Manchukuo Imperial Army - History

History

After the Mukden Incident, the Imperial Japanese Army inherited approximated 60,000 troops of Marshal Zhang Xueliang's 160,000 strong Northeastern Army, who had defected to the Japanese with their generals. These Chinese turncoats included many isolated units the Japanese captured and interned in the rapid invasion of Manchuria along the railroad lines, and included:

• Lt. General Xi Qia of the Kirin Army.
• General Chang Hai-peng of the Hsingan Reclamation Army.
• General Zhang Jinghui of the Harbin Special District

The Manchukuo Imperial Army was formed from these forces after the establishment of the state of Manchukuo in March 1932. They were initially armed from the captured equipment and arsenals of the Northeastern Army. As many of the men were inexperienced recruits or irregular forces, and many were opium addicts, they were not of the highest grade in combat ability. Furthermore, many were simply mercenaries willing to fight for the side with the highest pay, and consequently the reliability, if not the loyalty, of many units of the early Manchukuo Imperial Army was questionable.

In August 1932, a unit of 2,000 men deserted their garrison at Wukimiho, taking their weapons over to the anti-Japanese guerrillas. Likewise, the Manchukuo 7th Cavalry revolted around the same time. According to one ranking Japanese officer, the main source of weapons against the Japanese and Manchukuo forces was the Manchukuo Army itself, and there were a number of cases where Manchukuo troops went into battle only to desert to the enemy en masse. The most notable desertion was that of General and former Manchukuo War Minister Ma Zhanshan in April 1932 from the Heilongjiang Provincial Guard Army with several thousand troops along with many artillery pieces.

In its first form the Manchukuo Imperial Army was organized in seven Provincial Guard Armies (one for each province), with a total of over 111,000 men. An Independent Cavalry Brigade was created to provide a garrison for the capital of Hsinking, and the Manchukuo Imperial Guard was raised in February 1933 from men of Manchu ethnic backgrounds as part of the capital garrison to provide protection for Emperor Puyi and senior government officials.

In 1934, new regulations stated that only officers who had been trained by Manchukuo government approved schools would be permitted to serve in the Manchukuo Imperial Army. This was an effort to weed out the unreliable remnants of the former Northeastern Army, and to raise the standards and training of the army as a whole. It was also one of the first steps in an attempt to break the tradition of warlordism, wherein generals in command of a provincial army viewed their command area as a personal fiefdom for their own enrichment.

In 1938, military training academies were opened in Mukden and Hsinking.