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 2 February 1942 at

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 ...

as a security (class C) division, simultaneously with 59th and 60th divisions. The nucleus for the formation was the 18th Independent Mixed Brigade. Also, many of the soldiers of the 136th Infantry Brigade of the 106th Division, demobilized in 1940, were re-employed in the 58th Division. As a security division, the 58th Division's backbone consisted of independent infantry battalions, and it did not include an artillery regiment.

Action

Immediately after being formed in

, the 58th Division was transferred to

Yingcheng Yingcheng () is a county-level city of about 600,000 inhabitants in Xiaogan, eastern Hubei province, People's Republic of China. History On December 26, 2019, a minor earthquake struck the area. Township-level divisions Five subdistricts: * Chen ...

and continued at first to perform the security duties of the 18th Independent Mixed Brigade. In May 1943, the ''58th Division'' participated in the inconclusive

Battle of West Hubei The Battle of West Hubei (), was one of 22 major engagements between the National Revolutionary Army and Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War. It was also one of four major battles that took place in Hubei. It resulted i ...

, helping to temporarily secure the

Yichang Yichang (), alternatively romanized as Ichang, is a prefecture-level city located in western Hubei province, China. It is the third largest city in the province after the capital, Wuhan and the prefecture-level city Xiangyang, by urban populati ...

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei Province in the People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the ninth-most populous Chinese city an ...

riverway. The 58th Division participated 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 May 1944, operating around

Hengyang Hengyang (; ) is the second largest city of Hunan Province, China. It straddles the Xiang River about south of the provincial capital of Changsha. As of the 2020 Chinese census, Its total population was 6,645,243 inhabitants, whom 1,290,715 l ...

between 20 July and 8 August 1944Chapter XI The China Crisis of 1944 The Defense of Heng-yang
/ref> and later around

Guilin Guilin (Standard Zhuang: ''Gveilinz''; alternatively romanized as Kweilin) is a prefecture-level city in the northeast of China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It is situated on the west bank of the Li River and borders Hunan to the nort ...

. As the Japanese forces achieved a breakthrough, the division was assigned to the Eleventh Army headquarters in

Liuzhou Liuzhou (; , IPA Pronunciation:) is a prefecture-level city in north-central Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China. The prefecture's population was 3,758,700 in 2010, including 1,436,599 in the built-up area made of 4 urban ...

for garrison duty. In this role it bordered the sectors covered by the 3rd Division to its south and 13th Division to its west. The 58th Division was subordinated directly 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 ordered to retreat 1 April 1945 following the start of the Battle of Okinawa. On 18 April 1945 the Chinese forces in

Guanxi ''Guanxi'' () is a term used in Chinese culture to describe an individual's social network of mutually beneficial personal and business relationships. The character ''guan'', 关, means “closed” while the character ''xi'' 系 means “system ...

began attacking the ''58th Division'' as it retreated to

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 ...

, leading to increasing losses. The 94th Independent Infantry Battalion, garrisoning an area 30 km north-north-east of

was temporarily attached to the 3rd Division, arriving at Nanning 13 April 1945. The battalion was returned to 58th Division on 26 May 1945 in

Binyang County Binyang County (; Standard Zhuang: ) is a county of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, it is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Nanning, the capital of Guangxi, with a permanent population of 782,255 and a hukou pop ...

. The flanking 13th Division started to retreat on 27 May 1945, and

was finally abandoned by the 58th Division on 19 June 1945. The 106th Independent Infantry Battalion of the 58th division' became the rear guard of the Eleventh Army, and left

Luzhai County Luzhai County (; Standard Zhuang: ) is under the administration of Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. The easternmost county-level division of Liuzhou City, it borders the prefecture-level cities of Guilin to the north and east and ...

on 4 July 1945. The fighting with the pursuing Chinese ceased after the surrender of Japan on 15 August 1945.

Notes

*This article incorporates material from Japanese Wikipedia page 第58師団 (日本軍), accessed 9 June 2016

Reference and further reading

* Madej, W. Victor. ''Japanese Armed Forces Order of Battle, 1937-1945'' volsAllentown, PA: 1981 {{DEFAULTSORT:58th Division (Imperial Japanese Army) Japanese World War II divisions Infantry divisions of Japan Military units and formations established in 1942 Military units and formations disestablished in 1945 1942 establishments in Japan 1945 disestablishments in Japan

Action

See also

Notes

Reference and further reading