The was a
field army 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 ...
during the final stages 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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
.
History
The Japanese 13th Area Army was formed on 1945-02-01 under the
Japanese First General Army as part of the last desperate defense effort by 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 Constitution of Japan, 1947 constitu ...
to deter possible landings of
Allied forces in central
Honshū during
Operation Downfall (or in Japanese terminology). The Japanese 13th Area Army was responsible for the
Tōkai region
The is a subregion of the Chūbu region and Kansai region in Japan that runs along the Pacific Ocean. The name comes from the Tōkaidō, one of the Edo Five Routes. Because Tōkai is a sub-region and is not officially classified, there i ...
of Japan and was headquartered in
Nagoya
is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most po ...
.
It consisted mostly of poorly trained
reservists
A reservist is a person who is a member of a military reserve force. They are otherwise civilians, and in peacetime have careers outside the military. Reservists usually go for training on an annual basis to refresh their skills. This person is ...
,
conscripted
Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day und ...
students and
home guard militia. In addition, the Japanese had organized the
Patriotic Citizens Fighting Corps — which included all healthy men aged 15–60 and women 17–40 — to perform combat support, and ultimately combat jobs. Weapons, training, and uniforms were generally lacking: some men were armed with nothing better than muzzle-loading
muskets,
longbow
A longbow (known as warbow in its time, in contrast to a hunting bow) is a type of tall bow that makes a fairly long draw possible. A longbow is not significantly recurved. Its limbs are relatively narrow and are circular or D-shaped in cross ...
s, or bamboo spears; nevertheless, they were expected to make do with what they had.
[Frank, ''Downfall'', p. 188–9. Bauer and Coox, ''OLYMPIC VS KETSU-GO''.]
The 13th Area Army was
demobilized
Demobilization or demobilisation (see spelling differences) is the process of standing down a nation's armed forces from combat-ready status. This may be as a result of victory in war, or because a crisis has been peacefully resolved and milita ...
at the
surrender of Japan on August 15, 1945 without having seen combat.
List of Commanders
References
Books
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External links
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Notes
{{reflist
13
Military units and formations established in 1945
Military units and formations disestablished in 1945
History articles needing translation from Japanese Wikipedia