When talking about the fiery years of the War of Resistance Against Japan, we cannot fail to mention the Kwantung Army, which was known as the "flower of the imperial army". Because of its brave battles, sophisticated equipment and huge size, this army once became the leader of the Japanese army and was known as the "flower of the imperial army".
Looking back on history, on September 1, 1906, the Kwantung Governor's Office was officially established in Lushun, and since then, the name of the Kwantung Army has become well-known. On June 4, 1928, in order to clear the obstacles to the occupation of the Northeast, the Kwantung Army planned the shocking "Huanggutun Incident", which led to the death of the Feng warlord Zhang Zuolin.
In the middle of the night on September 18, 1931, the Kwantung Army staged another conspiracy to blow up a section of the South Manchurian Railway track in Shenyang, and deliberately blamed the Chinese army. Using this as an excuse, they bombarded the Beidaying of China's Northeast Army, thus triggering the September 18 Incident that shocked China and the rest of the world. Due to the implementation of the "non-resistance policy" of the Northeast Army, a large amount of munitions and materials were plundered by the Japanese army. By February 1932, the Kwantung Army had basically occupied the entire territory of the three northeastern provinces.
With the support of the Kwantung Army, Pu Yi ascended the throne on March 9, 1932, and established the infamous "puppet state of Manchukuo". In order to suppress the anti-Japanese volunteers in the northeast, the Kwantung Army began to rapidly expand its power.
It is worth mentioning that in 1932, Shiro Ishii, a lieutenant general and doctor of medicine in the Japanese Army, under the protection of the Kwantung Army, actually established the notorious "Unit 731" to conduct inhumane bacterial infection, anatomical and biochemical experiments on innocent people.
On July 7, 1937, the Kwantung Army once again planned the "77 Incident", marking the outbreak of the all-out War of Resistance Against Japan. By the end of 1942, the Kwantung Army had six armies under its jurisdiction, with a total strength of more than 700,000 troops, and its weapons and equipment and facilities were among the best in the Japanese Army.
However, with the expansion of the Japanese occupation zone and the outbreak of the Pacific War, a large number of elites of the Kwantung Army were transferred to other theaters. Although the number of troops has been replenished, most of them are new recruits and veterans who lack combat experience.
On August 9, 1945, the Soviets launched a campaign against the Kwantung Army with an astonishing number of troops. They mobilized 1,577,000 troops, 26,000 artillery pieces, 5,556 tanks and 3,889 aircraft, and under the command of Marshal Vasilevsky, launched a fierce attack on the Kwantung Army in multiple directions. These Soviet soldiers are all veterans of a hundred battles who have experienced the baptism of the Soviet-German war, and their combat effectiveness is extremely strong.
Marshal Vasilevsky was praised by American military historians as one of the most outstanding commanders of the Soviet Red Army, second only to Zhukov in his status. However, the Kwantung Army at this time was no longer comparable to what it used to be. Despite the fact that its headquarters had a strength of 780,000 troops, a total of about 1 million servants, and a total of 1,215 tanks and 1,800 aircraft, its supreme commander, Yamada Otsuzo, had extremely mediocre military skills. His military rank was more based on the suppression of the Northeast Volunteers and the blindness of Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo.
In just seven days, from August 9 to August 15, the battle ended with the complete collapse of the Kwantung Army. With only 32,000 casualties, the Soviets killed 83,300 Kwantung Army soldiers and captured 594,000, achieving a brilliant victory. The Kwantung Army was completely annihilated, and none of the officers and men, including Commander Yamada Otozo, were spared.
The captured Kwantung Army was sent to Soviet Siberia for hard labor, where they were subjected to the same heavy manual labor as ordinary soldiers and did not receive any preferential treatment. In Soviet labor camps, more than 60,000 Kwantung Army prisoners died. It was not until 1949 that the surviving Kwantung Army prisoners of war were repatriated to Japan one after another. This battle was undoubtedly a complete blow to the Kwantung Army and a crushing defeat on the stage of history.