History
The 13th Division was formed in Sendai on 1 April 1905, as one of the four new divisions created during the closing stages of the Russo-Japanese War. It was given the independent assignment of occupying Sakhalin (Karafuto) island from Russia before the conclusion of the Portsmouth Treaty. It landed on Sakhalin on 7 July, only three months after being formed, and had secured the island by 1 August 1905. As a result of its successful operation, Japan was awarded southern Karafuto during the Portsmouth Treaty, one of its few territorial gains during the war.
After serving garrison duty in Karafuto and in Korea, the 13th Division was one of the divisions selected to participate in the Siberian Intervention. However, on 1 May 1925, it was one of the four division dissolved by Minister of War Ugaki Kazushige as part of a cost-saving measure during the Kato Takaaki administration.
The 13th Division was resurrected in 1937 with the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War, and saw combat during the Battle of Shanghai, Battle of Nanjing (and subsequent Nanjing Massacre, although it was not one of the main Divisions at Nanjing at the time), Battle of Xuzhou, and Battle of Wuhan. It was also part of Operation Ichigo (Battle of Henan-Hunan-Guangxi). It ended the war in Changsha, Hunan Province.
Noteworthy Commanders of the 13th Division included Akiyama Yoshifuru and Shizuichi Tanaka.
Read more about this topic: 13th Division (Imperial Japanese Army)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it will one day flower in a truth. It is astonishing how few facts of importance are added in a century to the natural history of any animal. The natural history of man himself is still being gradually written.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The history of a soldier’s wound beguiles the pain of it.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)
“I believe that history might be, and ought to be, taught in a new fashion so as to make the meaning of it as a process of evolution intelligible to the young.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)