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

Utsunomiya, Tochigi is the prefectural capital city of Tochigi Prefecture in the northern Kantō region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 519,223, and a population density of . The total area of the city is . Utsunomiya is famous for its ''gyoza'' ...

, simultaneously with 52nd, 54th, 55th, 56th, and 57th divisions. The 51st Division was initially assigned to the

Eastern District Army The was a field army of the Imperial Japanese Army responsible for the defense of the Kantō region and northern Honshū during the Pacific War. It was one of the regional commands in the Japanese home islands reporting to the General Defense ...

and placed under command of Lieutenant General Kenichiro Ueno.

History

The division was formed in 1940 at

Kanazawa is the capital city of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 466,029 in 203,271 households, and a population density of 990 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . Overview Cityscape File:もてな ...

, in Japan. Its main elements included the 66th, 102nd and

115th Infantry Regiment The 115th Infantry Regiment, Maryland Army National Guard was an infantry regiment of the United States Army. It traced its roots back to the American Revolutionary War, although its official U.S. Army lineage begins in 1881. The units to which ...

s, the 14th Field Artillery Regiment, the 51st Reconnaissance Regiment, the 51st Engineer Regiment and the 51st Transport Regiment. The 51st Division was initially assigned to the

and placed under command of Lieutenant General Kenichiro Ueno. To participate in the Special exercise of the Kwantung Army (actually a mobilization for the possible large-scale conflict with the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

) on 2 July 1941 Prince

Yi Un Prince Imperial Yeong, Yi Un, Crown Prince Uimin (also Euimin), also known as Yi Un, Yi Eun, Lee Eun and Un Yi (20 October 1897 – 1 May 1970), was the 28th Head of the Korean Imperial House, an Imperial Japanese Army general and the last crown ...

took over as commander of the division, leading them to China when they were transferred to the

Kwantung Army ''Kantō-gun'' , image = Kwantung Army Headquarters.JPG , image_size = 300px , caption = Kwantung Army headquarters in Hsinking, Manchukuo , dates = April ...

in August 1941. The preparations for the war with the

were officially cancelled 9 August 1941, though. In September 1941, the 51st Division was transferred to

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

under command of 23rd army. The Araki detachment of the 51st division, consisting of the 66th Infantry Regiment was used that time for the rearguard duties in

Battle of Hong Kong The Battle of Hong Kong (8–25 December 1941), also known as the Defence of Hong Kong and the Fall of Hong Kong, was one of the first battles of the Pacific War in World War II. On the same morning as the attack on Pearl Harbor, forces of the ...

. In November 1941,

handed over command to Lieutenant General

Hidemitsu Nakano was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, commanding Japanese ground forces in the Southwest Pacific during the closing months of the war. Biography Nakano was born in Saga Prefecture, where his father was a former samurai retainer to Saga ...

, who would remain in command of the division until after the end of the war. The following year, in November 1942, the 51st Division was allocated to the 18th army, and was shipped 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 ...

. By 28 February 1943, the parts of the 51st Division had left Rabaul for

Lae Lae () is the capital of Morobe Province and is the second-largest city in Papua New Guinea. It is located near the delta of the Markham River and at the start of the Highlands Highway, which is the main land transport corridor between the Highl ...

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

. The

Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

aircraft intercepted the convoy on 2 March 1943, resulting in the

Battle of the Bismarck Sea The Battle of the Bismarck Sea (2–4 March 1943) took place in the South West Pacific Area (SWPA) during World War II when aircraft of the U.S. Fifth Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) attacked a Japanese convoy carrying troops ...

, resulting in only 1,200 troops of 6,900 reaching Lae. A further 800 troops from the 115th Infantry Regiment were rescued and ferried by the destroyers '' Yukikaze'' and ''

Asagumo Two naval vessels of Japan have been named ''Asagumo'' (朝雲), which translates to "Morning Clouds". * was an in the Imperial Japanese Navy. She was launched in 1937, completed in 1938, sunk in 1944, and struck in 1945. * was a in the Japane ...

'' to

Finschhafen Finschhafen is a town east of Lae on the Huon Peninsula in Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea. The town is commonly misspelt as Finschafen or Finschaven. During World War II, the town was also referred to as Fitch Haven in the logs of some U.S ...

and travelled to Lae overland. Meanwhile, the rest of the 51st Division reached Lae in May 1943 having moved there in several landing craft following the

coast from

Madang Madang (old German name: ''Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen'') is the capital of Madang Province and is a town with a population of 27,420 (in 2005) on the north coast of Papua New Guinea. It was first settled by the Germans in the 19th century. Histor ...

or from the Dampier Strait. The division eventually concentrated in

Salamaua Salamaua () was a small town situated on the northeastern coastline of Papua New Guinea, in Salamaua Rural LLG, Morobe province. The settlement was built on a minor isthmus between the coast with mountains on the inland side and a headland. The c ...

area, and subsequently took part in the

Salamaua–Lae campaign The Salamaua–Lae campaign was a series of actions in the New Guinea campaign of World War II. Australian and United States forces sought to capture two major Japanese bases, one in the town of Lae, and another one at Salamaua. The campai ...

. On 4 September 1943, the Allies landed at Lae unopposed, and the 51st Division was ordered to reinforce the ''Shoge detachment'' of the 41st Division. On 8 September 1943, the

ordered a general retreat from Salamaua to Lae due to the threat of imminent encirclement by Allied forces advancing inland after

Landing at Nadzab The Landing at Nadzab was an airborne landing on 5 September 1943 during the New Guinea campaign of World War II in conjunction with the landing at Lae. The Nadzab action began with a parachute drop at Lae Nadzab Airport, combined with an ov ...

. The retreat to Lae started on 11 September 1943 and was complete by 14 September 1943. By this time, an order was received to evacuate to the north coast of

Huon Peninsula Huon Peninsula is a large rugged peninsula on the island of New Guinea in Morobe Province, eastern Papua New Guinea. It is named after French explorer Jean-Michel Huon de Kermadec. The peninsula is dominated by the steep Saruwaged and Finister ...

, therefore the 51st Division tried to cross the Saruwaged Range, which proved to be nearly impassable. The division lost all of their heavy equipment and most of their rifles due exhaustion and hunger, and the passage took a whole month instead of expected ten days. By that time, the evacuation port of

had been rendered unusable after the Allied

Landing at Scarlet Beach The Landing at Scarlet Beach (Operation Diminish) (22 September 1943) took place in New Guinea during the Huon Peninsula campaign of the Second World War, involving forces from Australia, the United States and Japan. Allied forces landed at Sc ...

on 22 September 1943. In addition to combat losses, about 800 Japanese troops were also lost to the accidents. The Allied forces entered Lae on 16 September 1943, but except for a single contact with the Japanese rearguard on 13 September 1943, they were unable to mount a pursuit across the inhospitable terrain in appalling weather conditions. Due to a lack of weapons and ammunition, the survivors of the 51st Division were largely excluded from the

Huon Peninsula campaign The Huon Peninsula campaign was a series of battles fought in north-eastern Papua New Guinea in 1943–1944 during the Second World War. The campaign formed the initial part of an offensive that the Allies launched in the Pacific in late 1943 ...

, with only one left-behind company from the 102nd Infantry Regiment participating in the

Battle of Finschhafen The Battle of Finschhafen was part of the Huon Peninsula campaign in New Guinea during World War II and was fought between Australian and Japanese forces. The fighting took place between 22 September and 24 October 1943 following the landing at S ...

. During 1944–1945 the main challenge faced by the 51st Division was starvation. Only 2,754 men survived until

surrender of Japan The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the war's hostilities to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy ...

on 15 August 1945.

Footnotes

*This article incorporates material from Japanese Wikipedia page 第51師団 (日本軍), accessed 2 June 2016

Notes

References

* *

History

See also

Footnotes

Notes

References

Further reading