The was an infantry army corps of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) that formed a garrison force in Korea under Japanese rule. The Korean Army consisted of roughly 350,000 troops in 1914.
History Japanese forces occupied large portions of the Empire of Korea during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, and a substantial was established in Seoul to protect the Japanese embassy and civilians on March 11, 1904. After the Annexation of Korea by the Empire of Japan in 1910, this force was renamed the Chosen Chusatsugun, and was further renamed the Japanese Korean Army on June 1, 1918.
The primary task of the Korean Army was to counterinsurgency Korean nationalism and guard the Korean peninsula against possible incursions from the Soviet Union; however, its units were also used for suppression of nationalist uprisings and political dissent within Korea itself. The Korean Army also came to the assistance of the Kwantung Army in its unauthorized invasion of Manchuria in 1931. In 1941, the Army was subordinated to the General Defense Command.
While Seishirō Itagaki (板垣 征四郎) was commander of the Chosen Army from 7 July 1939 to 7 April 1945, Japan began assembling its nuclear weapons program with the industrial site near the Chosen reservoir as its equivalent to the Oak Ridge laboratory for the United States' Manhattan Project. Both Itagaki and Masanobu Tsuji (辻 政信) refused to support neither peace between Japan and the United States nor have Japan attack the Soviet Union during Nazi Germany's Operation Barbarossa. It may have altered world history. Tsuji planned to assassinate Fumimaro Konoe if Konoe had Japan attack the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa and maintain peace with the United States.Budge, Kent G. Tsuji Masanobu (1901-1961?). Pacific War Online Encyclopedia website. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
In 1945, as the situation in the Pacific War was turning increasingly against Japan, the Army was transformed into the Japanese Seventeenth Area Army, and subsequently placed under the overall administrative command of the Kwantung Army. Its two undermanned infantry divisions were unable to withstand the massive Soviet Red Army armored and amphibious assault on Korea during the Soviet invasion of Manchuria. After the surrender of Japan, the Army south of the 38 parallel remained armed under operational command of the United States Army to maintain public order until the arrival of substantial Allied forces to take control.
List of Commanders
Commanding officer Name From To1 Lieutenant General Kensai Haraguchi11 March 1904 8 September 19042Marshal Yoshimichi Hasegawa8 September 1904 21 December 19083 General Haruno Okubo21 December 1908 18 August 19114General Arisawa Ueda18 August 1911 14 January 19125 General Sadayoshi Ando14 January 1912 25 January 19156General Seigo Inokuchi25 January 1915 18 August 19167 General Yoshifuru Akiyama18 August 1916 6 August 19178General Satoshi Matsukawa6 August 1917 24 July 19189 General Heitaro Utsunomiya24 July 1918 16 August 192010 Lieutenant General Jiro Oba16 August 1920 24 November 192211 General Shinnosuke Kikuchi24 November 1922 20 August 192412 General Soroku Suzuki20 August 1924 2 March 192613General Shusei Morioka2 March 1926 5 March 192714General Hanzo Kanaya5 March 1927 1 August 192915General Jirō Minami1 August 1929 22 November 193016Lieutenant General Senjuro Hayashi22 November 1930 26 May 193217 General Yoshiyuki Kawashima26 May 1932 1 August 193418 General Kenkichi Ueda1 August 1934 2 December 193519 General Kuniaki Koiso2 December 1935 15 July 193820 General Kotaro Nakamura15 July 1938 7 July 194121 General Seishirō Itagaki7 July 1941 7 April 194522 Lieutenant General Yoshio Kozuki7 April 1945 September 1945
Chief of Staff Name From To1 Lieutenant General Rikisaburo Saito19 March 1904 12 September 19042Lieutenant General Toyosaburo Ochiai12 September 1904 7 April 19053 General Kikuzuo Otani7 April 1905 1 June 19064Lieutenant General Takashi Muta1 June 1906 21 December 19085 General Jiro Akashi21 December 1908 15 June 19106Lieutenant General Shozo Sakakibara15 June 1910 30 November 19107 General Katsusaburo Shiba30 November 1910 28 September 19128General Koichiro Tachibana28 September 1912 17 April 19149Lieutenant General Gencho Furumi17 April 1914 1 April 191610 Lieutenant General Tan Shirozu1 April 1916 6 August 191711 Lieutenant General Kentaro Ichikawa6 August 1917 1 November 191812 Major General Toyoshi Ono1 November 1918 20 July 192113Major General Kinichi Yasumitsu20 July 1921 6 August 192314Major General Harumi Akai6 August 1923 2 March 192615Lieutenant General Senyuki Hayashi2 March 1926 26 August 192716Marshal Count Hisaichi Terauchi26 August 1927 1 August 192917 Lieutenant General Kotaro Nakamura1 August 1929 22 December 193018 General Tomou Kodama22 December 1930 1 August 193319 Major General Keikichi Ogushi1 August 1933 2 December 193520 Major General Yoshishige Saeda2 December 1935 1 December 193621 Lieutenant General Seiichi Kuno1 December 1936 1 March 193822 Lieutenant General Kenzo Kitano1 March 1938 7 September 193923 Lieutenant General Yakutaira Kato7 September 1939 1 March 194124 Lieutenant General Hiroshi Takahashi1 March 1941 9 July 194225 Lieutenant General Junjiro Ihara9 July 1942 September 1945
References
External links
See also Korea under Japanese rule Armies of the Imperial Japanese Army