59th Army (Japanese Empire)

59th Army
active	June 15, 1945 to August 15, 1945
Country	Japanese Empire
Armed forces	Japanese armed forces
Armed forces	Japanese army
Branch of service	infantry
Type	corps
Strength	approx. 60,000
Insinuation	16th regional army
Location	Hiroshima
Nickname	San'yō ( 山陽 , "mountain sunny side")
Butcher	Second World War Operation Downfall;
Supreme command
list of	Commander in chief

The 59th Army ( Japanese 第 59 軍 , Dai-gojū-kyū-gun ) was a major unit of the Imperial Japanese Army in 1945 . Your Tsūshōgō code (military code name) was mountain sunny side ( 山陽 , San'yō ). Along with the 54th Army, it was the last Japanese army formed during the Pacific War .

history

On June 15, 1945 the Daihon'ei (Japanese Headquarters) set up the 59th Army under Lieutenant General Fujii Yōji in anticipation of an Allied invasion of the main Japanese islands and the offshore islands . It was stationed with four divisions , two independent mixed brigades and some artillery in Hiroshima in southern Honshu .

Like most units set up in the Japanese Empire in 1945 , it consisted of previously drafted recruits who had neither the necessary military training nor sufficient weapons. Sometimes weapons from the 19th century and bamboo spears had to be used. While divisions with two-digit numbering had a nominal strength of 20,000 men, the divisions with 100 and 200 numbers had almost 10,000 men. The latter divisions had practically no means of transport and were intended for coastal defense. Their immobility was offset by an above-average allocation of artillery and mortars .

The operational area of the 59th Army comprised the south coast of the provinces Kinki and Chūgoku (historically: San'yōdō ) with a total length of 800 km. All units were stationed near the coast.

When the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima , the army headquarters was destroyed and Commander Fujii was killed. The 59th Army was disbanded on August 15, 1945, without having been involved in any fighting.

Commander in chief

commander

	Surname	From	To
1.	Lieutenant General Fujii Yōji	June 15, 1945	August 6, 1945
2.	Lieutenant General Nakanishi Sadayoshi	August 6, 1945	August 12, 1945
3.	Lieutenant General Tani Hisao	June 12, 1945	August 15, 1945

Chiefs of Staff

	Surname	From	To
1.	Major General Kaji Takeo	June 15, 1945	July 5, 1945
2.	Major General Matsumara Shūitsu	July 5, 1945	September 18, 1945
3.	Lieutenant General Kawamura Saburō	September 18, 1945	November 30, 1945

Subordinate units

58th Army Staff
144th Division
225th Division
230th division
231st Division
123rd Independent Mixed Brigade
124th Independent Mixed Brigade
other smaller units

literature

Victor Madej: Japanese Armed Forces Order of Battle, 1937-1945. Game Publishing, 1981, OCLC 833591372 , OCLC 833591376 .
Leland Ness: Rikugun: Guide to Japanese Ground Forces 1937-1945. Helion & Company, 2014, ISBN 978-1-909982-00-0 .
Philip Jowett: The Japanese Army. Part 2: 1931-45. Osprey Publishing, 2002, ISBN 1-84176-354-3 .

Web links

第 59 軍. Organization of IJA, accessed December 30, 2014 (Japanese).

Individual evidence

^ V. Madej: Japanese Armed Forces Order of Battle, 1937-1945. 1981, p. 5.

[Madej-1] V. Madej: Japanese Armed Forces Order of Battle, 1937-1945. 1981, p. 5.