Imperial Japanese Military

Administration Imperial General Headquarters Components Imperial Japanese Navy (Dai Nippon Teikoku Kaigun)         Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service     Major battles     List of ships     List of aircraft     Main admirals Imperial Japanese Army (Dai Nippon Teikoku Rikugun)         Imperial Japanese Army Air Service         Railways and Shipping Section     Uniforms Rank insignia Naval rank insignia Army rank insignia History of the Japanese Military Military History of Japan during World War II

The Imperial Japanese Army Railway and Shipping Section was the logistics unit of the Imperial Japanese Army charged with shipping personnel, materiel and equipment from metropolitan Japan to the combat front overseas. Image File history File links Flag_of_Japan_-_variant. ... The Imperial General Headquarters or Daihonei, as part of the Supreme War Council was the supreme command for Japanese military forces during the World War II era. ... Image File history File links Naval_Ensign_of_Japan. ... The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) (: 大日本帝國海軍 Shinjitai: 大日本帝国海軍   or 日本海軍 Nippon Kaigun), officially Navy of Empire of Greater Japan, also known as the Japanese Navy or Combined Fleet was the Navy of Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japans constitutional renunciation of the use of force... The Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service or Dai Nippon Teikoku Kaigun Koku Hombu was a major force in the Pacific War during World War II. The Japanese military acquired their first aircraft in 1910 and followed the development of air combat during World War I with great interest. ... Boshin War (1868-1869): Naval Battle of Hakodate (Imperial Navy victory over the remnants of the Shoguns Navy of the Republic of Ezo. ... This is the list of ships of Japans medieval Navy, the Imperial Japanese Navy and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force. ... This is the list of aircrafts of the Imperial Japanese Navy and the Japan Self-Defence Forces, including ones in the past and ones in the present time. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... The Imperial Japanese Army (: 大日本帝國陸軍 Shinjitai: 大日本帝国陸軍 Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun) was the official ground based armed force of Japan from 1867 to 1945 when it was Imperial Japan. ... The Imperial Japanese Army Air Service (more traditionally called the Japanese Army Air Force) was Imperial Japans land-based aviation force. ... Imperial Japanese Army Uniforms tended to reflect the uniforms of those countries who were the principal advisors to the Imperial Japanese Army at the that time. ... The following graphs present the rank insignia of the Japanese navy during World War II. These designs had been used between the years 1931 to 1945, but were discontinued after World War II, when the Imperial navy had been dissolved. ... The following graphs present the rank insignia of the Japanese military during World War II. These designs had been used between the years 1938 to 1945, but were discontinued after World War II, when the Imperial military had been dissolved. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... The Imperial Japanese Army (: 大日本帝國陸軍 Shinjitai: 大日本帝国陸軍 Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun) was the official ground based armed force of Japan from 1867 to 1945 when it was Imperial Japan. ...

Under it were the Railway Ministry, SMR (South Manchurian Railway), East Chinese Railway, Northern Chinese Railway Company, Central Chinese Railway Company, Southern Asian Railway facilities amongst Civil Merchants shipping transports. It working with the Japanese Navy Shipping Services also. The section was commanded by Okikatsu Arao, Sosaku Suzuki and other Army officers. The South Manchuria Railway Company (Japanese: 満鉄）; Mantetsu) was a company founded by Japan in 1906, after the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), and operated in Japanese-occupied Manchuria. ... Sosaku Suzuki (1891-April 1945) was a Japanese general who served during Second Sino-Japanese War and the World War II. Born in Aichi prefecture, Suzuki graduated from the Japanese Military Academy in 1912. ...

The section was conformed by First (Operations) and Third (Transportation and Communications) bureaux, the 2nd (Operations) and 10th (Shipping and Railways) sections. For conducted operations at the river and sea, Japanese Army produced many kinds of vessel, i.e. landing crafts, motorboats, gun boats, landing ships etc.

In the Pacific War, they built even aircraft carriers and submarines. Besides the Army engineer units for the river-crossing, the Japanese Army had their own shipping force to transport troops at sea which sometimes acted in concert with Japanese Navy vessels to transport their own forces. Combatants China (from 1937) Việt Minh (from 1941) United States (from 1941) United Kingdom (from 1941) British India (1941) Australia (1941) Free France (1941) Philippines (1941) Netherlands (1941) New Zealand (1941) Canada (1941) Soviet Union (from 1945) Mongolia (from 1945) Empire of Japan Wang Jingwei Government Thailand (1942) Mengjiang...

It was a large force which employed 300,000 soldiers (Army Shipping Units) at maximum and managed 30% of Japanese transport ships. For the Japanese Army, the Pacific War was not only a battle on the ground, but also at sea. Many Japanese soldiers fought on board against enemy submarines, PT boats and airplanes. At last, they rode on an Kamikaze special-attack boat and dashed into the enemy ship.

Air transport was charged to Hikotai Transport Unit of Imperial Japanese Army Air Force, sometimes both services were coordinated with amphibiuos transport services and other special wartime operations. In Manchukuo the Army was linked to transport services with local transport units of Kwantung Army Railway and Air Transport units and Manchukuoan Air and land Transport services which served in Kwantung, Northern China, Manchukuo and Chosen.

On land the Army also used the services of Kwantung Army Field Railway Command (in Manchukuo), the 1st and 2nd Field Railway Commands, China Expeditionary Army (Chinese occupied lands) and Southeast Asia Field Railway Command of Southern Army in own controlled lands along land transports services in own Army units in combat front joining rail services previously mentioned

Actually, shipping and aircraft were parts of a vicious circle. In order to realize increased production of aircraft, raw materials had to be conveyed by ship from overseas.

Since vessels were lost in the process and a shortage of materials resulted. This affected the output of planes. But if aircraft were not turned out in increased numbers, surface shipping could not be covered from the air. Thus, the more ships were sunk, the less airplanes could be manufactured. Herein lay the cause for increasingly bitter antagonism between the Army and the Navy.

The loss of ships increased sharply as the war went on. In round figures, the total tonnage of Army, Navy, and commercial shipping sunk mounted from year to year; that is, from about 880,000 tons in 1942 to 1,600,000 tons by the next year. The approximate net difference between new construction and losses amounted to minus 460,000 tons in 1942, and to minus 490,000 tons in 1943. (Prior to the opening of the War, shipping losses had been expected to total some 800,000 tons during the first year of hostilities, and only 600,000 tons during the second.)

In 1944 shipping losses soared: 290,000 tons in January; 380,000 tons in February; and 340,000 tons in March. Because of this critical situation, convoy measures became a pressing problem of the Army and the Navy.

An agreement had been reached between the two armed services, whereby the Navy was to assume responsibility for convoying ships. But the Navy was preoccupied with combat operations and could not take care of shipping protection.

The personnel charged with Army shipping operations felt that the prerequisite for victory in the Pacific War was the safeguarding of surface transportation. They argued strongly that the Combined Fleet should devote its main strength to convoy work, like the British Navy had done during World War I. In order to gain naval victory, Japan should use both aircraft carriers and island bases (the so-called "unsinkable carriers") to knock out enemy warships from the air. Efforts should meanwhile be made to reinforce air power by making surface transportation secure-thus accelerating aircraft production, in turn.

Although the Navy set up a Shipping Convoy Headquarters toward the end of 1943, the tonnage of losses did not decrease. The Army therefore adopted its own measures for coping with the problem:

1. Hurriedly build wartime-type vessels.
2. Construct transport submarines and special convoy vessels (a kind of special scort/aircraft carrier).
3. Produce anti-submarine radar weapons.
4. Arm merchantmen with anti-submarine guns.

By 1944, measures to counter the mounting losses of ships had become imperative, and both of the armed services were conducting joint investigations. On March 17, 1944, a Joint Army-Navy Conference was held in the presence of the Emperor, to study methods of meeting the shipping-loss problem. The Army sent its Chief of Staff, the two Deputy Chiefs, the heads of the First (Operations) and Third (Transportation and Communications) bureaus, the heads of the 2nd (Operations) and 10th (Shipping and Railways) sections, the Vice-Minister of the Army, the Chief of the Bureau of Military Affairs, and the head of the Military Affairs Section. The Navy was represented by its counterparts.

There was no precedent for such a session-which indicates the gravity of the shipping menace. The conference took 2 hours, and the Army finally decided to adopt certain major measures.

• An increase in Army Shipping Units (ship engineers-soldiers who could handle large motor vessels).
• Efficient utilization of shipping, by decreasing the amount of munition loads, accelerating both loading and unloading operations, and assigning cargo foremen.
• Anti-submarine protective measures (primarily aircraft).
• Reinforcement of the aerial defenses of maritime bases.

War Minister Tojo had good reasons for adhering to his opinion during the arguments with the Army High Command about the problem of requisitioning operational shipping space.

Previously, in June 1948, the Army had established the Tama Army Technical Research Institute, with the objective of speeding up the practical application of radar devices.Ground and aerial investigations which, until then, had been pursued separately, were to be integrated and developed along military lines. In order to devise efficient radar weapons for practical use as soon as possible, however, both the Army and the Navy should have pooled their research facilities; but here again the serious rivalry between the armed services stood in the way.

The Army itself studied and manufactured anti-submarine radar equipment to be installed on its own transports.

Among those concerned with Army operations, incidentally, not a few were of the opinion that the inferiority of anti-submarine radar devices was a cause for Japan's defeat. In other words, the country lost out in the logistical sense because of great shipping losses, which were in turn directly attributable to the radar weaknesses.

Accompanying the decline in maritime transportation potential, the Army began to seek an improvement in the movement capacity of the railroads on the Asiatic Continent-to make up for deficiencies at sea. On February 10, 1944, the Army accordingly reinforced and redeployed its railway forces on a large scale. Four organizations were set up:

• Kwantung Army Field Railway Command
• 1st and 2d Field Railway Commands, China Expeditionary Army (North and Central China,respectively)
• Field Railway Command, Southern Army,Southeast Asia

List of Commanders and units in Railways and Shipping Section

General Commanders in Railways and Shipping services

• Okikatsu Arao: Section Chief (Railways and Shipping), Army General Staff
• Sosaku Suzuki: Chief, Army Shipping Department and Central Shipping Transportation Headquarters
• Yoshio Kozuki: Commanding General, Shipping Transportation Headquarters
• Hideo Baba: General Officer Commanding Army Maritime Transport Command

Shipping units Commanders

• Masazumi Inada: Commanding Officer 3rd Shipping Transport Command, Singapore
• Shinobu Ito: Commanding Officer 2nd Shipping Transport Command, China
• Hakaru Gondo: Commanding Officer 13th Shipping Group
• 53rd Army Anchorange HQ, Uruppu, Kuriles
• 6th Disembarkation Unit (800 mens), Uruppu, Kuriles
• 6th Shipping Army Engineers Regiment,Etorofu,Kuriles

Railways units Commanders

• Hatazo Adachi: Commanding Officer Kwantung Army Railway Command
• Shizuo Yokoyama: Commander of Railway Sector Headquarters,Kwantung Army
• Hitoshi Hamada: Second Superintendent of Railways, Thailand
• Katsumi Adachi: General Officer Commanding 4th Special Railway Corps, Thailand

Transport units Commanders

• Utata Fukunaga: Commanding Officer 16th Field Transport Command, Malaya
• Kiyoshi Hiraoka: Commanding Officer 11th Field Transport Command, China
• Nobuyoshi Obata: Commanding Officer, Transportation Regiment, Imperial Guard Division(served in Tokyo; French Indo-China; Malaya; Sumatra)
• 88th Transport Regiment,Karafuto

List of river-crossing crafts, Landing craft, motorboats, vessels etc in use by Japanese Army during Pacific War

River-crossing craft

• Type 95 Collapsible Boat
• Type 99 Pontoon Bridge
• Rubber Rafts

Motorized landing craft

• Personnel landing craft "Shohatsu"
• Vehicle landing craft "Daihatsu"
• Vehicle landing craft "Toku-Daihatsu"
• Vehicle landing craft "Mokusei-Daihatsu"

Liaison motorboats

• Speedboat Model Ko
• Speedboat Model Otsu

Special attack motorboat

• Suicide-Attack Motorboat "Maru-Re"

Patrol boats/Gun boats

• Armored boat "AB-Tei"
• Submarine-chaser "Karo-Tei"

Landing craft carriers

• Landing craft carrier "Shinshu Maru"
• Scort/landing craft carrier Model Ko, Otsu, Hei

Transport vessels

• Tank landing ship "SS-Tei"
• Fast transport vessel "Yi-Go"
• Transport submarine "Maru-Yu"