Kantogun
From Free net encyclopedia
The Kantogun (Kanji: 関東軍; Nihon-shiki: Kantōgun; Postal System Pinyin: Kwantungchun; Pinyin: Guandongjun), more commonly known as the Kwantung Army or Guandong Army, was a unit of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). It takes its name from the Kwantung Peninsula where it was based. Headquartered in Xinjing (modern Changchun), it became the largest and most prestigious command in the IJA. Many of its personnel, such as Chief of Staff Tojo Hideki, were promoted to high positions in both the military and civil government.
History
The unit was originally established in 1906 as the Kwantung Garrison to defend the Kwantung Leased Territory and the areas adjacent to the South Manchurian Railway. Composed of an infantry division and a heavy siege artillery batallion, it was stationed within the Kwantung Leased Territory. Supplementing this force were six independent garrison battalions as railway guards deployed along the railway zone, making a total troop strength of 10,000 men. Since the reorganization of 1919, this military unit was called the Kwantung Army.
Although the Kantogun was nominally subordinate to the Japanese High Command, its leadership demonstrated significant self-determination, as conspirators in the Army plotted the assassination of Zhang Zuolin in 1928 and the Manchurian Incident (1931) leading to the foundation of Manchukuo in 1932. The Army was heavily augmented, by up to 700,000 troops in 1941, to defend the whole territory of Manchuria and Inner Mongolia. Generals and young officers virtually controlled the puppet government of Emperor Pu Yi.
The Army fought against the Soviet Union's Red Army at Zhanggufeng in 1938 and Nomonhan in 1939, sustaining heavy casualties. Its performance against the Red Army anticipated some of the defects of the IJA as a whole, which became apparent during World War Two in the Pacific. A source of constant unrest during the 1930s, the Army remained remarkably obedient during the 1940s, proof to the fact that the Japanese High Command had everything under control - as long as it was willing to retain it.
After the outbreak of the Pacific War, many troops were transferred from Manchuria to the Pacific islands. At the time of Operation August Storm, when the Soviet Red Army invaded Japanese-occupied Manchuria in August 1945, the Kantogun's strength was nearly 600,000. The Army by that time was comprised of one armored division, 25 infantry divisions, six independent brigades, and up to 25 security battalions. However, much of its heavy weapons and ammunition reserves and best personnel had been transferred to the Pacific, which left the Kantogun as a counterinsurgency and border security force. To cope with the Soviet invasion, the Kantogun planned to form a defense line near Xinjing, which had become the capital of Manchukuo, but Emperor Hirohito ordered them to surrender before the main engagement took place. At this point, historians relate, little remained of the once-proud Kantogun. Its remnants either lay dead on the battlefield or were on their way to Soviet POW camps. Hundreds of thousands of Japanese POWs were forced to work in Soviet concentration camps in Siberia and labor camps in Mongolia were not liberated until the 1950's. A notable mutiny of the Manchukuo Defence Force also occurred at this time.
The Kantogun was also responsible for some of the most infamous Japanese war crimes, including the operation of several biological warfare experimentation program facilities such as Unit 100 and Unit 731.