Encyclopedia > Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff
The Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff or Gunreibo Socho, was in charge of Imperial Japanese Navy planning and operations. It was headed by an Admiral headquartered in Tokyo. In 1941 the Chief of the Navy General Staff was AdmiralOsami Nagano. He reported directly to the Imperial General Headquarters and cooperated with the Minister of the Navy. It was organized as follows: The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) (大日本帝國海軍 Dai-Nippon Teikoku Kaigun or 日本海軍 Nippon Kaigun) was the navy of Japan before 1945. ... The word admiral comes from the Arabic term amir-al-bahr meaning commander of the seas. ... The Imperial General Headquarters was the supreme command for Japanese military forces during the World War II era. ... The Japanese Naval Ministry was established at the end of the 19th century, along with the Imperial Navy. ...
1st Operations Bureau - included the Combined Fleet and the naval aviation
The JapaneseImperialGeneralStaff was Supremely confident that they could take the Philippines with little difficulty so confident that they did not even allot the whole of their XIV Army to the job.
Japanese planners had made a shrewd assessment of Allied strength in the Philippines: they were so confident that Homma was not even given the full strength of XIV Armyonly two divisions to tackle eleven divisions and some of the strongest fortresses in the world.
Once the main Japanese force had landed, their advance was extremely rapid, and the inability of the Philippine army to stand up to them soon convinced General MacArthur that a withdrawal must be made to the Bataan peninsulawhich was easily defensible, and on which large quantities of ammunition and fuel had been stored.
This airfield, begun by the Japanese, and finished by the Americans upon landing at Guadalcanal in August, was judged to be key to the continued survival of the beachhead.
Though the Japanese were grateful for the cover, there was concern that the weather might not lift in time for the bombardment.
She was the first Japanese battleshiplost in World War II and the first sunk by the U.S. Navy since 1898.
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