# Japanese Korean Army

The Japanese Korean Army (朝鮮軍, Chōsen-gun, lit. 'Korean military') was an army of the Imperial Japanese Army that formed a garrison force in Korea under Japanese rule. The Korean Army consisted of roughly 350,000 troops in 1914.

## History

Japanese forces occupied large portions of the Empire of Korea during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, and a substantial Korean Garrison Army (韓国駐剳軍, Kankoku Chusatsugun) was established in Seoul to protect the Japanese embassy and civilians on March 11, 1904. After the Annexation of Korea by the Empire of Japan in 1910, this force was renamed the Chosen Chusatsugun, and was further renamed the Japanese Korean Army on June 1, 1918. The primary task of the Korean Army was to guard the Korean peninsula against possible incursions from the Soviet Union; however, its units were also used for suppression of nationalist uprisings and political dissent within Korea itself. The Korean Army also came to the assistance of the Kwantung Army in its unauthorized invasion of Manchuria in 1931. In 1941, the Army was subordinated to the General Defense Command.
While Seishirō Itagaki (板垣 征四郎) was commander of the Chosen Army from 7 July 1939 to 7 April 1945, Japan began assembling its nuclear weapons program with the industrial site near the Chosen reservoir as its equivalent to the Oak Ridge laboratory for the United States' Manhattan Project. Both Itagaki and Masanobu Tsuji (辻 政信) refused to support neither peace between Japan and the United States nor have Japan attack the Soviet Union during Nazi Germany's Operation Barbarosa. It may have altered world history. Tsuji planned to assassinate Fumimaro Konoe if Konoe had Japan attack the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarosa and maintain peace with the United States.
In 1945, as the situation in the Pacific War was turning increasingly against Japan, the Army was transformed into the Japanese Seventeenth Area Army, and subsequently placed under the overall administrative command of the Kwantung Army. Its two undermanned infantry divisions were unable to withstand the massive Soviet Red Army armored and amphibious assault on Korea during the Soviet invasion of Manchuria. After the surrender of Japan, the Army south of the 38 parallel remained armed under operational command of the United States Army to maintain public order until the arrival of substantial Allied forces to take control.

## List of Commanders
### Commanding officer

| | Name | From | To |
| 1 | Lieutenant General Kensai Haraguchi | 11 March 1904 | 8 September 1904 |
| 2 | Marshal Yoshimichi Hasegawa | 8 September 1904 | 21 December 1908 |
| 3 | General Haruno Okubo | 21 December 1908 | 18 August 1911 |
| 4 | General Arisawa Ueda | 18 August 1911 | 14 January 1912 |
| 5 | General Sadayoshi Ando | 14 January 1912 | 25 January 1915 |
| 6 | General Seigo Inokuchi | 25 January 1915 | 18 August 1916 |
| 7 | General Yoshifuru Akiyama | 18 August 1916 | 6 August 1917 |
| 8 | General Satoshi Matsukawa | 6 August 1917 | 24 July 1918 |
| 9 | General Heitaro Utsunomiya | 24 July 1918 | 16 August 1920 |
| 10 | Lieutenant General Jiro Oba | 16 August 1920 | 24 November 1922 |
| 11 | General Shinnosuke Kikuchi | 24 November 1922 | 20 August 1924 |
| 12 | General Soroku Suzuki | 20 August 1924 | 2 March 1926 |
| 13 | General Shusei Morioka | 2 March 1926 | 5 March 1927 |
| 14 | General Hanzo Kanaya | 5 March 1927 | 1 August 1929 |
| 15 | General Jirō Minami | 1 August 1929 | 22 November 1930 |
| 16 | Lieutenant General Senjuro Hayashi | 22 November 1930 | 26 May 1932 |
| 17 | General Yoshiyuki Kawashima | 26 May 1932 | 1 August 1934 |
| 18 | General Kenkichi Ueda | 1 August 1934 | 2 December 1935 |
| 19 | General Kuniaki Koiso | 2 December 1935 | 15 July 1938 |
| 20 | General Kotaro Nakamura | 15 July 1938 | 7 July 1941 |
| 21 | General Seishirō Itagaki | 7 July 1941 | 7 April 1945 |
| 22 | Lieutenant General Yoshio Kozuki | 7 April 1945 | September 1945 |

### Chief of Staff

| | Name | From | To |
| 1 | Lieutenant General Rikisaburo Saito | 19 March 1904 | 12 September 1904 |
| 2 | Lieutenant General Toyosaburo Ochiai | 12 September 1904 | 7 April 1905 |
| 3 | General Kikuzuo Otani | 7 April 1905 | 1 June 1906 |
| 4 | Lieutenant General Takashi Muta | 1 June 1906 | 21 December 1908 |
| 5 | General Jiro Akashi | 21 December 1908 | 15 June 1910 |
| 6 | Lieutenant General Shozo Sakakibara | 15 June 1910 | 30 November 1910 |
| 7 | General Katsusaburo Shiba | 30 November 1910 | 28 September 1912 |
| 8 | General Koichiro Tachibana | 28 September 1912 | 17 April 1914 |
| 9 | Lieutenant General Gencho Furumi | 17 April 1914 | 1 April 1916 |
| 10 | Lieutenant General Tan Shirozu | 1 April 1916 | 6 August 1917 |
| 11 | Lieutenant General Kentaro Ichikawa | 6 August 1917 | 1 November 1918 |
| 12 | Major General Toyoshi Ono | 1 November 1918 | 20 July 1921 |
| 13 | Major General Kinichi Yasumitsu | 20 July 1921 | 6 August 1923 |
| 14 | Major General Harumi Akai | 6 August 1923 | 2 March 1926 |
| 15 | Lieutenant General Senyuki Hayashi | 2 March 1926 | 26 August 1927 |
| 16 | Marshal Count Hisaichi Terauchi | 26 August 1927 | 1 August 1929 |
| 17 | Lieutenant General Kotaro Nakamura | 1 August 1929 | 22 December 1930 |
| 18 | General Tomou Kodama | 22 December 1930 | 1 August 1933 |
| 19 | Major General Keikichi Ogushi | 1 August 1933 | 2 December 1935 |
| 20 | Major General Yoshishige Saeda | 2 December 1935 | 1 December 1936 |
| 21 | Lieutenant General Seiichi Kuno | 1 December 1936 | 1 March 1938 |
| 22 | Lieutenant General Kenzo Kitano | 1 March 1938 | 7 September 1939 |
| 23 | Lieutenant General Yakutaira Kato | 7 September 1939 | 1 March 1941 |
| 24 | Lieutenant General Hiroshi Takahashi | 1 March 1941 | 9 July 1942 |
| 25 | Lieutenant General Junjiro Ihara | 9 July 1942 | September 1945 |