was an aircraft and airbase garrison unit of the

Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service The was the air arm of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). The organization was responsible for the operation of naval aircraft and the conduct of aerial warfare in the Pacific War. The Japanese military acquired their first aircraft in 1910 ...

during the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific T ...

and Pacific campaign of

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

History

The Genzan Air Group was founded on 15 November 1940 at Genzan,

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic ...

, then a part of 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 form ...

. It was initially a mixed-unit equipped with 33 Type 96

Mitsubishi G3M The was a Japanese bomber and transport aircraft used by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service (IJNAS) during World War II. The Yokosuka L3Y (Allied reporting name "Tina"), was a transport variant of the aircraft manufactured by the Yokosu ...

1 bombers and 25 Type 96

Mitsubishi A5M The Mitsubishi A5M, formal Japanese Navy designation , experimental Navy designation Mitsubishi Navy Experimental 9-''Shi'' Carrier Fighter, company designation Mitsubishi ''Ka''-14, was a Japanese carrier-based fighter aircraft. It was the world ...

4 fighters under the command of the Second Air Fleet. On January 15, 1941, it was reassigned to the 22nd Kōkū Sentai and deployed to

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 ...

in central

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

Operations in China

While based at Hankou, the bombers of the Genzan Air Group was primarily assigned to

strategic bombing Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in total war with the goal of defeating the enemy by destroying its morale, its economic ability to produce and transport materiel to the theatres of military operations, or both. It is a systematica ...

missions in

Sichuan Province Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

, while the fighters were assigned to

combat air patrol Combat air patrol (CAP) is a type of flying mission for fighter aircraft. A combat air patrol is an aircraft patrol provided over an objective area, over the force protected, over the critical area of a combat zone, or over an air defense area, ...

and ground support missions in support of

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 Emper ...

operations. The Genzan Air Group was withdrawn from China in September, 1941, returning to its home base at Genzan for training, and at the end of October, 1941 was forward deployed to Takao in

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 no ...

Operations in Southeast Asia

With the

bombing of 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 Haw ...

and the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Genzan Air Group was deployed to

Saigon , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info = 2019 , blank1_name = – Total , blank1_ ...

French Indochina French Indochina (previously spelled as French Indo-China),; vi, Đông Dương thuộc Pháp, , lit. 'East Ocean under French Control; km, ឥណ្ឌូចិនបារាំង, ; th, อินโดจีนฝรั่งเศส, ...

. The group was a key participant in the sinking of the British

capital ship The capital ships of a navy are its most important warships; they are generally the larger ships when compared to other warships in their respective fleet. A capital ship is generally a leading or a primary ship in a naval fleet. Strategic im ...

s and off the coast of Malaya on 10 December 1941, losing one aircraft and its crew during the battle. On January 22, 1942, bombers from the Genzan Air Group attacked Kallang Airport in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

, and subsequently provided air support for Japanese offensives in Malaya including the landings at Endau. At the end of February, the unit was transferred to

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...

and assigned to patrols over the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...

; however, facilities at Bangkok were not satisfactory and the unit was soon reassigned to

Palembang Palembang () is the capital city of the Indonesian province of South Sumatra. The city proper covers on both banks of the Musi River on the eastern lowland of southern Sumatra. It had a population of 1,668,848 at the 2020 Census. Palembang ...

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

in the

Netherlands East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised Factory (trading post), trading posts o ...

, with some aircraft dispersed to

Kuching Kuching (), officially the City of Kuching, is the capital and the most populous city in the state of Sarawak in Malaysia. It is also the capital of Kuching Division. The city is on the Sarawak River at the southwest tip of the state of Sar ...

Sarawak Sarawak (; ) is a state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the Malaysian state of Sabah to the northeast, ...

. On May 1, 1942, Genzan's flying unit was redeployed to

Rabaul Rabaul () is a township in the East New Britain province of Papua New Guinea, on the island of New Britain. It lies about 600 kilometres to the east of the island of New Guinea. Rabaul was the provincial capital and most important settlement in ...

New Britain New Britain ( tpi, Niu Briten) is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi the D ...

to support the Japanese campaign in

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torres ...

. The group participated in the

Battle of the Coral Sea The Battle of the Coral Sea, from 4 to 8 May 1942, was a major naval battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and naval and air forces of the United States and Australia. Taking place in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, the batt ...

, without success, and made numerous bombing attacks against

Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New ...

. In July, after the cancellation of Operation Mo, the unit was withdrawn to Japan and was based at

Misawa, Aomori is a Cities of Japan, city located in Aomori Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 39,093, and a population density of 330 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Misawa is the location of a large military base, ...

for training. Its fighter unit was detached and redesignated as the 252 Kōkūtai in September. The Genzan's flying unit was disbanded by being redesignated as the 755 Kōkūtai on 1 November 1942.

Personnel Assigned

Commanding Officers

*Capt. Izawa Ishinosuke (43) - 15 November 1940 - 1 October 1941 *Cdr. / Capt. Maeda Takanari (47) – 1 October 1941 – 20 September 1942 (Promoted Captain on 15 October 1941.) *Cdr. Yamashita Sakae (49) – 20 September 1942 – 1 November 1942

Executive Officers

*Cdr. Minematsu Iwao (48) – 15 November 1940 – 10 October 1941 *VACANT – 10 October 1941 – 1 November 1942

Maintenance Officers

*LtCdr. (Eng.) Hata Nobukuma (Eng. 31) – 15 November 1940 – 1 September 1941 *LtCdr. (Eng.) Azuma Tetsuo (Eng. 33) – 1 September 1941 – 25 September 1942 *Lt. (Eng.) Kataoka Shoichi (Eng. 42) – 25 September 1942 – 1 November 1942

Surgeons

*LtCdr. (Med.) Masuoka Satoru (1927) - 15 November 1940 – 10 April 1942 *LtCdr. (Med.) Takeyasu Sueharu (1930) – 10 April 1942 – 13 October 1942 *LtCdr. (Med.) Suzuki Keiichiro (1928) – 13 October 1942 – 1 November 1942

Paymasters

*LtCdr. (Pay.) Kishida Mizunari (Pay. 16) – 15 November 1940 – 20 September 1941 *Lt. (Pay.) Sudo Hiroshi (Pay. 24) – 20 September 1941 – 5 August 1942 *Lt. (Pay.) Nagai Hora (Pay. Aux. 2) – 5 August 1942 – 1 November 1942

Communications Officers

*LtCdr. Ikeda Iwao (55) – 15 November 1940 – 15 September 1941 *LtCdr. Minekawa Minoru (57) – 15 September 1941 – 1 November 1942

Air Officers

*Cdr. Asada Masahiko (52) – 15 November 1940 – 1 September 1941 *LtCdr. Sonokawa Kameo (52) – 1 September 1941 – 1 April 1942 *LtCdr. Tokoro Shigehachiro (51) – 1 April 1942 – 1 November 1942

References

* Bullard, Steven (translator).
Army Operations in the South Pacific Area, New Britain and Papua campaigns, 1942–43 Senshi Sōshō (translated excerpts)
'. Canberra: Australian War Memorial, 2007. . * * Hata, Ikuhiko with Yasuho Izawa and Don Cyril Gorham (translator). ''Japanese Naval Aces and Fighter Units in World War II''. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1975 (Japanese original) 1989 (translation). . * Peattie, Mark R. ''Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power, 1909-1941''. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1999. . * Tagaya, Osamu. ''Mitsubishi Type 1 "Rikko" 'Betty' Units of World War 2''. Botley, Oxfordshire, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2001. . * Monthly Kōkū-Fan, Illustrated No. 42, ''Japanese Imperial Army & Navy Aircraft Color, Marking'', Tōkyō, Japan, Bunrindō Co. Ltd., 1988. * Monthly Air World, ''Photo album of Imperial Japanese Navy Aircraft'', Tōkyō, Japan, Air World Inc., 1987. * Model Art No. 458, Special issue ''Imperial Japanese Navy Air Force Suicide Attack Unit "Kamikaze"'', Tōkyō, Japan, Model Art Co. Ltd., 1995. {{Imperial Japanese Navy air units Groups of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service Wonsan Military units and formations established in 1940 Military units and formations disestablished in 1942 Military units and formations established in 1944