were unit

code names A code name, call sign or cryptonym is a code word or name used, sometimes clandestinely, to refer to another name, word, project, or person. Code names are often used for military purposes, or in espionage. They may also be used in industrial c ...

used by 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 ...

(IJA) 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 ...

. Each ''tsūshōgō'' consisted of a and a . Unit Character Codes typically consisted of one

character Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...

, although some units established in the late stages of the war had two-character codes. Unmobilized units were assigned area codes, such as for those units under the jurisdiction of the

Eastern District Army The was a field army of the Imperial Japanese Army responsible for the defense of the Kantō region and northern Honshū during the Pacific War. It was one of the regional commands in the Japanese home islands reporting to the General Defense ...

. Code Numbers were three to five digit long numbers unique to each IJA unit. For example, the 116th Division was assigned as its Unit Character Code. The tsūshōgō of some of its subordinate units were: 第116師団衛生隊
/ref> * * Arashi 6213 - 109th Infantry Regiment * Arashi 6214 - 133rd Infantry Regiment * Arashi 6222 - 122nd Field Artillery Regiment * Arashi 6225 - 116th Construction Regiment * Arashi 6227 - 116th Transport Regiment

Unit 731 , short for Manshu Detachment 731 and also known as the Kamo Detachment and Ishii Unit, was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that engaged in lethal human experimentatio ...

is another example of a tsūshōgō. Officially named the , the unit was assigned the code name Manshū 731. was the Unit Character Code assigned to some units of the Kwantung Army.

References

* War History Office of Japan's Ministry of Defense ''戦史叢書　陸海軍年表　付　兵語・用語の解説'', (

Senshi Sōshō is a Japanese word for "combatant", "soldier", or "warrior". Senshi may also refer to: * Senshi (wrestler) (born 1979), American professional wrestler Brandon Silvestry, who now goes by Low Ki * Sailor Senshi, a fictional team of ten magical g ...

No.102), Tokyo, Asagumo-Shimbun, 1980.

Notes

External links

兵団文字符一覧
- List of Unit Character Codes as of 1945 (Japanese) {{DEFAULTSORT:Tsushogo Imperial Japanese Army Code names