Under the command of Lieutenant General Yuitsu Tsuchihashi, the IJA 48th Division was among the first Japanese forces to land in the Philippines as part of the IJA 14th Army, and captured Manila, but did not participate in the Battle of Bataan. Instead, in January 1942 the division was transferred to the control of the IJA 16th Army in eastern Java, where it was assigned the capture of Surabaya and its strategic oil fields on 7 March 1942.