| Kwantung Army | |
|---|---|
| Japanese:関東軍 Kantō-gun | |
 | |
| Active | April 1919 – August 1945 |
| Country |  Empire of Japan |
| Allegiance |  Emperor of Japan |
| Branch |  Imperial Japanese Army |
| Type | General Army |
| Size | 300,000 (1940) 763,000 (1941) 713,000 (1945) |
| Garrison/HQ | Ryojun,Kwantung Leased Territory(1906–1932) Xinjing,Manchukuo(1932–1945) |
| Nicknames | Toku (德兵團,Toku heidan), "Virtue" |
| Engagements | |
| Kwantung Army | |||||||||||||||
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| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 關東軍 | ||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 关东军 | ||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | Army East of(Shanhai)guan | ||||||||||||||
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| Korean name | |||||||||||||||
| Hangul | 관동군 | ||||||||||||||
| Hanja | 關東軍 | ||||||||||||||
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| Japanese name | |||||||||||||||
| Kanji | 関東軍 | ||||||||||||||
| Kana | かんとうぐん | ||||||||||||||
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TheKwantung Army (Japanese: 関東軍,Kantō-gun) was ageneral army of theImperial Japanese Army from 1919 to 1945.
The Kwantung Army was formed in 1906 as a security force for theKwantung Leased Territory andSouth Manchurian Railway Zone after theRusso-Japanese War of 1904–1905 and expanded into an army group during theinterwar period to support Japanese interests inChina,Manchuria, andMongolia. The Kwantung Army became the most prestigious command in the Imperial Japanese Army, and many of its personnel won promotions to high positions in the Japanese military and civil government, includingHideki Tojo andSeishirō Itagaki. The Kwantung Army was largely responsible for the establishment and proxy control of theJapanese puppet-state ofManchukuo in Manchuria and functioned as one of the main Japanese fighting forces during the 1937–1945Second Sino-Japanese War.
In August 1945Soviet troops engaged the Kwantung Army during theManchurian Strategic Offensive Operation. The Kwantung Army surrendered to the Soviets on 16 August 1945, the day after thesurrender of Japan, and was subsequently dissolved.
The Kwantung Army perpetrated severalwar crimes duringWorld War II, sponsoringUnit 731, which both carried out acts ofbiological warfare and performedunethical human experimentation on civilians and Alliedprisoners of war.
In 1895,Qing China granted theKwantung Leased Territory, a valuableconcession territory on theLiaodong Peninsula, to theEmpire of Japan in theTreaty of Shimonoseki after their victory in theFirst Sino-Japanese War. The term "Kwantung" (traditional Chinese:關東;simplified Chinese:关东;pinyin:Guāndōng;Wade–Giles:Kwan1-tung1) means "east ofShanhaiguan", a guarded pass west ofManchuria, which was rendered inJapanese as "Kantō". TheRussian Empire had a particular interest in Kwantung, being one of the few areas in the region with the potential to developice-free ports for its expansion in theFar East, and Qing authorities withdrew the lease from the Japanese following theTriple Intervention, only weeks after it had been granted. Kwantung was leased to Russia in 1898, becomingRussian Dalian (Дальний) and developing the territory into a thriving trade port. TheRusso-Japanese War was fought between Russia and Japan from 1904 to 1905 over their rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria andKorea. Japanese victory led to the Qing returning the lease of Russian Dalian (re-establishing the Kwantung Leased Territory) and Japan gaining influence in the areas adjacent to theSouth Manchurian Railway.
The Kwantung Garrison was established in 1906 to defend this territory and originally was composed of aninfantry division and a heavy siege artillery battalion, supplemented with six independent garrison battalions as railway guards deployed along theSouth Manchurian Railway Zone, for a total troop strength of 14,000 men. It was headquartered inPort Arthur (known asRyojun in Japanese) and was administered as a department by the Kwantung Government-general, and the governor-general served concurrently as its commander. In 1919 the Kwantung Government general was replaced by separate civilian and military administration, the Kwantung Agency for Civilian Operations, and the Kwantung Army command.[1] In the highly politicizedImperial Japanese Army of the 1920s and 1930s, the Kwantung Army was a stronghold of the radical "Imperial Way Faction" (Kōdōha), and many of its senior leaders overtly advocated political change in Japan through the violent overthrow of the civilian government to bring about aShōwa Restoration, with a reorganization of society and the economy alongstate fascist lines. They also advocated a more aggressive, expansionist foreign policy regarding the Asian mainland. Members or former members of the Kwantung Army were active in numerous coup attempts against the civilian government, culminating with theFebruary 26 Incident of 1936, where theKōdōha faction was dissolved.[2]
Although the Kwantung Army was nominally subordinate to theImperial General Headquarters and the senior staff at theArmy General Staff located inTokyo, its leadership often acted in direct violation of the orders from mainland Japan without suffering any consequence. Conspirators within thejunior officer corps of the Kwantung Army plotted and carried out theassassination of Manchurian warlordZhang Zuolin in theHuanggutun Incident of 1928. Afterward, the Kwantung Army leadership engineered theMukden Incident and the subsequentinvasion of Manchuria in 1931, in a massive act of insubordination (gekokujo) against the express orders of the political and military leadership based in Tokyo.
Presented with thefait accompli, Imperial General Headquarters had little choice but to follow up on the actions of the Kwantung Army with reinforcements in the subsequentPacification of Manchukuo. The success of the campaign meant that the insubordination of the Kwantung Army was rewarded rather than punished. In 1932, the Kwantung Army was the main force responsible for the foundation ofManchukuo, thepuppet state of Japan located inNortheast China andInner Mongolia. The Kwantung Army played a controlling role in the political administration of the new state as well as in its defense. With the Kwantung Army, administering all aspects of the politics and economic development of the new state, this made the Kwantung Army's commanding officer equivalent to aGovernor-General with the authority to approve or countermand any command fromPuyi, the nominalEmperor of Manchukuo.[3] As a testament to the Kwantung Army's control over the government of Manchukuo, the Commander-in-Chief of the Kwantung Army also served as the Japanese Ambassador of Manchukuo.[4]
After the campaign to secure Manchukuo, the Kwantung Army continued to fight in numerous border skirmishes with China as part of itsefforts to create a Japanese-dominated buffer zone inNorthern China. The Kwantung Army also fought inOperation Nekka during the preceding phase of the Second Sino-Japanese War, and variousactions in Inner Mongolia to extend Japanese domination over portions of northern China and Inner Mongolia. When full-scale war broke out in theMarco Polo Bridge Incident in July 1937, its forces participated in theBattle of Beiping-Tianjin andOperation Chahar. Later, Kwantung forces supported the war in China from time to time.
However, by the late 1930s, the Kwantung Army's vaunted reputation was severely challenged during theSoviet–Japanese border conflicts that Japan had fought against theSoviet Union in northern Manchukuo since 1932. The Japanese force stalemated with the Soviet Union'sRed Army in theBattle of Lake Khasan in 1938,[citation needed] and lost the decisiveBattle of Nomonhan in 1939, during which time it sustained heavy casualties. After the "Nomonhan incident", the Kwantung Army was purged of its more insubordinate elements, as well as proponents of theHokushin-ron ("Northward Advance") doctrine who urged that Japan concentrate its expansionist efforts onSiberia rather southward towards China andSoutheast Asia.[5]
The Kwantung Army was heavily augmented over the next few years, up to a strength of 700,000 troops by 1941, and its headquarters was transferred to the new Manchukuo capital ofXinjing. The Kwantung Army also oversaw the creation, training, and equipping of an auxiliary force, theManchukuo Imperial Army. During this time, PrinceTsuneyoshi Takeda worked as a liaison officer between theImperial House and the Kwantung Army.[6] Although a source of constant unrest during the 1930s, the Kwantung Army remained remarkably obedient during the 1940s. As combat spread south intoCentral China andSouthern China in theSecond Sino-Japanese War, and with the outbreak of thePacific War, Manchukuo was largely a backwater to the conflict. However, as the war situation began to deteriorate for the Imperial Japanese Army on all fronts, the large, well-trained, and well-equipped Kwantung Army could no longer be held instrategic reserve. Many of its front-line units were systematically stripped of their best units and equipment, which were sent south to fight in the Pacific War against the forces of theUnited States in thePacific Islands or thePhilippines. Other units were sent south into China forOperation Ichi-Go.
By 1945, the Kwantung Army consisted of 713,000 personnel, divided into 31 infantry divisions, nine infantry brigades, two tank brigades, and one special purpose brigade. It possessed 1,155 light tanks, 5,360 guns, and 1,800 aircraft. The quality of troops had fallen drastically, as all the best men and materiel were siphoned off for use in other theaters. These forces were replaced by militia, draft levies, reservists, and cannibalized smaller units, all equipped with woefully outdated equipment.[7] The Kwantung Army was also equipped with bacteriological weapons, prepared for use against Soviet troops (seeUnit 731). The bulk of military equipment (artillery, tanks, aircraft) was developed in the 1930s, and very few of the soldiers had sufficient training or any real experience.
The Kwantung Army was outclassed and swiftly defeated in theSoviet invasion of Manchuria which began on 9 August 1945.
The final commanding officer of the Kwantung Army, GeneralOtozō Yamada, ordered a surrender on August 16, 1945, one day after Emperor Hirohito announced thesurrender of Japan in a radio announcement. Some Japanese divisions refused to surrender, and combat continued for the next few days.Marshal Hata received the "ultimatum to surrender" from Soviet GeneralGeorgii Shelakhov[8][9] inHarbin on August 18, 1945.[8] He was one of the senior generals who agreed with the decision to surrender, and on August 19, 1945, Hata met with MarshalAleksandr Vasilevsky,[10] but asked that he be stripped of his rank of Field Marshal in atonement for the Army's failures in the war.[11]
The remnants of the Kwantung Army were either dead or on their way to Sovietprisoner-of-war camps. Over 500,000Japanese prisoners of war were sent to work in Sovietlabor camps in Siberia,Russian Far East, andMongolia. They were largely repatriated, in stages, over the next five years, though some continued to be held well into the 1950s.
After the surrender of Japan, the Soviet Red Army discovered secret installations for experimenting with and producingchemical weapons andbiologicalweapons of mass destruction centered around Secret Army Unit 731 and its subsidiaries.[9] At these locations, the Kwantung Army was also responsible for some of the most infamousJapanese war crimes, including the operation of several human experimentation programs using live Chinese, American, and Russian[12] civilians, and POWs, directed by Dr.Shirō Ishii.
Arrested by theAmerican occupation authorities, Ishii and the 20,000 members of Unit 731 receivedimmunity from prosecution ofwar crimes before theTokyo tribunal of 1948, in exchange for germ warfare data based onhuman experimentation. On May 6, 1947, GeneralDouglas MacArthur wrote to Washington that "additional data, possibly some statements from Ishii probably can be obtained by informing Japanese involved that information will be retained in intelligence channels and will not be employed as 'War Crimes' evidence".[13] The deal was concluded in 1948.[citation needed] However, twelve members of Unit 731 and some members of the World War II leadership of the Kwantung Army were sentenced aswar criminals by theKhabarovsk War Crime Trials, while others were taken into custody by the United States, and sentenced at the 1948International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo. Among those sentenced to death were former generalsSeishirō Itagaki,Iwane Matsui,Kenji Doihara,Hideki Tōjō, andAkira Mutō.
| Name | From | To | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GeneralTachibana Kōichirō | 1919 | 6 January 1921 |
| 2 | GeneralMisao Kawai | 6 January 1921 | 10 May 1922 |
| 3 | GeneralShinobu Ono | 10 May 1922 | 10 October 1923 |
| 4 | GeneralYoshinori Shirakawa | 10 October 1923 | 28 July 1926 |
| 5 | Field MarshalBaronNobuyoshi Mutō | 28 July 1926 | 26 August 1927 |
| 6 | GeneralChotaro Muraoka | 26 August 1927 | 1 July 1929 |
| 7 | GeneralEitaro Hata | 1 July 1929 | 31 May 1930 |
| 8 | GeneralTakashi Hishikari | 3 June 1930 | 1 August 1931 |
| 9 | GeneralShigeru Honjō | 1 August 1931 | 8 August 1932 |
| 10 | Field MarshalBaronNobuyoshi Mutō | 8 August 1932 | 27 July 1933 |
| 11 | GeneralTakashi Hishikari | 29 July 1933 | 10 December 1934 |
| 12 | GeneralJirō Minami | 10 December 1934 | 6 March 1936 |
| 13 | GeneralKenkichi Ueda | 6 March 1936 | 7 September 1939 |
| 14 | GeneralYoshijirō Umezu | 7 September 1939 | 18 July 1944 |
| 14 | GeneralOtozō Yamada | 18 July 1944 | 11 August 1945 |
| Name | From | To | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Major GeneralMatasuke Hamamo | 12 April 1919 | 11 March 1921 |
| 2 | Major GeneralKaya Fukuhara | 11 March 1921 | 6 August 1923 |
| 3 | Major GeneralAkiharu Kawada | 6 August 1923 | 2 December 1925 |
| 4 | Major GeneralTsune Saito | 2 December 1925 | 10 August 1928 |
| 5 | Major GeneralKoji Miyake | 10 August 1928 | 8 August 1932 |
| 6 | Lieutenant GeneralKuniaki Koiso | 8 August 1932 | 5 March 1934 |
| 7 | Lieutenant GeneralToshizo Nishio | 5 March 1934 | 23 March 1936 |
| 8 | Major GeneralSeishirō Itagaki | 23 March 1936 | 1 March 1937 |
| 9 | Lieutenant GeneralHideki Tōjō | 1 March 1937 | 30 May 1938 |
| 10 | Lieutenant GeneralRensuke Isogai | 18 June 1938 | 7 September 1939 |
| 11 | Lieutenant GeneralJo Iimura | 7 September 1939 | 22 October 1940 |
| 12 | Lieutenant GeneralHeitarō Kimura | 22 October 1940 | 10 April 1941 |
| 13 | Lieutenant GeneralTeiichi Yoshimoto | 10 April 1941 | 1 August 1942 |
| 14 | Lieutenant GeneralYukio Kasahara | 1 August 1942 | 7 April 1945 |
| 15 | Lieutenant GeneralHikosaburo Hata | 7 April 1945 | 11 August 1945 |
| International | |
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| National | |
