After his promotion to lieutenant general in August 1941, he was sent to Taiwan in September 1941 to command the newly-formed IJA 48th Division. After the outbreak of the Pacific War, the IJA 48th Division was among the first Japanese forces to land in the Philippines as part of the IJA 14th Army, and Tsuchihashi's forces captured Manila, but did not participate in the Battle of Bataan. Instead, in January 1942 his division was transferred to the control of the IJA 16th Army in eastern Java, where was assigned the capture of Surabaya and its strategic oil fields on 7 March 1942.