Forty-Fourth Army (Japan)

Japanese Fortieth-Fourth Army
Active	January 12, 1945 – August 15, 1945
Country	Empire of Japan
Branch	Imperial Japanese Army
Type	Infantry
Role	Corps
Garrison/HQ	Mukden, Manchukuo
Nickname(s)	Ensei (遠征, expeditionary)
Engagements	Soviet invasion of Manchuria

The Japanese 44th Army (第44軍 , Dai-yonjyū yon gun) was an army of the Imperial Japanese Army during the final stages of World War II.

History

The Japanese 44th Army was initially raised in July 1941 as the Kwangtung Defense Army (関東防衛軍, Kanto boei gun), an auxiliary force of the Kwantung Army based in the Manchukuo capital of Hsinking for public security and training. As the war situation on the Pacific front grew increasingly desperate for Japan, the Imperial Japanese Army transferred more and more experienced divisions and their equipment out of Manchukuo to other fronts. By early 1945, the vaunted Kwantung Army was largely hollowed out, and indications of a buildup of Soviet Red Army forces on the borders on Mengjiang and Manchukuo were alarming. The Kwantung Defense Army was renamed the Japanese 44th Army on May 30, 1945 and assigned to the Japanese Third Area Army, based in southern Manchukuo. It saw combat against the Soviet Army in Soviet invasion of Manchuria, with combat operations continuing into September, even after the official surrender of Japan. It was officially disbanded at Mukden, with many of its surviving troops becoming Japanese prisoners of war in the Soviet Union.

List of Commanders

Commanding Officer

	Name	From	To
1	General Tomoyuki Yamashita	17 July 1941	6 November 1941
2	Lieutenant General Tatsumi Kusaba	6 November 1941	21 December 1942
3	Lieutenant General Satoshi Kinoshita	21 December 1942	7 December 1943
4	Lieutenant General Shin Yoshida	7 December 1943	1 March 1945
5	Lieutenant General Yoshio Hongo	1 March 1945	September 1945

Chief of Staff

	Name	From	To
1	Lieutenant General Yasunori Yoshioka	17 July 1941	1 July 1942
2	Major General Senichi Tasaka	1 July 1942	16 May 1944
3	Major General Hiroshi Tamura	16 May 1944	2 October 1944
4	Major General Nobuyoshi Obata	2 October 1944	September 1945