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 in
Hubei
Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The ...
province, simultaneously with the
62nd and
63rd divisions as a security (type C) division. The nucleus for the formation was the
12th
12 (twelve) is the natural number following 11 and preceding 13. Twelve is a superior highly composite number, divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6.
It is the number of years required for an orbital period of Jupiter. It is central to many systems ...
from
Chuzhou. As a security division, it lacked an artillery regiment. The men of the division were drafted from the
Hiroshima mobilization district.
Action
On 10 July 1943, the 64th division was assigned to the
20th army. The division was then garrisoned in
Yangzhou
Yangzhou, postal romanization Yangchow, is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu Province (Suzhong), East China. Sitting on the north bank of the Yangtze, it borders the provincial capital Nanjing to the southwest, Huai'an to the north ...
,
Jiangbei District, Ningbo
Jiangbei District () is a county-level district under the jurisdiction of Ningbo city in Zhejiang Province of the People's Republic of China. The district's total area is 209 square kilometers, which makes it the largest subdivision in the traditi ...
,
Zhenjiang
Zhenjiang, alternately romanized as Chinkiang, is a prefecture-level city in Jiangsu Province, China. It lies on the southern bank of the Yangtze River near its intersection with the Grand Canal. It is opposite Yangzhou (to its north) and ...
, and
Wuxi
Wuxi (, ) is a city in southern Jiangsu province, eastern China, by car to the northwest of downtown Shanghai, between Changzhou and Suzhou. In 2017 it had a population of 3,542,319, with 6,553,000 living in the entire prefecture-level city ar ...
. With the
11th army planning the
Battle of Changsha in March 1944, the 64th division was reassigned to the
Changsha
Changsha (; ; ; Changshanese pronunciation: (), Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is the Capital city, capital and the largest city of Hunan Province of China. Changsha is the 17th most populous city in China with a popul ...
area.
The 64th division started to participate in
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 ...
from October 1944. It was still in Changsha at the day of
surrender of Japan, 15 August 1945.
The divisions was able to concentrate at headquarters from 6 September 1945. On 1 May 1946 evacuation started via the
Yueyang
Yueyang, formerly known as Yuezhou or Yochow, is a prefecture-level city on the eastern shores of Dongting Lake and Yangtze in the northeastern corner of Hunan Province in the People's Republic of China.
Yueyang has an administrative area of a ...
-
Wuchang
Wuchang forms part of the urban core of and is one of 13 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, China. It is the oldest of the three cities that merged into modern-day Wuhan, and stood on the ri ...
-
Hankou
Hankou, alternately romanized as Hankow (), was one of the three towns (the other two were Wuchang and Hanyang) merged to become modern-day Wuhan city, the capital of the Hubei province, China. It stands north of the Han and Yangtze Rivers whe ...
-
Zhengzhou -
Xuzhou
Xuzhou (徐州), also known as Pengcheng (彭城) in ancient times, is a major city in northwestern Jiangsu province, China. The city, with a recorded population of 9,083,790 at the 2020 census (3,135,660 of which lived in the built-up area ma ...
-
Nanjing
Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...
route, finally arriving in
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 10 June 1946. On 20 June six parties sailed from Shanghai to
Sasebo
is a core city located in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. It is also the second largest city in Nagasaki Prefecture, after its capital, Nagasaki. On 1 June 2019, the city had an estimated population of 247,739 and a population density of 581 persons p ...
, and were demobilized on 15 July 1946. 79 men left Shanghai on 24 June 1946, and arrived at
Kagoshima
, abbreviated to , is the capital city of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. Located at the southwestern tip of the island of Kyushu, Kagoshima is the largest city in the prefecture by some margin. It has been nicknamed the "Naples of the Eastern wor ...
on 2 July to be immediately demobilized. The first large batch, the veterinary department and other auxiliaries, totalling 344 men, sailed from Shanghai on 25 June 1946, arriving at Sasebo on 26 June 1946, and at
Fukuoka
is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since anc ...
on 1 July 1946. That batch was demobilized on 6 July 1946. On 1 July 1946, main divisional troops started to depart from Shanghai, and the last batch of 532 soldiers was demobilized in
Uraga on 1 August 1946.
64th Division (Kai)
/ref>
See also
* List of Japanese Infantry Divisions
Notes
*This article incorporates material from Japanese Wikipedia page 第64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:64th 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 1946
1943 establishments in Japan
1946 disestablishments in Japan