The was an

infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...

division Division or divider may refer to: Mathematics *Division (mathematics), the inverse of multiplication *Division algorithm, a method for computing the result of mathematical division Military *Division (military), a formation typically consisting ...

of 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 Emperor o ...

. Its

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assign ...

was the . It was formed on 1 May 1943 at Taiyuan, simultaneously with the 63rd Division as a security (type C) division. The nucleus for the formation was the 4th and a part of the 6th Independent Mixed Brigades. As a security division, it lacked an artillery regiment. The division was initially assigned to the

1st Army First Army may refer to: China * New 1st Army, Republic of China * First Field Army, a Communist Party of China unit in the Chinese Civil War * 1st Group Army, People's Republic of China Germany * 1st Army (German Empire), a World War I field Arm ...

Action

Upon formation, the ''62nd Division'' performed the garrison duties of the independent mixed brigades it replaced. From March 1944, it was assigned to 12th Army and participated in the

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

part of

Operation Ichi-Go Operation Ichi-Go ( ja, 一号作戦, Ichi-gō Sakusen, lit=Operation Number One) was a campaign of a series of major battles between the Imperial Japanese Army forces and the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China, fought from A ...

. After the fighting subsided in July 1944, the ''62nd Division'' was removed from the front lines and subordinated first to the

China Expeditionary Army The was a general army of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1939 to 1945. The China Expeditionary Army was established in September 1939 from the merger of the Central China Expeditionary Army and Japanese Northern China Area Army, and was headq ...

and later directly to the Emperor's control. In August 1944, the ''62nd Division'' was assigned to the 32nd Army and sent to the

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

n main island. The main batch of troops left

Wusong District Wusong, formerly romanized as Woosung, is a subdistrict of Baoshan in northern Shanghai. Prior to the city's expansion, it was a separate port town located down the Huangpu River from Shanghai's urban core. Name Wusong is named for the W ...

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

on 16 August 1944 and arrived at

Naha is the capital city of Okinawa Prefecture, the southernmost prefecture of Japan. As of 1 June 2019, the city has an estimated population of 317,405 and a population density of 7,939 persons per km2 (20,562 persons per sq. mi.). The total area ...

on 19 August 1944. Soon afterward one of the divisional transports, the '' Tsushima Maru'', was sunk on 22 August 1944 with a heavy death toll, as the majority of the passengers were evacuated schoolchildren. By December 1944 the ''62nd Division'' had left the coastal defenses and manned the then vacant positions left by the 9th Division, which had left for

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

. In February 1945, the positions were further changed to include more of the large cities, with the goal of training militia units from the local population. This deployment resulted in significantly lower morale due to the abandonment of nearly complete coastal fortifications. It was decided to use the partially completed fortifications as false targets by

Mitsuru Ushijima was a Japanese general who served during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. He was the commanding general of the 32nd Army, which fought in the Battle of Okinawa during the final stages of the war. Ushijima's troops were defeated, ...

. Starting on 1 April 1945, the division fought in the Battle of Okinawa, countering an initial US advances at Chatan-Toguchi to the north and

- Yonabaru to the south. Also, the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 22nd Infantry Regiment had been transferred from the 24th Division to the area of what is now

Kadena Air Base (IATA: DNA, ICAO: RODN) is a highly strategic United States Air Force base in the towns of Kadena and Chatan and the city of Okinawa, in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. It is often referred to as the "Keystone of the Pacific" because of its highl ...

, under command of the ''62nd Division''. As front lines stabilized, the ''62nd Division'' was defending the positions in the Battle of Kakazu Ridge. The 13th Independent Infantry Battalion fought with particular distinction. Other important battlegrounds were Makiminato, Ganeko, and the line. The ''62nd Division'' was forced to start a retreat on 23 April 1945 and was completely annihilated on 22 June 1945 on the southern tip of Okinawa Island by the

1st Marine Division The 1st Marine Division (1st MARDIV) is a Marine division of the United States Marine Corps headquartered at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California. It is the ground combat element of the I Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF). It is th ...

.Robert O'Neill, "The Pacific War: From Pearl Harbor to Okinawa", chapter "THE LAST STAND"

Notes

*This article incorporates material from Japanese Wikipedia page 第62師団 (日本軍), accessed 13 June 2016

Reference and further reading

* Madej, W. Victor. ''Japanese Armed Forces Order of Battle, 1937-1945'' volsAllentown, PA: 1981 {{DEFAULTSORT:62nd Division (Imperial Japanese Army) Japanese World War II divisions Infantry divisions of Japan Military units and formations established in 1943 Military units and formations disestablished in 1945 1943 establishments in Japan 1945 disestablishments in Japan

Action

See also

Notes

Reference and further reading