The was the major

navy base A naval base, navy base, or military port is a military base, where warships and naval ships are docked when they have no mission at sea or need to restock. Ships may also undergo repairs. Some naval bases are temporary homes to aircraft that us ...

for the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

Korea under Japanese rule Between 1910 and 1945, Korea was ruled as a part of the Empire of Japan. Joseon Korea had come into the Japanese sphere of influence with the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876; a complex coalition of the Meiji government, military, and business offic ...

before and during

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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Located in southern Korea (at present-day

Jinhae Jinhae-gu (Hangul: 진해구, Hanja: 鎭海區) is a district in Changwon City, South Korea. This region is served by the Korean National Railroad, and is famous for its annual cherry blossom festival every spring. The city front is on a shelter ...

Republic of Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its east ...

, ), the Chinkai Guard District was responsible for control of the strategic

Straits of Shimonoseki The or the Straits of Shimonoseki is the stretch of water separating Honshu and Kyushu, two of Japan's four main islands. On the Honshu side of the strait is Shimonoseki (, which contributed "Kan" () to the name of the strait) and on the Kyushu ...

and for patrols along the Korean coastline and in the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it h ...

History

The were second tier naval bases, similar to the first tier , with docking, fueling and resupply facilities, but typically lacked a shipyard or training school. They tended to be established by strategic waterways or major port cities for defensive purposes. In concept, the Guard District was similar to the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

Sea Frontier Sea Frontiers were several, now disestablished, commands of the United States Navy as areas of defense against enemy vessels, especially submarines, along the U.S. coasts. They existed from 1 July 1941 until in some cases the 1970s. Sea Frontiers ...

s concept. the Guard District maintained a small

garrison A garrison (from the French ''garnison'', itself from the verb ''garnir'', "to equip") is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a mil ...

force of ships and Naval Land Forces which reported directly to the Guard District commander, and hosted detachments of the numbered fleets on a temporary assignment basis. The port of Chinkai in Korea was an area with long associations with Japan, having been the location of a Japanese trading settlement in the 15th and 16th centuries. More recently, it was the location where Admiral

Tōgō Heihachirō Marshal-Admiral Marquis , served as a '' gensui'' or admiral of the fleet in the Imperial Japanese Navy and became one of Japan's greatest naval heroes. He claimed descent from Samurai Shijo Kingo, and he was an integral part of preserving ...

assembled his

Combined Fleet The was the main sea-going component of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Until 1933, the Combined Fleet was not a permanent organization, but a temporary force formed for the duration of a conflict or major naval maneuvers from various units norm ...

while waiting for the arrival of the

Russian Baltic Fleet , image = Great emblem of the Baltic fleet.svg , image_size = 150 , caption = Baltic Fleet Great ensign , dates = 18 May 1703 – present , country = , allegiance = (1703–1721) (1721–1917) (1917–1922) (1922–1991)(1991–present) ...

prior to the

Battle of Tsushima The Battle of Tsushima (Japanese:対馬沖海戦, Tsushimaoki''-Kaisen'', russian: Цусимское сражение, ''Tsusimskoye srazheniye''), also known as the Battle of Tsushima Strait and the Naval Battle of Sea of Japan (Japanese: 日 ...

in 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 ...

. After the

annexation of Korea Annexation (Latin ''ad'', to, and ''nexus'', joining), in international law, is the forcible acquisition of one state's territory by another state, usually following military occupation of the territory. It is generally held to be an illegal act ...

by the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent fo ...

in 1905, the Imperial Japanese Navy built extensive port facilities, transforming the small town into a major naval port. The port was upgraded to a Guard District on April 1, 1916; however, after the Russo-Japanese War it lost most of its strategic importance and was regarded as somewhat of a backwater assignment. On the

surrender of Japan The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the war's hostilities to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy ...

, Chinkai was occupied by Destroyer Squadron 64 from the

led by the USS ''Harry E. Hubbard'' (DD-748). It was repaired and continued to be used as a naval base during the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

. After the independence of Korea in 1945, the naval base was turned over to the

Republic of Korea Navy The Republic of Korea Navy (ROKN; ko, 대한민국 해군), also known as the ROK Navy or South Korean Navy, is the naval warfare service branch of the South Korean armed forces, responsible for naval and amphibious operations. The ROK Navy in ...

, and remains a major naval base to this date. A subsidiary naval base reporting to the Chinkai Guard District existed at Rashin (present day

Rason Rason (formerly Rajin-Sŏnbong; ) is a North Korean special city and ice-free port in the Sea of Japan in the North Pacific Ocean on the northeast tip of North Korea. It is in the Kwanbuk region and location of the Rason Special Economic Zon ...

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

), , on the east coast of Korea near the border with 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 national ...

Order of battle at time of the
attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...

*Chinkai Guard District (Admiral Ikuta Sakamoto) ** Japanese destroyer ''Minekaze'' **AP ''Ryotaku Maru'' *Chinkai Air Group **6 ×

Kawanishi E7K The Kawanishi E7K was a Japanese three-seat reconnaissance seaplane mainly in use during the 1930s. It was allocated the reporting name Alf by the Allies of World War II. Design and development In 1932 the Imperial Japanese Navy requested the K ...

Alf *Chinkai Guard Force **Destroyer Division 32 (Admiral Owada) ***Japanese destroyer ''Asagao'' ***Japanese destroyer ''Fuyo'' ***Japanese destroyer ''Karukaya'' **Minesweeper Division 48 **Minesweeper Division 49 **Rashin Base Force (Admiral Sukigara)

List of Commanders

Commanding Officer

*Vice-Admiral Kujuro Yamaguchi (1 Apr 1916 - 1 Dec 1916) *Vice-Admiral Kichitaro Togo (1 Dec 1916 - 1 Dec 1918) *Vice-Admiral Hiromi Tadokoro (1 Dec 1918 - 1 Dec 1919) *Vice-Admiral Tomojiro Chisaka (1 Dec 1919 - 1 Dec 1920) *Vice-Admiral Kazuyoshi Yamaji (1 Dec 1920 - 1 Dec 1922) *Admiral Saburo Hyakutake (1 Dec 1922 - 1 Jun 1923) *Vice-Admiral Shozo Kuwashima (1 Jun 1923 - 5 Feb 1924) *Vice-Admiral Kikuo Matsumura (5 Feb 1924 - 15 Apr 1925) *Vice-Admiral Taro Inutsuka (15 Apr 1925 - 1 Dec 1926) *Vice-Admiral Naotaro Nagasawa (1 Dec 1926 - 1 Dec 1927) *Vice-Admiral Junichi Kiyokawa (1 Dec 1927 - 1 Jul 1929) *Vice-Admiral Kanjiro Hara (1 Jul 1929 - 1 Dec 1930) *Admiral

Mitsumasa Yonai was a Japanese general and politician. He served as admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy, Minister of the Navy, and Prime Minister of Japan in 1940. Early life and career Yonai was born on 2 March 1880, in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture, the firs ...

(1 Dec 1930 - 1 Dec 1932) *Admiral Koichi Shiozawa (1 Dec 1932 - 17 Jan 1934) *Vice-Admiral Hisao Ichimura (17 Jan 1934 - 15 Nov 1934) *Vice-Admiral Seizaburo Kobayashi (15 Nov 1934 - 16 Mar 1936) *Vice-Admiral Tsugumatsu Inoue (16 Mar 1936 - 1 Dec 1936) *Vice-Admiral Keitaro Hara (1 Dec 1936 - 1 Dec 1937) *Vice-Admiral Jugoro Arichi (1 Dec 1937 - 15 Nov 1938) *Vice-Admiral Sonosuke Kobayashi (15 Nov 1938 - 15 Apr 1940) *Admiral Nishizo Tsukahara (15 Apr 1940 - 1 Sep 1941) *Vice-Admiral Ikuta Sakamoto (1 Sep 1941 - 15 Sep 1942) *Vice-Admiral Eiji Goto (15 Sep 1942 - 9 Sep 1944) *Vice-Admiral Takazumi Oka (9 Sep 1944 - 20 Apr 1945) *Vice-Admiral Gisaburo Yamaguchi (20 Apr 1945 - Sep 1945)

Chief of Staff

* Rear-Admiral Tsuneha Sano (4 Apr 1916 - 1 Dec 1917) * Rear-Admiral Heigo Teraoka (1 Dec 1917 - 26 May 1919) * Rear-Admiral Yasuzo Torisaki (15 Jun 1921 - 10 Nov 1922) * Rear-Admiral Chikateru Takasaki (10 Nov 1922 - 1 Dec 1924) * Rear-Admiral Naojiro Honshuku (1 Dec 1924 - 1 Dec 1926) * Rear-Admiral Sunao Matsuzaki (1 Dec 1926 - 10 Dec 1928) * Rear-Admiral Kentaro Kojima (15 Nov 1930 - 15 Nov 1932) * Vice-Admiral Yoshinobu Shishido (15 Nov 1932 - 1 Nov 1934) * Rear-Admiral Kohei Ochi (1 Nov 1934 - 1 Dec 1936) * Rear-Admiral Junichi Mizuno (1 Dec 1936 - 1 Dec 1937) * Vice-Admiral Sadaichi Matsunaga (1 Dec 1937 - 15 Nov 1939) * Vice-Admiral Tamotsu Takama (15 Nov 1939 - 15 Nov 1940) * Rear-Admiral Shigeki Ando (15 Nov 1940 - 25 Feb 1942) * Rear-Admiral Keiichi Onishi (25 Feb 1942 - 25 Jun 1943) * Rear-Admiral Katsuya Sato (25 Jun 1943 - 15 Aug 1944) * Rear-Admiral Chitoshi Ishizuka (15 Aug 1944 - 15 Apr 1945) * Rear-Admiral Haruo Katsuta (15 Apr 1945 - 29 Nov 1945)

References

* * *

External links

* *{{cite web , last = Budge , first = Kent G. , url=http://pwencycl.kgbudge.com/J/a/Japanese_Chinkai_Guard_District.html , title = Pacific War Online Database Imperial Japanese Navy Naval history of Korea