Imperial Guard (Japan)
The Japanese Imperial Guard ( Japanese 近衛 師 団 , Konoe shidan , " Imperial Guard Division ") protected the Japanese imperial family and their possessions. The Guard was also a unit in the Imperial Japanese Army . The Guard was disbanded after World War II, and a similar institution was re-established in 1947 as part of the Japanese Police . The name was adopted from the Konoe-fu (bodyguard) established in 765 .
The Imperial Guard as an army unit
The Imperial Guard was formed in 1867 from units of the Palace Guard. It consisted of two brigades with two regiments each . When Emperor Meiji took power in the state, he built an army according to European standards, and in the course of the Meiji Restoration also incorporated the guard into it.
During the First Sino-Japanese War , the Guard Division was not used in Manchuria. Only after the fighting was over it was used in the Japanese invasion of Formosa in May 1895 . There she suffered only minor losses in fighting, but lost over 4,000 men due to malaria and other diseases.
In September 1939 the guard was split in two. The first brigade was relocated to southern China and was known as the Mixed Guard Brigade. The first and second infantry regiment , the cavalry regiment and about half of the auxiliary units belonged to it, giving them about 18,000 officers and men. In October 1940, the brigade took part in the occupation of French Indochina . In December of that year, she received the order, together with the 18th Division, to improve amphibious landings skills through extensive training and maneuvers. From January 1941 it was one of the army units that were motorized , among other things due to the experience in the Nomonhan incident , before it was relocated to Tokyo in April 1941 and reintegrated into the original division .
The rest of the division (3rd and 4th guards regiment) became the second guards brigade. In 1940 she was also relocated to China, but remained in Shanghai before being relocated to Hainan Island . In June 1941, the fifth infantry regiment of the guard joined them and became the imperial guard again. She later took part in the invasion of the Malay Peninsula and the Battle of Singapore with Yamashita Tomoyuki's 25th Army .
The Guard Division committed war crimes in Malaysia and Singapore , such as the Parit Sulong and Sook Ching massacres . Lieutenant General Nishimura Takuma was sentenced to life imprisonment by the British and to death by the Australians .
In June 1943, the 2nd Guard Division was set up from units of the Imperial Guard Division . Shortly afterwards the 1st Guard Division and in 1944 the 3rd Guard Division were established , both of which remained in Japan during the Pacific War.
After the end of World War II, the guard was disbanded.
Kin'ei-fu
With the dissolution of the guards, the Kin'ei-fu ( 禁衛 府 ) was established on September 10, 1945 . However, this was dissolved again on March 31, 1946.
Palace Police
In 1947 the kōgū keisatsu ( 皇宮 警察 , "Police of the Imperial Palace") was set up as part of the Japanese police, in English it is referred to as the Imperial Guard ("Imperial Guard") or Imperial Police ("Imperial Police"). It consists of more than 900 security policemen, who are again responsible for protecting the emperor and the imperial palace , and provides the form of honor at state events. The guard consists of the departments “Police Administration”, “Security” and “Escort”. She also has a mounted unit of 14 horses. The headquarters of the Palace Police are located in Tokyo's Chiyoda district in the district of the same name .
The direct forerunner was the palace police of the Imperial Court Ministry , which existed under different names since the Meiji period, first in 1886 as kogu keisatsu . In 1947 it was transferred to the Ministry of the Interior , then, when the police were reorganized on the US model, to the headquarters of the rural police ( kokkei of the prefectures - rural communities with less than 5,000 inhabitants did not have their own local police). Since the more centralized reorganization of the police in 1954, it has been subordinate to the national police authority , whose other employees mainly have training, coordination and administrative tasks, not the Tokyo Prefectural Police .
Today's Japanese imperial guards wear a modern-cut dark blue or blue-gray police uniform when guarding the imperial palace.
See also
Remarks
- ^ A b Edward J. Drea: Tradition and Circumstances: The Imperial Japanese Army's Tactical Response to Khalkhin-Gol, 1939. 2003, p. 10.
- ^ Edward J. Drea: Tradition and Circumstances: The Imperial Japanese Army's Tactical Response to Khalkhin-Gol, 1939. 2003, p. 22.
- ↑ thisisfolkestone.co.uk ( Memento from December 15, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Underwood, p. 15
- ↑ Keisatsu-chō: 皇宮 警察 本部 . Imperial Guard Headquaters , archived from the original on January 6, 2013 ; accessed on July 16, 2019 (English, original website no longer available).
literature
- Edward J. Drea: Tradition and Circumstances: The Imperial Japanese Army's Tactical Response to Khalkhin-Gol, 1939. In: Edward J. Drea (Ed.): In the Service of the Emperor - Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, Nebraska 2003, ISBN 0-8032-6638-3 .
- W. Victor Madej (Ed.): Japanese Armed Forces Order of Battle, 1937-1945. 2 vols. Game Marketing Co., Allentown PA 1981, OCLC 8930220 .
- John Underwood: The Japanese Order of Battle in World War II, Vol I The Nafziger Collection, Inc., 1999, ISBN 978-1-58545-044-2
Web links
- Police Department: Palace Police (Japanese)