18th Division (Imperial Japanese Army)

The 18th Division (第18師団, Dai-Jū Hachi Shidan) was an infantry division in the Imperial Japanese Army. Its tsūshōgō code name was the Chrysanthemum Division (菊兵團, Kiku heidan).

History

First establishment

The 18th Division was one of two infantry divisions newly raised by the Imperial Japanese Army immediately after the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) as part of the post war expansion of the standing Japanese military. The division received its colors on 13 November 1907. Its original headquarters was in a suburb of the city of Kurume in Fukuoka Prefecture. In World War I the division was strengthened by an additional infantry brigade (the IJA 29th Brigade) and, led by Lieutenant General Kamio Mitsuomi, was given an independent command in the siege of the German colony of Tsingtao in the Shandong peninsula, China. However, despite its illustrious war record, in May 1925, the 18th Division was one of the four divisions dissolved by Minister of War Ugaki Kazushige as part of a cost-saving measure during the Kato Takaaki administration.

Second establishment

The 18th Division was resurrected in September 1938 as a triangular division with the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War. As part of the IJA 10th Army under the overall command of the Japanese Central China Area Army it was deployed to the Chinese mainland, as an emergency reinforcement force to supplement the Japanese Shanghai Expeditionary Army in China after the Second Shanghai Incident. The Japanese 10th Army subsequently participated in the Battle of Nanjing and the subsequent atrocities known as the Nanking Massacre. From September 1938, the division came under the control of the IJA 21st Army, and participated in the Canton Operation and the invasion and occupation of Guangdong Province under the command of Lieutenant General Seiichi Kuno. The division remained in China through the 1939–40 Winter Offensive under the command of Lieutenant General Harukichi Hyakutake.

In November 1941 the division came under the command of Lieutenant-General Renya Mutaguchi and was reassigned to the IJA 25th Army (which was under the command of General Yamashita Tomoyuki). It participated in the invasion of Malaya and Singapore. The 124th Infantry Regiment and some other units of the 18th Division took part in the Battle of Borneo from 16 December 1941 on. Following the conquest of Singapore, the division was transferred to the IJA 15th Army for the invasion of Burma, where it suffered over 3000 casualties, primarily from food poisoning and malaria in securing control of the Ledo Road.

In 1942, the division's Kawaguchi Detachment, comprising the 35th Infantry Brigade and 124th Infantry Regiment, was detached and sent to Sarawak, the Philippines and finally to Guadalcanal. There, it took heavy losses in the battles of Edson's Ridge and Henderson Field.

Late in 1943, Mutaguchi was promoted, and replaced as commander of the division by Lieutenant-General Shinichi Tanaka. Transferred to the IJA 33rd Army, and operations in northern Burma, the 18th Division fought against the American-led Chinese divisions advancing on Mogaung and Myitkyina, and against the British Chindits operating behind their lines. Although suffering heavy losses, the division nevertheless inflicted many casualties and imposed severe delays on the Allies.

In the aftermath of the disastrous invasion of India in 1944, Lieutenant-General Tanaka exchanged appointments with Lieutenant-General Eitaro Naka, formerly Chief of Staff of the Burma Area Army. In the 1945 campaigning season, the division once again lost many thousands of men in the Battle of Central Burma, particularly at the Battle of Meiktila south of Mandalay. It ended the war in southern Burma.

Of the 31,444 men of the division sent to Burma, more than 20,000 did not make it home to Japan.

See also

• List of Japanese Infantry Divisions

References

• Madej, W. Victor, Japanese Armed Forces Order of Battle, 1937-1945 [2 vols], Allentown, PA: 1981
• Latimer. Jon Burma: The Forgotten War, London: John Murray, (2004) ISBN 0-7195-6576-6
• Tsingtao Campaign by Colin Denis
• Hough, Frank O., and John A. Crown (1952). "The Campaign on New Britain". USMC Historical Monograph. Historical Division, Division of Public Information, Headquarters U.S. Marine Corps. Archived from the original on 24 December 2006. Retrieved 2006-12-04. 
• Miller, John, Jr. (1959). "CARTWHEEL: The Reduction of Rabaul". United States Army in World War II: The War in the Pacific. Office of the Chief of Military History, U.S. Department of the Army. p. 418. Retrieved October 20, 2006. * Madej, W. Victor. Japanese Armed Forces Order of Battle, 1937-1945 [2 vols] Allentown, PA: 1981