after the Mukden Incident, Japan had acquired the vast northeastern region of China and would eventually establish the puppet government of Manchukuo. However, the Japanese military planned to increase Japanese influence further, especially into Shanghai where Japan, in order to provide a casus belli to justify further military action in China, the Japanese military instigated seemingly anti-Japanese incidents. On January 18, five Japanese Buddhist monks, members of an ardently nationalist sect, were beaten near Shanghais Sanyou Factory by agitated Chinese civilians, two were seriously injured, and one died. Over the next few hours, a burnt down the factory. One policeman was killed and several more hurt when they arrived to quell the disorder, the situation continued to deteriorate over the next week. The militarys justification was that it had to defend its concession, during the afternoon of January 28, the Shanghai Municipal Council agreed to these demands. Throughout this period, the Chinese 19th Route Army had been massing outside the city, causing consternation to the civil Chinese administration of Shanghai and the foreign-run Concessions. The 19th Route Army was generally viewed as more than a warlord force. In the end, Shanghai donated a substantial bribe to the 19th Route Army, hoping that it would leave, however, at midnight on January 28, Japanese carrier aircraft bombed Shanghai in the first major aircraft carrier action in East Asia. In what was a surprising about-face for many, the 19th Route Army, though the opening battles took place in the Hongkew district of the International Settlement, the conflict soon spread outwards to much of Chinese-controlled Shanghai. The majority of the Concessions remained untouched by the conflict and it was often the case that those in the Shanghai International Settlement would watch the war from the banks of Suzhou Creek and they could even visit the battle lines by virtue of their extraterritoriality. On January 30, Chiang Kai-shek decided to relocate the capital from Nanjing to Luoyang as an emergency measure. However, Japan refused, instead continuing to mobilize troops in the region, on February 12, American, British and French representatives brokered a half-day cease fire for humanitarian relief to civilians caught in the crossfire. The same day, the Japanese issued another ultimatum, demanding that the Chinese Army retreat 20 km from the border of Shanghai Concessions and this only intensified fighting in Hongkew. The Japanese were unable to take the city by the middle of February, subsequently, the number of Japanese troops was increased to nearly 90,000 with the arrival of the 9th Infantry Division and the IJA 24th Mixed Brigade, supported by 80 warships and 300 airplanes. On February 14, Chiang Kai-shek sent his 5th Army, including his 87th and 88th divisions, on February 20, Japanese bombardments were increased to force the Chinese away from their defensive positions near Miaohang, while commercial and residential districts of the city were set on fire. The Chinese defensive positions deteriorated rapidly without naval and armored support, Japanese forces increased to over a 100,000 troops, backed by aerial and naval bombardments
24.
Manchukuo
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Manchukuo was a puppet state in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia, which was governed under a form of constitutional monarchy. The area, collectively known as Manchuria by westerners and Japanese, was designated by Chinas erstwhile Qing Dynasty as the homeland of the familys ethnic group. In 1931, the region was seized by Japan following the Mukden Incident and a government was installed one year later with Puyi. Manchukuos government was abolished in 1945 after the defeat of Imperial Japan at the end of World War II, Manchus formed a minority in Manchukuo, whose largest ethnic group were Han Chinese. The population of Koreans increased during the Manchukuo period, and there were also Japanese, Mongols, White Russians, the Mongol regions of western Manchukuo were ruled under a slightly different system in acknowledgement of the Mongolian traditions there. The southern part of the Liaodong Peninsula was ruled by Japan as the Kwantung Leased Territory, Manchuria is a transcription of the Japanese reading of the Chinese word 滿洲 which means Manchuria, which in Japanese is Manshū, which in turn dates from the 19th century. The name Manzhou was invented and given to the Jurchen people by Hong Taiji in 1635 as a new name for their ethnic group. However, the name Manchuria was never used by the Manchus or the Qing dynasty itself to refer to their homeland, the name itself holding imperialistic connotation. According to Mark C. 满洲 then began to appear as a place names in more maps created by Japanese like Kondi Jūzō, Takahashi Kageyasu, Baba Sadayoshi and these maps were brought to Europe by the Dutch Philipp von Siebold. According to Bill Sewell, it was Europeans who first started using Manchuria as a name to refer to the location, the historian Gavan McCormack agreed with Robert H. G. Ordinary Manchus largely spurned Manchukuo which claimed to be established for their cause, the Japanese had their own motive for deliberately spreading the usage of the term Manchuria. The historian Norman Smith wrote that The term Manchuria is controversial, professor Mariko Asano Tamanoi said that she should use the term in quotation marks, when referring to Manchuria. Herbert Giles wrote that Manchuria was unknown to the Manchus themselves as a geographical expression, the Qing Dynasty, which replaced the Shun and Ming dynasties in China, was founded by Manchus from Manchuria. The Manchu emperors separated their homeland in Jilin and Heilongjiang from the Han Liaoning province with the Willow Palisade and this ethnic division continued until the Qing dynasty encouraged massive immigration of Han in the 19th century during Chuang Guandong to prevent the Russians from seizing the area from the Qing. After conquering the Ming, the Qing identified their state as China, the lands in Manchuria were explicitly stated by the Qing to belong to China in Qing edicts and in the Treaty of Nerchinsk. The area of Manchuria was then converted into three provinces by the late Qing government in 1907, as the power of the court in Beijing weakened, many outlying areas either broke free or fell under the control of Imperialist powers. In the 19th century, Imperial Russia was most interested in the lands of the Qing Empire. In 1858, Russia gained control over a tract of land called Outer Manchuria thanks to the Supplementary Treaty of Beijing that ended the Second Opium War
25.
Triangular division
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A triangular division is a designation given to the way military divisions are organized. In a triangular organization, the main body is composed of three regimental maneuver elements. These regiments may be controlled by a headquarters or directly subordinated to the division commander. By contrast, in a division, there were typically two brigades of two regiments. United States Army divisions were square divisions until the beginning of World War II, during that war, infantry divisions were typically triangular, with the division controlling three infantry regiments. Armored divisions were also triangular, but typically organized into combined arms combat commands, after World War II, this structure was retained until the Pentomic Era described above. In the 1960s, United States Army divisions were reorganized as triangular divisions, Combined arms doctrine has all but eliminated regimental purpose, and regiments generally exist only as traditional designations. Most European armies reorganized their divisions as triangular divisions during World War I, many European armies now place greater emphasis on the brigade and in some cases, such as the Portuguese and the Belgian armies, have eliminated the division entirely as a tactical unit. Soviet Army divisions during World War II were generally triangular, with three subordinate regiments, post-war reforms led to a four-regiment division, with three regiments of one arm and the fourth of the other arm. In combat operations, however, the regiment could be divided among the other three to create three combined arms formations essentially the same as a brigade. This structure has for the most part retained in the Russian Army. See, for example, the organization of the 2nd Guards Tamanskaya Motor Rifle Division, imperial Japanese Army and National Revolutionary Army Divisions were organized as square divisions prior to 1938 when they began to form triangular divisions during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Square division Toward Combined Arms Warfare, A Survey of 20th-Century Tactics, Doctrine, and Organization
26.
Mitsuru Ushijima
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Mitsuru Ushijima was a Japanese general who served during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. He was the general of the 32nd Army, which fought in the Battle of Okinawa during the final stages of the war. Ushijima was a native of Kagoshima city in Kagoshima prefecture on the island of Kyūshū in southern Japan and he graduated from the 20th class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1908 and of the 28th class of the Army Staff College in 1916. Soon after graduation, he was assigned to the Japanese Expeditionary Force based at Vladivostok during the Siberian Intervention against Bolshevik forces during the Russian Civil War, from 1933 to 1936, Ushijima served in administrative postings within the War Ministry. He was appointed commander of the IJA 1st Infantry Regiment from 1936 to 1937, with the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Ushijima was promoted to major general and appointed commander of the IJA 36th Infantry Brigade. He was recalled to Japan in 1938 to become Commandant of the Toyama Army Infantry School. In 1939, he was promoted to lieutenant general and again given a command as general officer commanding the IJA 11th Division in central China, participating in many battles in China. Ushijima returned to Japan in 1941, serving a year as the Commandant of the Non-commissioned Officers Academy, from 1942 to 1944, he was Commandant of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy. The 32nd Army consisted of the IJA 9th Division, IJA 24th Division, and the IJA 62nd Division, the 9th Division was transferred to Taiwan prior to the American invasion. Ushijima commanded all Japanese forces in the portion of the Okinawa main island from his headquarters based in Shuri Castle in Naha. He led a defense of the island despite disagreements between his second in command, General Isamu Cho, and his chief of staff, Colonel Hiromichi Yahara. After an offensive action urged by Cho led to a massacre of the attacking Japanese troops by superior American firepower. After the turning of the Shuri Line by the American forces and this defensive line did not meet with the same success, and became a fragmented grouping of isolated defensive positions. Ushijima and Cho retreated to Hill 89 at the south coast, the command and control of the remnants of the 32nd Army soon quickly deteriorated as communication with the last defensive positions was cut. Record numbers of Japanese prisoners surrendered, many were Okinawan volunteers or conscripts, Ushijima refused a personal plea from the American General Simon Buckner to surrender. Yahara was the most senior officer captured by American forces, Yahara had asked Ushijima for permission to commit suicide, but the general refused his request, saying, If you die there will be no one left who knows the truth about the battle of Okinawa. Bear the temporary shame but endure it and this is an order from your army commander. Yahara later authored a book entitled The Battle for Okinawa, describing Ushijima’s last moments, the bodies of Ushijima, and his chief of staff, Lieut
27.
Guam
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Guam is an unincorporated and organized territory of the United States. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, Guam is one of five American territories with a civilian government. The capital city is Hagåtña and the most populous city is Dededo, in 2015,161,785 people resided on Guam. Guamanians are American citizens by birth, Guam has an area of 210 sq mi and a population density of 770/sq mi. It is the largest and southernmost of the Mariana Islands and the largest island in Micronesia, among its municipalities, Mongmong-Toto-Maite has the highest density at 3, 691/sq mi, whereas Inarajan and Umatac have the lowest density at 119/sq mi. The highest point is Mount Lamlam at 406 meters above sea level, the Chamorros, Guams indigenous people, settled the island approximately 4,000 years ago. Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was the first European to visit the island on March 6,1521, Guam was colonized in 1668 with settlers, like Diego Luis de San Vitores, a Catholic missionary. Between the 16th century and the 18th century, Guam was an important stopover for the Spanish Manila Galleons, during the Spanish–American War, the United States captured Guam on June 21,1898. Under the Treaty of Paris, Spain ceded Guam to the United States on December 10,1898, Guam is among the seventeen Non-Self-Governing Territories of the United Nations. Before World War II, Guam and three other territories – American Samoa, Hawaii, and the Philippines – were the only American jurisdictions in the Pacific Ocean. On December 7,1941, hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Guam was captured by the Japanese, during the occupation, Guamanians were subjected to beheadings, forced labor, rape, and torture. Guam endured hostilities when American forces recaptured the island on July 21,1944, since the 1960s, the economy is supported by two industries, tourism and the United States Armed Forces. The original inhabitants of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands are believed to be descendants of Austronesian people originating from Southeast Asia as early as 2000 BC and they evolved into the Chamorro people. The ancient-Chamorro society had four classes, chamorri, matua, achaot, the matua were located in the coastal villages, which meant they had the best access to fishing grounds, whereas the manachang were located in the interior of the island. Matua and manachang rarely communicated with other, and matua often used achaot as intermediaries. There were also makåhna, skilled in healing and medicine, belief in spirits of ancient Chamorros called Taotao mona still persists as a remnant of pre-European culture. Their society was organized along matrilineal clans, Latte stones are stone pillars that are found only in the Mariana Islands, and, they are a recent development in Pre-Contact Chamorro society. The latte-stone was used as a foundation on which thatched huts were built, Latte stones consist of a base shaped from limestone called the haligi and with a capstone, or tåsa, made either from a large brain coral or limestone, placed on top
28.
1st Division (Imperial Japanese Army)
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The 1st Division was an infantry division in the Imperial Japanese Army. Its call sign was the Jade Division, the 1st Division was formed in Tokyo in January 1871 as the Tokyo Garrison, one of six regional commands created in the fledgling Imperial Japanese Army. The Tokyo Garrison had responsibility for the region of Honshū. As one of the oldest Divisions in the Imperial Japanese Army, the 1st Division saw combat in the First Sino-Japanese War, after the wars, the division returned to Tokyo, with permanent headquarters opened in Minami-Aoyama 15 June 1918. The February 26 Incident was an attempted coup détat staged by elements of the 1st Division in Tokyo in 1936, the division participated in a Kanchazu Island incident, successfully driving off Soviet invaders by 30 June 1937. 1 September 1937 a 101st division was created to garrison Tokyo instead of 1st Division, later, the parts of the 1st division have participated in disastrous Nonomhan Incident in 1939. Ordered to oppose the re-occupation of Leyte by the American and Filipino forces and their orders were to move up Leyte Highway Number 2 to Carigara and to secure the northern half of the island. However, American and Filipino forces had already seized Carigara, and American air strikes had deprived the Japanese 1st Division of its supply chain and reinforcements. By the time Battle of Leyte was won by American and Filipino forces, of the 11,000 Japanese soldiers, as result, the 1st Division ceased to exist as an operational unit. The remnants of division have participated in the Battle for Cebu City though, list of Japanese Infantry Divisions Madej, W. Victor, Japanese Armed Forces Order of Battle, 1937-1945, Allentown, Pennsylvania,1981 Morison, Samuel Eliot. History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, vol.13, The Liberation of the Philippines—Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas, 1944-1945 University of Illinois Press, ISBN 0-252-07064-X Vego Milan N. Battle for Leyte,1944, Allied And Japanese Plans, Preparations, ISBN 1-55750-885-2 This article incorporates material from the Japanese Wikipedia page 第1師団, accessed 8 March 2016
29.
Battle of Guam (1944)
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Guam, at 212 square miles, is the largest island of the Marianas, with a length of 32 miles and a width ranging from 12 miles to 4 miles at different points of the island. It had been a United States possession since its capture from Spain in 1898 until it was captured by the Japanese on 10 December 1941, following the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was not as heavily fortified as the other Mariana Islands such as Saipan that had been Japanese possessions since the end of World War I, the invasion of Saipan was scheduled for 15 June 1944, with landings on Guam tentatively set for 18 June. The original timetable was optimistic, however, a large Japanese carrier attack and stubborn resistance by the unexpectedly large Japanese garrison on Saipan led to the invasion of Guam being postponed for a month. U. S. naval and air bombardments lasted from 11–13 June 1944, involving 216 carrier aircraft, on the 12th and 13th of the month,12 Japanese cargo ships and several fishing vessels were sunk. On June 27, U. S. battleships started shelling the island, joined by a U. S. carrier group on 4 July, Guam, ringed by reefs, cliffs, and heavy surf, presents a formidable challenge for an attacker. Underwater demolition teams reconnoitered the beaches and removed obstacles from 14–17 July, despite the obstacles, on 21 July, the American forces landed on both sides of the Orote Peninsula on the western side of Guam, planning to secure Apra Harbor. The 3rd Marine Division landed near Agana to the north of Orote at 08,29, and the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade landed near Agat to the south. Japanese artillery sank 20 U. S. LVTs and inflicted casualties on the landing troops, especially of the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade. Marines and soldiers had established beachheads about 6,600 feet deep, Japanese counterattacks were made throughout the first few days of the battle, mostly at night, using infiltration tactics. Several times the Japanese penetrated the American defenses and were back with heavy losses of men. The U. S. Armys 77th Infantry Division had a difficult landing on 23–24 July. Lacking amphibious vehicles, they had to wade ashore from the edge of the reef where the landing craft dropped them off, the men stationed in the two beachheads were pinned down by heavy Japanese fire, making initial progress inland quite slow. Supply was very difficult for the troops on Guam in the first days of the battle. Landing ships could not come closer than the reef, several hundred yards from the beach, the next day, General Obata reported, our forces failed to achieve the desired objectives. Lieutenant General Takeshi Takashina was killed on 28 July, and Lieutenant General Hideyoshi Obata took over the command of the Japanese defenders, on 28 July, the two beachheads were linked, and by 29 July, the Americans secured the peninsula. The Japanese counterattacks against the American beachheads, as well as the fighting, had exhausted the Japanese. At the start of August, they were running out of food, the Tiyan Airfield was captured on 1 Aug
30.
Operation Downfall
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Operation Downfall was the codename for the proposed Allied plan for the invasion of Japan near the end of World War II. The planned operation was abandoned when Japan surrendered following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The operation had two parts, Operations Olympic and Coronet, later, in the spring of 1946, Operation Coronet was the planned invasion of the Kantō Plain, near Tokyo, on the Japanese island of Honshu. Airbases on Kyūshū captured in Operation Olympic would allow land-based air support for Operation Coronet, if Downfall had taken place, it would have been the largest amphibious operation in history. The Japanese planned an all-out defense of Kyūshū, with left in reserve for any subsequent defense operations. Casualty predictions varied widely, but were extremely high, depending on the degree to which Japanese civilians would have resisted the invasion, estimates ran up into the millions for Allied casualties. Leahy, and Generals of the Army George Marshall and Hap Arnold, at the time, MacArthur was also being considered for promotion to a special super rank of General of the Armies, so as to be granted operational authority over other five-star officers. However, the proposal to promote MacArthur was only at the level of discussion by the time World War II ended. Once the atomic bomb became available, General Marshall envisioned using it to support the invasion if sufficient numbers could be produced in time, throughout the Pacific War, the Allies were unable to agree on a single Commander-in-Chief. A unified command was deemed necessary for an invasion of Japan, interservice rivalry over who it should be was so serious that it threatened to derail planning. Ultimately, the Navy partially conceded, and MacArthur was to be given command of all forces. The primary considerations that the planners had to deal with were time, prior to the Quebec Conference,1943, a joint British-American planning team produced a plan which did not call for an invasion of the Japanese home islands until 1947–48. The American Joint Chiefs of Staff believed that prolonging the war to such an extent was dangerous for national morale, instead, at the Quebec conference, the Combined Chiefs of Staff agreed that Japan should be forced to surrender not more than one year after Germanys surrender. The United States Navy urged the use of a blockade and airpower to bring about Japans capitulation, the Army, on the other hand, argued that such a strategy could prolong the war indefinitely and expend lives needlessly, and therefore that an invasion was necessary. They supported mounting a large-scale thrust directly against the Japanese homeland, physically, Japan made an imposing target, distant from other landmasses and with very few beaches geographically suitable for sea-borne invasion. Only Kyūshū and the beaches of the Kantō plain were realistic invasion zones, the Allies decided to launch a two-stage invasion. Operation Olympic would attack southern Kyūshū, airbases would be established, which would give cover for Operation Coronet, the attack on Tokyo Bay. While the geography of Japan was known, the US military planners had to estimate the forces that they would face
31.
Surrender of Japan
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The surrender of Imperial Japan was announced on August 15 and formally signed on September 2,1945, bringing the hostilities of World War II to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy was incapable of conducting major operations, on August 6,1945, at 8,15 AM local time, the United States detonated an atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Sixteen hours later, American President Harry S. Truman called again for Japans surrender, warning them to expect a rain of ruin from the air, later in the day, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb, this time on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. After several more days of negotiations and a failed coup détat. In the radio address, called the Jewel Voice Broadcast, he announced the surrender of Japan to the Allies, on August 28, the occupation of Japan by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers began. The role of the bombings in Japans unconditional surrender. The state of war ended when the Treaty of San Francisco came into force on April 28,1952. Four more years passed before Japan and the Soviet Union signed the Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956, by 1945, the Japanese had suffered an unbroken string of defeats for nearly two years in the South West Pacific, the Marianas campaign, and the Philippines campaign. In July 1944, following the loss of Saipan, General Hideki Tōjō was replaced as minister by General Kuniaki Koiso. After the Japanese loss of the Philippines, Koiso in turn was replaced by Admiral Kantarō Suzuki, the Allies captured the nearby islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa in the first half of 1945. Okinawa was to be an area for Operation Downfall, the American invasion of the Japanese Home Islands. The Allied submarine campaign and the mining of Japanese coastal waters had largely destroyed the Japanese merchant fleet, the destruction of the Japanese merchant fleet, combined with the strategic bombing of Japanese industry, had wrecked Japans war economy. Production of coal, iron, steel, rubber, and other vital supplies was only a fraction of that before the war, as a result of the losses it had suffered, the Imperial Japanese Navy had ceased to be an effective fighting force. Although 19 destroyers and 38 submarines were still operational, their use was limited by the lack of fuel, the only course left is for Japans one hundred million people to sacrifice their lives by charging the enemy to make them lose the will to fight. As a final attempt to stop the Allied advances, the Japanese Imperial High Command planned an all-out defense of Kyūshū codenamed Operation Ketsugō and this was to be a radical departure from the defense in depth plans used in the invasions of Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. Instead, everything was staked on the beachhead, more than 3,000 kamikazes would be sent to attack the transports before troops. The strategy of making a last stand at Kyūshū was based on the assumption of continued Soviet neutrality, a set of caves were excavated near Nagano on Honshu, the largest of the Japanese islands. In the event of invasion, these caves, the Matsushiro Underground Imperial Headquarters, were to be used by the army to direct the war and to house the Emperor and his family
32.
Rotem Kowner
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Rotem Kowner is an Israeli historian and psychologist specializing in the history of modern Japan, and a full professor in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of Haifa. Rotem Kowner was born in Mikhmoret and lived his early years in the Kibbutz of Maayan Tzvi, at the age of three, his family moved to Haifa, where he grew up and went to the Hebrew Reali School. Upon graduation, he entered the Israeli Navy and subsequently served as an officer on a missile boat, upon receiving his Ph. D. he continued in postdoctoral studies at the Center for East Asian Studies, Stanford University, and at the Hebrew University. In 1998 he began teaching at the University of Haifa as a lecturer and was promoted to professor in 2004. Kowner worked extensively to mark the centenary of the Russo-Japanese War and he was involved in organizing international conferences, initiated collaborative works, and published several books as well as many articles about this topic. Since 2010, his focus has shifted to the examination of the development of race and racism in modern East Asia. He is the co-founder of the conferences of Asian Studies in Israel. He has been member of the universitys Senate, Board of Governors,1997 – On ignorance, respect, and suspicion, current Japanese attitudes towards Jews. Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism,2005 – The Forgotten War between Russia and Japan – and its heritage. 539 pp.2006 – Historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War,640 pp.2007 – The Impact of the Russo-Japanese War. 369 pp.2007 – Rethinking the Russo-Japanese War 1904/05,539 pp.2008 – Globally Speaking, Motives for Adopting English Vocabulary in Other Languages. 2009 – The A to Z of the Russo-Japanese War,640 pp.2013 – Race and Racism in Modern East Asia, Western and Eastern Constructions. 618 pp.2014 – From White to Yellow, The Japanese in European Racial Thought,706 pp.2015 – Race and Racism in Modern East Asia, Interactions, Nationalism, Gender and Lineage. 674 pp.1998 – Nicholas II and the Japanese Body, Images,2000 – Lighter than yellow, but not enough, Western discourse on the Japanese race, 1854–1904. The Historical Journal 43, p. 103–131,2000 – Japans Enlighteded War, Military Conduct and Attitudes to the Enemy during the Russo-Japanese War. The Japanese and Europe, Images and Perceoptions,2001 – Becoming an Honorary Civilized Nation, The Russo-Japanese War and Western Perceptions of Japan. 2004 – The skin as a metaphor, Early European racial perspectives on Japan,2011 – An Obscure History – Jews in Indonesia. Historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War
33.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
