The was an army of the Imperial Japanese Army stationed on the island of Taiwan as a garrison force.
History Following the First Sino-Japanese War, the Treaty of Shimonoseki transferred control of Taiwan from the Qing Empire to the Empire of Japan. The Japanese government established the Governor-General of Taiwan based in Taihoku. The Governor-General of Taiwan was given control of local military forces on 20 August 1919, which formed the nucleus of the Taiwan Army of Japan.
Primarily a garrison force, the Japanese Taiwan Army was placed under control of the Shanghai Expeditionary Army at the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. A component of the Taiwan Army, the Taiwan Independent Combined Brigade, was active in numerous campaigns on the China, and was later expanded into the 48th Infantry Division. Troops from this army were also involved in the Nanjing Massacre in December 1937.
Taiwanese natives were only assigned to non-combatant civilian work as manual labourers, porters and Chinese language interpreters. Taiwanese were not allowed as combatants until 1942 when volunteers were permitted to enlist and all combatant soldiers from the Taiwan Army of Japan before 1942 were ethnic Japanese. Native Taiwanese were briefly conscripted in 1945.
Towards the end of World War II, as the situation looked increasingly desperate for Japan, the Taiwan Army was merged with several other units garrisoning the island of Taiwan against possible Allied invasion, and the Taiwan Army was absorbed into the new Japanese Tenth Area Army on 22 September 1944, under which it formed the Taiwan District Army on 1 February 1945, but its command was directly by the Japanese 10th Area Army.
List of commanders Commanding officers Name From To1 General Motojiro Akashi 20 August 1919 26 October 19192 General Goro Shiba 1 December 1919 4 May 19213 Lieutenant General Masatarō Fukuda 4 May 1921 6 August 19234 General Soroku Suzuki 6 August 1923 20 August 19245 Lieutenant General Takaichi Kanno 20 August 1924 28 July 19266 Lieutenant General Kunishige Tanaka 28 July 1926 10 August 19287 General Takashi Hishikari 10 August 1928 3 June 19308 General Jotaro Watanabe 3 June 1930 1 August 19319 Lieutenant General Jinzaburō Masaki 1 August 1931 9 January 193210 General Nobuyuki Abe 9 January 1932 1 August 193311 General Iwane Matsui 1 August 1933 1 August 193412 Field Marshal Count Hisaichi Terauchi 1 August 1934 2 December 193513 Lieutenant General Heisuke Yanagawa 2 December 1935 1 August 193614 Field Marshal Shunroku Hata 1 August 1936 2 August 193715 Lieutenant General Mikio Tsutsumi 2 August 1937 8 September 193816 Lieutenant General Tomou Kodama 8 September 1938 1 December 193917 Lieutenant General Mitsuru Ushijima 1 December 1939 2 December 194018 Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma 2 December 1940 6 November 194119 General Rikichi Ando 6 November 1941 17 September 1945
Chief of staff Name From To1 Major General Koichiro Soda 20 August 1919 25 February 19212 Major General Kojiro Satoi 25 February 1921 4 February 19243 Major General Kinzo Watanabe 4 February 1924 26 July 19274 Major General Nenosuke Sato 26 July 1927 24 April 19305 Major General Takeshi Kosugi 24 April 1930 11 April 19326 Major General Yoshishige Shimizu 11 April 1932 18 March 19337 Major General Kennosuke Otsuka 18 March 1933 22 January 19348 Major General Sumei Kuwaki 22 January 1934 1 August 19359 Lieutenant General Ryuhei Ogisu 1 August 1935 1 March 193710 Major General Masataka Hata 1 March 1937 19 February 193811 Lieutenant General Hisaichi Tanaka 19 February 1938 8 September 193812 Major General Kazuo Otsu 15 October 1938 9 March 194013 Lieutenant General Mikio Uemura 9 March 1940 1 March 194114 Lieutenant General Takaji Wachi 1 March 1941 20 February 194215 Lieutenant General Shichiro Higuchi 20 February 1942 29 October 194316 Lieutenant General Shinpachi Kondo 29 October 1943 8 July 194417 Lieutenant General Haruki Isayama 8 July 1944 17 September 1945
See also Armies of the Imperial Japanese Army Ethnic Taiwanese Imperial Japan Serviceman Japanese Korean Army Takasago Volunteers
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