A report on Imperial Japanese Army and Ministry of the Army

The ensign of the Imperial Japanese Army

Ukiyo-E, depicting the retreat of shogunate forces in front of the Imperial Army (Kangun). Yodo Castle is shown in the background.

The Koishikawa Arsenal in Tokyo, inaugurated in 1871, soon after the Meiji restoration.

Prince Aritomo Yamagata, a field marshal in the Imperial Japanese Army and twice Prime Minister of Japan. He was one of the main architects of the military foundations of early modern Japan. Yamagata Aritomo can be seen as the father of Japanese militarism.

Barrack of the Imperial Guard, circa 1940

Marquis Nozu Michitsura, a field marshal in the early Imperial Japanese Army. He was appointed as chief of staff of the Imperial Guard (Japan) in 1874.

Marquis Jutoku Saigo, a general in the early Imperial Japanese Army. He is the nephew of Saigō Takamori, the leader of Satsuma Rebellion of 1877. Many of the rebels were incorporated into the Imperial Army after the failure of the armed uprising.

Commander-in-chief Saigō Tsugumichi (sitting at the center) pictured with leaders of the Seqalu tribe.

Count Nogi Maresuke, a general in the Imperial Japanese Army and the third governor of Taiwan

Type 13(Top) & Type 22(bottom) Murata rifle. Murata rifle was the first indigenously produced Japanese service rifle adopted in 1880.

Japanese troops during the Sino-Japanese War

Count Akiyama Yoshifuru, served as a cavalry regimental commander in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895. In the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, he led his troops against the Cossack cavalry divisions of the Imperial Russian Army.

Prince Katsura Tarō, three times Prime Minister of Japan. Katsura was the Vice-Minister of War during the period. He commanded the IJA 3rd Division under his mentor, Field Marshal Yamagata Aritomo, during the First Sino-Japanese War.

Type 30 rifle was the standard infantry rifle of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1897 to 1905.

Ōshima Ken'ichi, Minister of War during the period

Japanese riflemen during the Russo-Japanese War

The Type 38 rifle was adopted by the Imperial Japanese Army in 1905

Commanding Officers and Chiefs of Staff of the Allied Military Mission to Siberia, Vladivostok during the Allied Intervention

IJA amphibious assault ship Shinshū Maru, the world's first landing craft carrier ship to be designed as such.

Army uniforms between 1941 and 1945 (US Army poster)

Type 97 Chi-Ha, the most widely produced Japanese medium tank of World War II

Indonesian child recruits being trained by Japanese officers as human shield, 1945

Many thousands of Indonesian were taken away as forced labourers (romusha) for Japanese military projects, including the Burma-Siam and Saketi-Bayah railways, and suffered or died as a result of ill-treatment and starvation. Pictured is an internment camp in Jakarta, c. 1945

Disposition of the Imperial Japanese Army in Japan at the time of its capitulation, 18 August 1945

IJA Taiwanese soldier in Philippines during World War II

The Army Ministry (陸軍省), also known as the Ministry of War, was the cabinet-level ministry in the Empire of Japan charged with the administrative affairs of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA).

- Ministry of the Army

It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor of Japan as supreme commander of the army and the Imperial Japanese Navy.

- Imperial Japanese Army

4 related topics with Alpha

Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office

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The Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office (参謀本部), also called the Army General Staff, was one of the two principal agencies charged with overseeing the Imperial Japanese Army.

The Chief of the Army General Staff was the senior ranking uniformed officer in the Imperial Japanese Army and enjoyed, along with the War Minister, the Navy Minister, and the Chief of the Navy General Staff, direct access to the Emperor.

Imperial General Headquarters

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The Showa Emperor Hirohito as head of the Imperial General Headquarters in 1943. Navy officers are seated left while Army officers are seated right.

Announcement from Imperial General Headquarters January 1942

Soldiers parading before the Showa Emperor Hirohito on Shirayuki

The Imperial General Headquarters (大本営) was part of the Supreme War Council and was established in 1893 to coordinate efforts between the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy during wartime.

The Army Section comprised the Chief of Army General Staff and his chief of Army Operations, and the Army Minister.

Yamagata Aritomo

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Senior-ranking Japanese military commander, twice-elected Prime Minister of Japan, and a leading member of the genrō, an élite group of senior statesmen who dominated Japan after the Meiji Restoration.

Yamagata during his years as Prime Minister

Prince Katsura Tarō, thrice Prime Minister of Japan. He was Yamagata's protégé and close ally.

Prince Yamagata Aritomo in his later years.

As the Imperial Japanese Army's inaugural Chief of Staff, he was the chief architect of the Empire of Japan's military and its reactionary ideology.

On returning he was asked to organize a national army for Japan, and he became War Minister in 1873.

Government of Meiji Japan

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The government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s.

Army

To further strengthen the authority of the state, the Supreme War Council was established under the leadership of Yamagata Aritomo a Chōshū native who has been credited with the founding of the modern Imperial Japanese Army and was to become the first constitutional Prime Minister.