Eastern District Regional Army

Eastern District Regional Army
active	November 16, 1923 to November 30, 1945
Country	Japanese Empire
Armed forces	Japanese armed forces
Armed forces	Japanese army
Branch of service	infantry
Type	army
Location	Beijing
Supreme command
list of	Commander in chief

The Eastern District Regional Army ( Japanese 東部 軍 , Tōbu-gun , Eng . "Eastern Army") was from 1923 to 1945 one of the armies of the Central Defense Command of the Imperial Japanese Army .

history

The Eastern District Regional Army, which at the time was called "Tokyo Defense Command" ( 東京 警備 司令部 , Tōkyō keibi shireibu ), was set up in Tokyo on November 16, 1923 under the command of General Yamanashi Hanzo . In 1935 the "Defense Command East" ( 東部 防衛 司令部 , Tobu bōei shireibu ) was added, which was merged with the Tokyo in 1937, in 1940 the name "Eastern Army" ( 東部 軍 , Tōbu-gun ) and finally in 1945 "Military District East" ( 東部軍 管 区 , Tobu gunkanku ). In the final year of the war, their primary task was to defend Tokyo in the event of an Allied landing.

In the radio address Gyokuon-hōsō ( Japanese 玉 音 放送 , dt. About: "Transmission of the imperial (literally: diamond) voice") Tennō Hirohito read the "Imperial decree to end the Great East Asian War" ( 大 東 亜 戦 争 終結 ノ ノ , Daitōa sensō shūketsu no shōsho ). Many Japanese military officials considered it dishonorable to end the war in this way and attempted a coup on August 14th . Under false orders, Hatanaka Kenji , one of the main responsible conspirators, occupied the imperial palace on the evening of that day in order to destroy the record. General Tanaka Shizuichi , who at that time was Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern District Regional Army, went personally to the Imperial Palace and was able to persuade the conspirators to end the coup.

The Eastern District Regional Army was disbanded on November 30, 1945 in Tokyo.

Commander in chief

	Surname	From	To
1.	General Yamanashi Hanzo	November 16, 1923	August 20, 1924
2.	General Kikuchi Shinnosuke	August 20, 1924	March 2, 1926
3.	Field Marshal Mutō Nobuyoshi	March 2, 1926	July 28, 1926
4th	General Isomura Nen	July 28, 1926	August 10, 1928
5.	General Kishimoto Shikitaro	August 10, 1928	August 1, 1929
6th	Lieutenant General Hasegawa Naotoshi	August 1, 1929	December 22, 1930
7th	Lieutenant General Hayashi Yasakichi	December 22, 1930	February 29, 1932
8th.	Lieutenant General Kihara Kiyoshi	February 29, 1932	March 18, 1933
9.	Lieutenant General Hayashi Noriyuki	March 18, 1933	March 5, 1934
10.	General Nishi Giichi	March 5, 1934	December 2, 1935
11.	Lieutenant General Kashii Kohei	December 2, 1935	April 2, 1936
12.	Lieutenant General Iwakoshi Koichi	April 2, 1936	August 2, 1937
13.	General Nakamura Kōtarō	August 2, 1937	June 23, 1938
14th	Lieutenant General Kawagishi Bunzaburo	June 23, 1938	December 1, 1939
15th	Lieutenant General Inaba Shiro	December 1, 1939	October 15, 1941
16.	General Tanaka Shizuichi	October 15, 1941	December 24, 1941
17th	General Nakamura Kōtarō	December 24, 1941	May 1, 1943
18th	General Doihara Kenji	May 1, 1943	March 22, 1944
19th	General Fujie Keisuke	March 22, 1944	March 9, 1945
20th	General Tanaka Shizuichi	March 9, 1945	August 22, 1945
21st	General Doihara Kenji	August 22, 1945	September 23, 1945
22nd	General Kitano Kenzo	September 23, 1945	November 30, 1945

Subordinate units

The following units were subordinate to the Eastern District Regional Army (as of December 1941):

• 52nd Division
• 2nd Depot Division
• 3rd Depot Division
• 51st Depot Division
• 57th Depot Division

literature

• Victor Madej: Japanese Armed Forces Order of Battle, 1937-1945. Game Publishing, 1981, OCLC 833591372 , OCLC 833591376 .
• Philip Jowett, "The Japanese Army 1931-45 (1)" Osprey Publishing, 2002, ISBN 978-1-8417-6353-8
• Gordon Rottman, "Japanese Army in World War II, Conquest of the Pacific" Osprey Publishing, 2005, ISBN 978-1-8417-6789-5

Web links

• 総 軍 ・ 方面軍. Organization of IJA, accessed January 2, 2015 .  , Japanese
• List of Higher Echeron Army Headquarters. Organizations of IJA & N, accessed January 1, 2015 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rottmann, p. 9

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus, Yamanashi is the family name, Hanzō the first name.