In 1931, the Japanese army launched the 918 Incident and invaded northeast China. It also established a puppet state of Manchukuo, and at the same time provoked trouble in North China and other places. On July 7, 1937, the Japanese army launched the Lugou Bridge Incident, and the Sino-Japanese War broke out in full swing. It was not until the surrender of Japan on August 15, 1945, that the battle ceased. In those fourteen years, China invested 5.6 million people at its peak and Japan invested 4.1 million at its highest. Among the Japanese troops invading China, the name of the Kwantung Army is undoubtedly the loudest, from the people to the army, everyone knows the name of the Kwantung Army. The strange thing is that the Kwantung Army can still not listen to the emperor's orders, is it different from the ordinary Japanese army?
The Kwantung Army was established very early, on April 12, 1919. By that time, the Qing Dynasty had collapsed, and both Japan and the Western powers were trying to invade China. We have to start with the Russo-Japanese War between Japan and Russia in 1904, when they competed for northeast China, after which the two sides shared the spoils. In 1905, japan renamed the Chinese Liaodong to KwantungShu, and in 1907, the Japanese stationed an infantry division and six railway garrisons in Kwantungzhou.
In April 1919, the Kwantung Army was formally established, and at the beginning of its establishment, in order to improve the status of the Kwantung Army, the Kwantung Army became directly under the command of the Emperor of Japan. This is similar to the East Factory and Jinyi Wei in the Ming Dynasty of China, which only accepts the command of the emperor, although the Kwantung Army does not have the right to capture its own people, but its rights are also relatively large.
And they can be arrogant not only because they are directly subordinate to the emperor, but because of their combat effectiveness. In May 1920, the Fengtian Secret Service was established. At the beginning, the first major event of the Kwantung Army was the Huanggutun Incident, and Kawamoto Daisaku was a senior staff officer of the Kwantung Army at that time. They have always believed that pro-Japanese warlords can be kept, and those that cannot be used must be destroyed. At that time, kenji Doihara was also preparing for the assassination, and the final success was Kawamoto's plan. On June 4, 1928, Zhang Zuolin, the leader of the Feng clan, was killed with 200 kilograms of high explosives.
Although Kawamoto Daisaku, who killed Zhang Zuolin, was forced to step down, this incident increased the prestige of the Kwantung Army. This was followed by the 918 Incident at the beginning of the War of Aggression against China, which was planned by the Kwantung Army on September 18, 1931. No matter how they opened the door to invading And occupied China, the emperor naturally trusted them in every way. Then many things were done by the Kwantung Army, such as the establishment of the puppet state of Manchukuo. Instigated by the Japanese army, Puyi established a puppet regime in Changchun, which became the base camp of the Kwantung Army.
It is certainly not enough to provoke trouble, and then look at the strength of the Kwantung Army. At the end of 1941, the Kwantung Army was equipped with a large number of 13 armor divisions with strong combat effectiveness. At its peak, there were 31 infantry divisions, 11 infantry and tank brigades, 1 death squad and two aviation corps. The total number was 1.2 million, accounting for more than a quarter of the Japanese army invading China. Moreover, people not only have strong combat effectiveness, but also have special equipment, so the Kwantung Army also has the title of the Flower of the Imperial Army.
Strength is their arrogant ability, compared to ordinary troops, the Kwantung Army is strong in combat effectiveness and well equipped. Assassination and war are all right, and it is difficult not to be trusted by the emperor, and it is precisely because of this that they do not listen to the emperor because of their own strength, and the emperor will not blame them. However, such an elite division later lost a mess, when Germany and the Soviet Union were fighting. As a result, Japan, an ally, decided to start a Pacific War, and they ordered the Kwantung Army to move south.
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, but the U.S. forces regained their superiority the following year. The Kwantung Army did not dare to provoke an incident at this time, and from the second half of 1943, the Japanese army sent a large number of Kwantung Army to the Pacific War, but this elite division was doomed to defeat. On May 8, 1945, the Kwantung Army suffered heavy losses, reaching 700,000 men under replenishment, but this group was far inferior to the original Kwantung Army.
On August 8, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, and in less than a week the Soviets reached the central northeast. On August 10, 1945, Japan ordered the Kwantung Army to retreat to Korea, but this once ace division did not want to lose face. On August 15, the Japanese Emperor announced his surrender, and the Kwantung Army was arrogant and still unwilling to listen, until it was beaten and forced to surrender. The captured Kwantung Army was sent to Siberia for forced labor, 60,000 people died, and the Flower of the Imperial Army disappeared.