The was an infantry division in the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emper ...

. Its ''

tsūshōgō were unit code names used by the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) during World War II. Each ''tsūshōgō'' consisted of a and a . Unit Character Codes typically consisted of one character, although some units established in the late stages of the ...

'' was .

History

The 2nd Division was formed in

Sendai, Miyagi is the capital city of Miyagi Prefecture, the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,091,407 in 525,828 households, and is one of Japan's 20 designated cities. The city was founded in 1600 by the '' daimyō'' Da ...

, in January 1871 as the , one of six regional commands created in the fledgling Imperial Japanese Army. The Sendai Garrison had responsibility for northern

Honshū , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island sepa ...

(the Tohoku region), ranging from

Fukushima Prefecture Fukushima Prefecture (; ja, 福島県, Fukushima-ken, ) is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Fukushima Prefecture has a population of 1,810,286 () and has a geographic area of . Fukushima Prefecture borders Miyagi ...

in the south to

Aomori Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku region. The prefecture's capital, largest city, and namesake is the city of Aomori. Aomori is the northernmost prefecture on Japan's main island, Honshu, and is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the eas ...

in the north. The six regional commands were transformed into divisions under the army reorganization of 14 May 1888. The headquarters of the 2nd Division was located in the ''Ni-no-maru'' of Sendai Castle, where the campus of

Tohoku University , or is a Japanese national university located in Sendai, Miyagi in the Tōhoku Region, Japan. It is informally referred to as . Established in 1907, it was the third Imperial University in Japan and among the first three Designated Natio ...

is now located. Its original composition included the 4th Infantry Regiment (raised in

Sendai is the capital city of Miyagi Prefecture, the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,091,407 in 525,828 households, and is one of Japan's 20 designated cities. The city was founded in 1600 by the ''daimyō'' Date M ...

), 5th Infantry Regiment (raised in

Aomori is the capital city of Aomori Prefecture, in the Tōhoku region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 278,964 in 136,457 households, and a population density of 340 people per square kilometer spread over the city's total are ...

), 16th Infantry Regiment (raised in Shibata) and the 17th Infantry Regiment (raised in Akita). In the reorganization prior to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the 29th Infantry Regiment (raised in Wakamatsu) was added.

First Sino-Japanese War The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895) was a conflict between China and Japan primarily over influence in Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the p ...
and the
Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

The 2nd Division saw combat during the

First Sino-Japanese War The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895) was a conflict between China and Japan primarily over influence in Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the p ...

at the Battle of Weihaiwei. Following the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, elements of the 2nd Division were used to form the core of the new

IJA 7th Division was an infantry division in the Imperial Japanese Army. Its call-sign was the . The 7th Division was formed in Sapporo, Hokkaidō on 12 May 1888, as the first new infantry division formed by the reorganization of the Imperial Japanese Army from ...

based in

Hokkaido is Japan, Japan's Japanese archipelago, second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost Prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own List of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; th ...

and the IJA 8th Division based in

Hirosaki, Aomori is a city located in western Aomori Prefecture, Japan. On 1 April 2020, the city had an estimated population of 168,739 in 71,716 households, and a population density of . The total area of the city is . Hirosaki developed as a castle town fo ...

. Likewise, the 2nd Division was active in most of the major battles of the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

as part of General

Kuroki Tamemoto Count was a Japanese general in the Imperial Japanese Army. He was the head of the Japanese First Army during the Russo-Japanese War; and his forces enjoyed a series of successes during the Manchurian fighting at the Battle of Yalu River, the ...

's First Army, including the

Battle of Liaoyang The (russian: Сражение при Ляояне) was the first major land battle of the Russo-Japanese War, on the outskirts of the city of Liaoyang in present-day Liaoning Province, China. The city was of great strategic importance as the ...

Battle of Shaho The Battle of Shaho ( ja, 沙河会戦 (''Saka no kaisen''), russian: Сражение на реке Шахе) was the second large-scale land battle of the Russo-Japanese War fought along a front centered at the Shaho River along the Mukden– P ...

and Battle of Mukden, and gained a reputation for excellence in night operations. Some of its more noteworthy commanders included

Sakuma Samata General Count was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, and 5th Governor-General of Taiwan from 11 April 1906 to May 1915. Biography Sakuma was born in Abu District, Nagato Province (present day Hagi, Yamaguchi), as the younger son of Ok ...

, Nogi Maresuke, Nishi Kanjiro, HIH Prince Higashikuni Naruhiko, and Umezu Yoshijiro.

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific T ...
and Soviet–Japanese border conflicts

From 1930 to 1933, the 2nd Division was under the command of Lieutenant-General

Jiro Tamon Jiro is the registered name used by Sun Microsystems for an extension to Java and Jini. Jiro as an industry initiative, along with an EMC initiative called "Wide Sky" were catalysts in the late nineties for a common interface to storage devices, ...

. In 1931, it was transferred to the Kwantung Army in

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...

, it took the lead in the initial operations of the invasion of Manchuria, then in the Jiangqiao Campaign,

Chinchow Operation The Jinzhou Operation or Chinchow Operation was an operation in 1931 during the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, which was a preliminary, contributing factor to the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. Background In late November 19 ...

, and in overcoming the

defense of Harbin The Defense of Harbin () occurred during the early Second Sino-Japanese War, as part of the campaign of the Invasion of Manchuria by forces of the Empire of Japan from 25 January to 4 February 1932. Background After General Ma Zhanshan had bee ...

, following the

Mukden Incident The Mukden Incident, or Manchurian Incident, known in Chinese as the 9.18 Incident (九・一八), was a false flag event staged by Japanese military personnel as a pretext for the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria. On September 18, 1931, ...

. After the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific T ...

started in July 1937, 15th Mixed Brigade from the 2nd Division saw combat in the

invasion An invasion is a military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitical entity aggressively enter territory owned by another such entity, generally with the objective of either: conquering; liberating or re-establishing ...

of Chahar, in August 1937, and in the

Battle of Xuzhou The Battle of Xuzhou was a military conflict between the Empire of Japan and the Republic of China forces in May 1938 during the Second Sino-Japanese War. History In 1937 the North China Area Army had chased Song Zheyuan's 29th Army to the ...

(March 1938) where 3rd Infantry Brigade was temporarily assigned to the

North China Area Army The was an area army of the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War. History The Japanese North China Area Army was formed on August 21, 1937 under the control of the Imperial General Headquarters. It was transferred to t ...

. Later in 1939, the 2nd Division was under 3rd Army which was facing the southern half of the border of the Maritime province of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

from

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic ...

northward. The Katayama Detachment from 2nd Division, (consisting of the 15th Infantry Brigade, with 16th and 30th Infantry Regiments, and a field artillery battalion) fought small actions near Akiyama heights, or Heights 997 on 6–10 September 1939, in the closing stages of the Battle of Khalkhin Gol 2nd Division (and the 4th Division) as part of the

Japanese Sixth Army The was an army of the Imperial Japanese Army initially based in Manchukuo as a garrison force under the overall command of the Kwantung Army. At the end of World War II it was active in east China. History The Japanese 6th Army was initi ...

. Because the projected counterattack that was canceled when a ceasefire was signed 16 September 1939, the fighting ceased.

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vas ...

The 2nd Division, led by Masao Maruyama,Rottman, p. 10 was reassigned to the southern front under Field Marshal Terauchi Hisaichi's Southern Area Army, and was one of the divisions which occupied the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, whic ...

. In particular, it landed in Port of Merak on western

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...

1 March 1942, proceeding to

Bandung Bandung ( su, ᮘᮔ᮪ᮓᮥᮀ, Bandung, ; ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of West Java. It has a population of 2,452,943 within its city limits according to the official estimates as at mid 2021, making it the fourth most ...

9 March 1942. After surrender of Dutch forces, the ''2nd Division'' was transferred to

Rabaul Rabaul () is a township in the East New Britain province of Papua New Guinea, on the island of New Britain. It lies about 600 kilometres to the east of the island of New Guinea. Rabaul was the provincial capital and most important settlement in ...

13 September 1942. The

Aoba Detachment Aoba Detachment ( ja, 青葉支隊) was the reinforced 4th Infantry Regiment/ IJA 2nd Division, a part of the Seventeenth Army. The commander of the Aoba Detachment was Major General Yumio Nasu, the commander of the 2nd Division's Infantry Group. ...

split from division and was briefly considered for deployment during the

New Guinea Campaign The New Guinea campaign of the Pacific War lasted from January 1942 until the end of the war in August 1945. During the initial phase in early 1942, the Empire of Japan invaded the Australian-administered Mandated Territory of New Guinea (23 Jan ...

in late August 1942, but it soon rejoined the division as the situation at

Guadalcanal Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the south-western Pacific, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomon Islands by area, and the se ...

deteriorated. On 1–5 October 1942, the division landed on the west coast of Matanikau River on Guadalcanal, resulting in the

Actions along the Matanikau The Actions along the Matanikau—sometimes referred to as the Second and Third Battles of the Matanikau—were two separate but related engagements between the United States and Imperial Japanese naval and ground forces in the Pacific theate ...

. The ''2nd Division'' lost at least 700 troops that time. The

Battle for Henderson Field The Battle for Henderson Field, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal or Battle of Lunga Point by the Japanese, took place from 23 to 26 October 1942 on and around Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. The battle was a land, sea, and air battle ...

which started 24 October 1942, resulted in crippling losses for the division as all Japanese attacks were repulsed. The division total loss of the disastrous Battle of Guadalcanal in the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...

was over 7,000 men. Afterwards, the ''2nd Division'' was assigned to garrison duties in occupied Malaya and

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

. In 1944, it was ordered to

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

to resist the British reoccupation. After performing coastal duties in Arakan the division was reassigned directly to Burma Area Army in May. Used as a strategic reserve it was largely annihilated in the subsequent conflict. Its remnants were assigned to the Japanese 38th Army in

French Indochina French Indochina (previously spelled as French Indo-China),; vi, Đông Dương thuộc Pháp, , lit. 'East Ocean under French Control; km, ឥណ្ឌូចិនបារាំង, ; th, อินโดจีนฝรั่งเศส, ...

, and disbanded at the end of

Saigon , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info = 2019 , blank1_name = – Total , blank1_ ...

Assignments

*April 1931: Kwantung Army,

. 　Operated in the Invasion of Manchuria and later the Pacification of Manchukuo. *10 February 1937: Kwantung Army,

Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of (Great) Manchuria after 1934, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Manchuria from 1932 until 1945. It was founded as a republic in 1932 after the Japanese ...

. 　Detached 15th Mixed Brigade served in Operation Chahar. *21 July 1938: 3rd Army, Kwantung Army, Manchukuo.
Detached 15th Mixed Brigade served in Nomonhan/Khalkhin Gol Campaign. *27 September 1940: Eastern Army, Japan. *6 November 1941: 16th Army, Japan. 　For the operation against Java. *August 1942: 17th Army, Solomon Islands.
　　

Guadalcanal campaign The Guadalcanal campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal and codenamed Operation Watchtower by American forces, was a military campaign fought between 7 August 1942 and 9 February 1943 on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the ...

*January 1944: 18th Army, South Burma. *February 1945: 38th Army, Indochina.

References

Sources

* Madej, W. Victor, ''Japanese Armed Forces Order of Battle, 1937-1945 vols', Allentown, PA: 1981. * Coox, Alvin D., ''Nomonhan, Japan Against Russia, 1939''. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA: 1985. *

External links