The was an

infantry division A division is a large military unit or formation, usually consisting of between 6,000 and 25,000 soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades; in turn, several divisions typically make up a corps. Histo ...

in 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

tsūshōgō were unit code names used by the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) during World War II. Each ''tsūshōgō'' consisted of a and a . Unit Character Codes typically consisted of one character, although some units established in the late stages of the ...

code name was the , and its military symbol was 11D. The 11th Division was one of six infantry divisions newly raised by the Imperial Japanese Army after the

First Sino-Japanese War The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895) was a conflict between China and Japan primarily over influence in Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the ...

(1894–1895). The division received its colors on 1 October 1898 and was disbanded in September 1945. Its troops were recruited primarily from communities in the four prefectures of the island of

Shikoku is the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. It is long and between wide. It has a population of 3.8 million (, 3.1%). It is south of Honshu and northeast of Kyushu. Shikoku's ancient names include ''Iyo-no-futana-shima'' (), '' ...

.Kowner, '' Historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War'', p. 107. It was originally headquartered in the city of Zentsuji, Kagawa, and its first commander was Lieutenant General

Nogi Maresuke Count , also known as Kiten, Count Nogi (December 25, 1849September 13, 1912), was a Japanese general in the Imperial Japanese Army and a governor-general of Taiwan. He was one of the commanders during the 1894 capture of Port Arthur from Chin ...

Action

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 ...
to
Siberian Intervention The Siberian intervention or Siberian expedition of 1918–1922 was the dispatch of troops of the Entente powers to the Russian Maritime Provinces as part of a larger effort by the western powers, Japan, and China to support White Russian f ...

During 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 ...

, under the command of Lieutenant General Tsuchiya Mitsuharu, this division was assigned to General Nogi's 3rd Army, and thus saw considerable combat (and casualties) at the bloody

Siege of Port Arthur The siege of Port Arthur ( ja, 旅順攻囲戦, ''Ryojun Kōisen''; russian: link=no, Оборона Порт-Артура, ''Oborona Port-Artura'', August 1, 1904 – January 2, 1905) was the longest and most violent land battle of the Russ ...

. It subsequently formed the core of General

Kawamura Kageaki Viscount was a field marshal in the Imperial Japanese Army. Biography Kawamura was born in Kagoshima in the Satsuma han feudal domain (present day Kagoshima prefecture. He first fought as a samurai in the Anglo-Satsuma War. He was part of the ...

’s 5th Army, where (under the command of Lieutenant General

Samejima Shigeo Baron was a general of the Imperial Japanese Army during the Russo-Japanese War. Biography A native of Kagoshima prefecture, Samejima was the younger son of a samurai of Satsuma Domain. He joined the fledgling Imperial Japanese Army in 1871, an ...

, it played a significant role in securing the Japanese victory at the Battle of Mukden. The division remained stationed in

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...

as a garrison force for two years after the end of the Russo-Japanese War, and only returned to Zentsuji 7 May 1911. The 11th Division was deployed again to the continent during the

Japanese intervention in Siberia The of 1918–1922 was the dispatch of Japanese military forces to the Russian Maritime Provinces as part of a larger effort by western powers and Japan to support White Russian forces against the Bolshevik Red Army during the Russian Civil ...

in August 1920, replacing the

IJA 14th Division The was an infantry division in the Imperial Japanese Army. Its tsūshōgō code name was the , and its military symbol was 14D. The 14th Division was one of four new infantry divisions raised by the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) in the closing ...

. The division has demobilized and returned to Japan in June 1921.

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 Th ...
and Pacific War

The 11th Division was one of the three Japanese divisions deployed to

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 ...

in China during the January 28 Incident in 1932. It returned to Shanghai in July 1937 with the start of 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 Th ...

, but was reassigned to garrison duty in Manchukuo from September 1938. In October 1939, the division was reorganized into a

triangular division A triangular division is a designation given to the way military divisions are organized. In a triangular organization, the division's main body is composed of three regimental maneuver elements. These regiments may be controlled by a brigade hea ...

, with its IJA 22nd Infantry Regiment forming the core of the new 24th Division. After the start of the Pacific War, the division was based at

Mishan Mishan () is a county-level city in the southeast of Heilongjiang Province, China, bordering Russia's Primorsky Krai to the south and southeast. It is under the jurisdiction of the prefecture-level city of Jixi. History Early medieval histor ...

, near

Lake Khasan Lake Khasan or Lake Hassan (russian: озеро Хасан; ) is a small lake in Khasansky District, Primorsky Krai of Russia, located southeast of Posyet Bay, on the border with North Korea and China, southwest of Vladivostok. It has a surfac ...

in eastern Manchukuo as part of the 5th Army, in support of anti-partisan police actions and to act as a deterrent against Soviet border forces. At the time it was commanded by Lieutenant General

Mitsuru Ushijima was a Japanese general who served during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. He was the commanding general of the 32nd Army, which fought in the Battle of Okinawa during the final stages of the war. Ushijima's troops were defeated, ...

. In February 1944, a large part of division (3rd battalions of 12th infantry, 43rd infantry and 11th mountain artillery regiments) of the 11th Division's strength were detached to 10th Independent Mixed Regiment (

code 17584) and sent to

Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...

to reinforce the 1st division, which was annihilated at the

Battle of Guam (1944) The Battle of Guam (21 July–10 August 1944) was the American recapture of the Japanese-held island of Guam, a U.S. territory in the Mariana Islands captured by the Japanese from the United States in the First Battle of Guam in 1941 during ...

in July–August 1944. In April 1945, the remainder of the 11th Division was transferred from Manchukuo back to Shikoku under command of the 55th army in preparation for the expected Allied invasion of Japan. It and disbanded with the surrender of Japan in August 1945.

References

* * Madej, W. Victor. ''Japanese Armed Forces Order of Battle, 1937-1945'' volsAllentown, PA: 1981 * This article incorporates material from the Japanese Wikipedia page 第11師団 (日本軍), accessed 10 February 2016

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:11th Division (Imperial Japanese Army) Japanese World War II divisions Infantry divisions of Japan Military units and formations established in 1898 Military units and formations disestablished in 1945 1898 establishments in Japan 1945 disestablishments in Japan Nanjing Massacre perpetrators

Action

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 Th ... and Pacific War

See also

References

Notes

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 Th ...
and Pacific War