9th Division (Imperial Japanese Army)

Action

The division received its colors on 1 October 1898, and settled in Kanazawa Castle headquarters 29 November 1898.

Russo-Japanese War to January 28 Incident

The first commander of the 9th Division was Lieutenant General Ōshima Hisanao, who commanded the division as part of General Nogi Maresuke's Japanese Third Army in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. At the Siege of Port Arthur the division took massive casualties making repeated direct frontal assaults on fortified Russian positions, and lost all of its regimental commanders. Survivors were further mauled at the subsequent Battle of Mukden, and even the commander of the division's field artillery regiment was a casualty.

After the Russo-Japanese War, the division was assigned to garrison duty in Korea for two years, before being withdrawn to Japan. Its new divisional headquarters building within the moats of Kanazawa Castle was completed 30 April 1916. 12 June 1918, an ordnance department was incorporated into the division. Elements of the 9th Division participated in the Japanese intervention in Siberia against the Bolshevik forces in the Russian Civil War, starting deployment in 1921.

Second Sino-Japanese War

In January 1932, the division participated in the first January 28 Incident under the command of Lieutenant General Kenkichi Ueda, and from 1935 to February 1937, the division was stationed as a garrison force in Manchukuo, before been withdrawn to Japan.

The 9th Division was redeployed to China after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, starting to move 11 September 1937 as part of the Shanghai Expeditionary Army together with 13th division and 101st division and participated in the Second Battle of Shanghai where it suffered a 94% casualty rate. The 9th division later participated in the subsequent drive inland to the Battle of Nanking. Troops from the division were also implicated in the subsequent Nanjing Massacre. From 14 February 1938, the division came under the command of the Central China Expeditionary Army and was in the Battle of Xuzhou. From 22 August 1938 the division was reassigned to the IJA 11th Army and fought at the Battle of Wuhan. In June 1939, the division was demobilized and ordered back to Japan.

In August 1940, the division was reorganized into a triangular division, with its IJA 36th Infantry Regiment transferred to the newly formed IJA 28th Division. Simultaneously, the division was permanently re-located to Manchukuo as garrison force responsible for border security and internal police duties, subordinated to 3rd army. The 52nd division took a responsibility for Hokuriku region of Japan instead of 9th division.

Pacific War

• Stephen R. MacKinnon, includes photographs by Robert Capa, Wuhan, 1938: War, Refugees, and the Making of Modern China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008).
• This article incorporates material from Japanese Wikipedia page 第9師団 (日本軍), accessed 29 January 2016

Notes

References

1. Madez, ''Japanese Armed Forces Order of Battle, 1937–1945'', p. 35.
2. Kowner, '' Historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War'', p. 107.
3. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110216002907/http://www.cgsc.edu/CARL/nafziger/937JIAF.PDF Reinforcements Sent to Japanese Expeditionary Army, 11 September 1937]
4. Frank, Richard. (2020). "Tower of Skulls: A History of the Asia-Pacific War". W. W. Norton & Company.