General Armies
The General Army (総軍, Sō-gun?) was the highest level in the organizational structure of the Imperial Japanese Army. It corresponded to the army group in western military terminology. Intended to be self-sufficient for indefinite periods, the general armies were commanded by either a field marshal or a full general.
The initial General Army was the Japanese Manchurian Army, formed from 1904-1905 during the Russo-Japanese War as a temporary command structure to coordinate the efforts of several Japanese armies in the campaign against Imperial Russia.
In terms of a permanent standing organization, the Japanese Army created the Kantōgun, usually known in English as the Kwantung Army, to manage its overseas deployment in the Kwantung Territory and Manchukuo from 1906.
Subsequent general armies were created in response to the needs of the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II, in which increased overseas deployment called for an organizational structure that could respond quickly and autonomously from the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff in Tokyo. As a result, Japanese forces were re-organized into three separate overseas operational commands: (Manchuria, China and Southeast Asia), with the Japanese home islands forming a fourth.
Towards the end of World War II, the home island command (i.e. the General Defense Command) was restructured geographically into the First General Army in the east, Second General Army in the west, and the Air General Army in charge of military aviation.
With the official Japanese surrender in September 1945, all of the general armies were dissolved, except for the First General Army, which continued to exist until November 30, 1945 as the 1st Demobilization Headquarters.
| Name | Active | Operational Area | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kwantung Army (関東軍, Kantōgun?) | 1906-1945 | Manchukuo |
| 2 | China Expeditionary Army (支那派遣軍, Shina hakengun?) | 1939-1945 | China |
| 3 | Southern Expeditionary Army Group (南方軍, Nampōgun?) | 1941-1945 | Southeast Asia, Southwest Pacific |
| 4 | General Defense Command (防衛総司令部, Bōei Sōshireibu?) | 1941-1945 | Japanese home islands |
| 5 | First General Army (第1総軍, Dai-ichi Sōgun?) | 1945-1945 | Japanese home islands |
| 6 | Second General Army (第2総軍, Dai-ni Sōgun?) | 1945-1945 | Japanese home islands |
| 7 | Air General Army ( 航空総軍, Kōkū Sōgun?) | 1945-1945 | Japanese home islands |
Read more about this topic: Armies Of The Imperial Japanese Army
Famous quotes containing the words general and/or armies:
“I have never looked at foreign countries or gone there but with the purpose of getting to know the general human qualities that are spread all over the earth in very different forms, and then to find these qualities again in my own country and to recognize and to further them.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
“I go into my library, and all history unrolls before me. I breathe the morning air of the world while the scent of Eden’s roses yet lingered in it, while it vibrated only to the world’s first brood of nightingales, and to the laugh of Eve. I see the pyramids building; I hear the shoutings of the armies of Alexander.”
—Alexander Smith (1830–1867)