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 marine i ...

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 assigne ...

was the . It was formed on 10 July 1940 at

Himeji 260px, Himeji City Hall is a city located in Hyōgo Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 525,682 in 227,099 households and a population density of 980 persons per km². The total area of the city is ...

, simultaneously with 51st, 52nd, 55th, 56th, and 57th divisions. The formation nucleus was the headquarters of the 10th division. The men for the ''54th division'' were recruited from Hyōgo, Okayama and Tottori prefectures. The ''54th division'' was initially assigned to

Central District Army The was a field army of the Imperial Japanese Army responsible for the defense of the Japanese home islands during the Pacific War. It was one of the regional commands in the Japanese home islands reporting to the General Defense Command. Comman ...

. In February 1943, the division was assigned to 16th army. The bulk of division have sailed from Moji on-board of "Miike Maru" ship, together with 30th Independent Mixed Brigade. 23 April 1943 it landed in

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 flow ...

, and departed again for

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_ ...

19 July 1943, arriving 30 July 1943 to

. The 154th infantry regiment and signals company has followed 12 May 1943 from the Ujina terminal of the Hiroshima, on-board "Takoma Maru" and "Nagato Maru" ships, arriving directly to

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, borde ...

9 June 1943.Gordon Smith、Don Kindell、Donald A. Bertke, "World War II Sea War, Vol 9: Wolfpacks Muzzled", p. 233 The ''54th division'' was re-subordinated to the 28th army in January 1944 and sent to

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

. The 54th Division remained in the Arakan region of

during the Battle of the Admin Box in February 1944. From December 1944, it suffered heavy losses in Battle of Meiktila and Mandalay, including

Battle of Hill 170 The Battle of Hill 170 was a battle between the British 3rd Commando Brigade and the Japanese 54th Division during the Second World War. The battle was fought in January 1945, as part of the Burma Campaign. The 3rd Commando Brigade were giv ...

in January 1945 and was generally in full retreat to Irrawaddy River in April 1945. During the

Battle of the Sittang Bend The Battle of the Sittang Bend and the Japanese Breakout across Pegu Yomas were linked Japanese military operations during the Burma Campaign, which took place nearly at the end of World War II. Surviving elements of the Imperial Japanese Army ...

in July-August 1945, it suffered over 50% losses; from enemy shellfire, air raids, cholera and dysentery. At the surrender of Japan on 15 August 1945 the ''54th division'' was situated on the eastern coasts of the

Sittaung River The Sittaung River ( my, စစ်တောင်းမြစ် ; formerly, the Sittang or Sittounghttps://unstats.un.org/unsd/geoinfo/UNGEGN/docs/8th-uncsgn-docs/inf/8th_UNCSGN_econf.94_INF.75.pdf ) is a river in south central Myanmar in Bag ...

Notes

*This article incorporates material from Japanese Wikipedia page 第54師団 (日本軍), accessed 3 June 2016

Reference and further reading

* {{DEFAULTSORT:54th Division (Imperial Japanese Army) Japanese World War II divisions Infantry divisions of Japan Military units and formations established in 1940 Military units and formations disestablished in 1945 1940 establishments in Japan 1945 disestablishments in Japan J

See also

Notes

See also

Reference and further reading