7-698: The Japanese North China Area Army ( 北支那方面軍 , Kita Shina hōmen gun ) was an area army of the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War . The Japanese North China Area Army was formed on August 21, 1937 under the control of the Imperial General Headquarters . It was transferred to the newly formed China Expeditionary Army on September 23, 1939. Headquartered in Beijing , it
14-801: A fourth. Towards the end of World War II, the home island command (i.e. the General Defense Command ) was restructured geographically into the First General Army in the east, Second General Army in the west, and the Air General Army in charge of military aviation . With the official Japanese surrender in September 1945, all of the general armies were dissolved, except for the First General Army, which continued to exist until November 30, 1945, as
21-472: The 1st Demobilization Headquarters . Area Armies ( 方面軍 , Hōmen-gun ) in Japanese military terminology were equivalent to field armies in western militaries. Area Armies were normally commanded by a general or lieutenant general . There is much confusion between the similarly numbered Area Armies and Armies in historical records, as many writers often did not make a clear distinction when describing
28-944: The Japanese Manchurian Army , formed from 1904 to 1905 during the Russo-Japanese War as a temporary command structure to coordinate the efforts of several Japanese armies in the campaign against Imperial Russia . In terms of a permanent standing organization, the Japanese Army created the Kantōgun , usually known in English as the Kwantung Army, to manage its overseas deployment in the Kwantung Territory and Manchukuo from 1906. Subsequent general armies were created in response to
35-475: The militaries of Western nations . The General Army ( 総軍 , Sō-gun ) was the highest level in the organizational structure of the Imperial Japanese Army. It corresponded to the army group in western military terminology. Intended to be self-sufficient for indefinite periods, the general armies were commanded by either a field marshal or a full general . The initial General Army was
42-627: The needs of the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II , in which increased overseas deployment called for an organizational structure that could respond quickly and autonomously from the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff in Tokyo . As a result, Japanese forces were re-organized into three separate overseas operational commands: ( Manchuria , China and Southeast Asia ), with the Japanese home islands forming
49-562: Was responsible for direction and coordination of the Japanese military activity in all of north China . It was demobilized in Beijing at the surrender of Japan . Armies of the Imperial Japanese Army Army ( 軍 , gun ) was a term in the Imperial Japanese Army used in different ways to designate a variety of large military formations that corresponded to the army group , field army , and corps in
#377622