Japanese Korean Army

The Japanese Korean Army (朝鮮軍, Chōsen-gun, literally "Korean military") was an army of the Imperial Japanese Army that formed a garrison force in Korea under Japanese rule. The Korean Army consisted of roughly 350,000 troops in 1914.

Japanese Korean Army
Surrender of Japanese Forces in Southern Korea
ActiveMarch 11, 1904 - August 15, 1945　
Country Empire of Japan
Allegiance Emperor of Japan
Branch Imperial Japanese Army
TypeInfantry
RoleArmy
Garrison/HQKeijo
Japanese Korean Army
Chōsen-gun
Kanji朝鮮軍
Hiraganaちょうせんぐん
Joseon-gun
Hangul
조선군
Hanja
朝鮮軍

History

Japanese forces occupied large portions of the Empire of Korea during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, and a substantial Korean Garrison Army (韓国駐剳軍, Kankoku Chusatsugun) was established in Seoul to protect the Japanese embassy and civilians on March 11, 1904. After the Annexation of Korea by the Empire of Japan in 1910, this force was renamed the Chosen Chusatsugun, and was further renamed the Japanese Korean Army on June 1, 1918. The primary task of the Korean Army was to guard the Korean peninsula against possible incursions from the Soviet Union; however, its units were also used for suppression of nationalist uprisings and political dissent within Korea itself. The Korean Army also came to the assistance of the Kwantung Army in its unauthorized invasion of Manchuria in 1931. In 1941, the Army was subordinated to the General Defense Command.

While Seishirō Itagaki (板垣 征四郎) was commander of the Chosen Army from 7 July 1939 to 7 April 1945, Japan began assembling its nuclear weapons program with the industrial site near the Chosen reservoir as its equivalent to the Oak Ridge laboratory for the United States' Manhattan Project.[1] Both Itagaki and Masanobu Tsuji (辻 政信) refused to support neither peace between Japan and the United States nor have Japan attack the Soviet Union during Nazi Germany's Operation Barbarosa.[2] It may have altered world history. Tsuji planned to assassinate Fumimaro Konoe if Konoe had Japan attack the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarosa and maintain peace with the United States.[3]

In 1945, as the situation in the Pacific War was turning increasingly against Japan, the Army was transformed into the Japanese Seventeenth Area Army, and subsequently placed under the overall administrative command of the Kwantung Army. Its two undermanned infantry divisions were unable to withstand the massive Soviet Red Army armored and amphibious assault on Korea during the Soviet invasion of Manchuria. After the surrender of Japan, the Army south of the 38 parallel remained armed under operational command of the United States Army to maintain public order until the arrival of substantial Allied forces to take control.

List of Commanders

Commanding officer
NameFromTo
1Lieutenant General Kensai Haraguchi11 March 19048 September 1904
2Marshal Yoshimichi Hasegawa8 September 190421 December 1908
3General Haruno Okubo21 December 190818 August 1911
4General Arisawa Ueda18 August 191114 January 1912
5General Sadayoshi Ando14 January 191225 January 1915
6General Seigo Inokuchi25 January 191518 August 1916
7General Yoshifuru Akiyama18 August 19166 August 1917
8General Satoshi Matsukawa6 August 191724 July 1918
9General Heitaro Utsunomiya24 July 191816 August 1920
10Lieutenant General Jiro Oba16 August 192024 November 1922
11General Shinnosuke Kikuchi24 November 192220 August 1924
12General Soroku Suzuki20 August 19242 March 1926
13General Shusei Morioka2 March 19265 March 1927
14General Hanzo Kanaya5 March 19271 August 1929
15General Jirō Minami1 August 192922 November 1930
16Lieutenant General Senjuro Hayashi22 November 193026 May 1932
17General Yoshiyuki Kawashima26 May 19321 August 1934
18General Kenkichi Ueda1 August 19342 December 1935
19General Kuniaki Koiso2 December 193515 July 1938
20General Kotaro Nakamura15 July 19387 July 1941
21General Seishirō Itagaki7 July 19417 April 1945
22Lieutenant General Yoshio Kozuki7 April 1945September 1945

Chief of Staff
NameFromTo
1Lieutenant General Rikisaburo Saito19 March 190412 September 1904
2Lieutenant General Toyosaburo Ochiai12 September 19047 April 1905
3General Kikuzuo Otani7 April 19051 June 1906
4Lieutenant General Takashi Muta1 June 190621 December 1908
5General Jiro Akashi21 December 190815 June 1910
6Lieutenant General Shozo Sakakibara15 June 191030 November 1910
7General Katsusaburo Shiba30 November 191028 September 1912
8General Koichiro Tachibana28 September 191217 April 1914
9Lieutenant General Gencho Furumi17 April 19141 April 1916
10Lieutenant General Tan Shirozu1 April 19166 August 1917
11Lieutenant General Kentaro Ichikawa6 August 19171 November 1918
12Major General Toyoshi Ono1 November 191820 July 1921
13Major General Kinichi Yasumitsu20 July 19216 August 1923
14Major General Harumi Akai6 August 19232 March 1926
15Lieutenant General Senyuki Hayashi2 March 192626 August 1927
16Marshal Count Hisaichi Terauchi26 August 19271 August 1929
17Lieutenant General Kotaro Nakamura1 August 192922 December 1930
18General Tomou Kodama22 December 19301 August 1933
19Major General Keikichi Ogushi1 August 19332 December 1935
20Major General Yoshishige Saeda2 December 19351 December 1936
21Lieutenant General Seiichi Kuno1 December 19361 March 1938
22Lieutenant General Kenzo Kitano1 March 19387 September 1939
23Lieutenant General Yakutaira Kato7 September 19391 March 1941
24Lieutenant General Hiroshi Takahashi1 March 19419 July 1942
25Lieutenant General Junjiro Ihara9 July 1942September 1945

References
  1. Wilcox, Robert K. (10 December 2019). Japan's Secret War: How Japan's Race to Build its Own Atomic Bomb Provided the Groundwork for North Korea's Nuclear Program. Permuted Press (third edition). ISBN 978-1682618967.
  2. Goldman, Stuart D. (August 28, 2012). "The Forgotten Soviet-Japanese War of 1939: From May to September 1939, the USSR and Japan fought an undeclared war involving over 100,000 troops". The Diplomat. Retrieved December 11, 2020.
  3. Budge, Kent G. Tsuji Masanobu (1901-1961?). Pacific War Online Encyclopedia website. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  • Frank, Richard B (1999). Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-679-41424-X.
  • Jowett, Bernard (1999). The Japanese Army 1931-45 (Volume 2, 1942-45). Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1-84176-354-3.
  • Madej, Victor (1981). Japanese Armed Forces Order of Battle, 1937-1945. Game Publishing Company. ASIN: B000L4CYWW.
  • Marston, Daniel (2005). The Pacific War Companion: From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1-84176-882-0.

See also
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