History and Background
Established as the Heigakkō in 1868 in Kyoto, the officer training school was renamed the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1874 and relocated to Ichigaya, Tokyo. After 1898, Academy came under the supervision of the Army Education Administration.
In 1937, the Academy was divided, with the Senior Course Academy was relocated to Sagamihara in Kanagawa prefecture, and the Junior Course School moved to Asaka, Saitama. The 50th graduation ceremony was held in the new Academy buildings in Sagamihara on 20 December 1937, and was attended by Emperor Hirohito. In 1938, a separate school was established for military aviation officers.
In June 1945, as a precautionary measure due to Allied bombings the academy sent its entire staff and 3,000 students on a long-term bivouac in Nagano Prefecture, leaving the installation under a light guard as caretakers.
In September 1945, after the surrender of Japan at the end World War II, a battalion of the U.S. Army’s 1st Cavalry Division took control of the Academy from the Japanese soldiers guarding it. The Academy was abolished along with the Imperial Japanese Army at the end of 1945, and its Sagamihara grounds are now part of United States Army base of Camp Zama.
Currently the corresponding institution for the modern Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force is the Japan National Defense Academy.
Read more about this topic: Imperial Japanese Army Academy
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