14th Division ( Imperial Japanese Army ) The was an infantry division in the Imperial Japanese Army . Its call sign was the . History . The 14th Division was one of four divisions raised in the closing stages of the Russo - Japanese War ( 1904 - 1905 ) . With Japan ' s resources strained to the breaking point towards the end of that conflict , the entire Imperial Japanese Army was committed to combat in Manchuria , leaving not a single division to guard the Japanese main islands in case of attack . The division was raised from men in the Utsunomiya area , and was the only one of the four emergency divisions considered combat - ready ( albeit still severely understrength ) prior to the end of the war . It was dispatched to the front in August 1905 , where it joined General Nogi Maresuke ' s Third Army . The 14th Division was one of the Japanese units involved in the Siberian Intervention ( 1919 - 1922 ) , and elements stationed at Nikolayevsk - on - Amur were massacred by Bolshevik irregulars in what came to be known as the . In 1932 , the 14th Division ( then under the control of the Kwantung Army ) was involved in the First Shanghai Incident . It also participated in the pacification of Manchukuo . With the outbreak of general hostilities in the Second Sino - Japanese War , it was assigned to the Northern China Area Army theater of operations and under the First Army participated in the Beiping – Hankou Railway Operation , and the campaign of Northern and Eastern Honan where it was involved in the Battle of Lanfeng . In 1942 , the 14th Division returned to Japan . At that time , its 50th Infantry Regiment was reassigned to the newly formed 29th Division . In August 1942 , the remainder of the 14th Division was sent back to Manchukuo , and assigned to garrison duty . As the situation in the Pacific War against the United States continued to deteriorate , the Supreme War Council began transferring forces out of Manchukuo to the southern operational areas . The 14th Division was assigned to Palau , with its 2nd Infantry Regiment sent to the island of Peleliu , and one battalion of its 29th Infantry Regiment stationed on the island of Angaur . The subsequent Battle of Peleliu and Battle of Angaur were among the bloodiest of the Pacific War . At Angaur , 1338 of the 1400 defenders were killed , and at Peleliu , 10 , 695 of the 11 , 000 defenders perished . The 14th Division effectively ceased to exist with these battles . Noted commanders in the history of the 14th Division have included Tsuchiya Mitsuharu , Samejima Shigeo , Uehara Yusaku , Suzuki Takao , Hata Shunroku and Kenji Doihara . Organization . First raised in 1905 as a square division . It had the following organization in the January 28 Incident at Shanghai in 1932 : 14th Division It had the following organization from 1937 until 1941 : 14th Division In 1941 it was reorganized as a triangular division . From 1941 to 1944 it had the following organization : 14th Division As a regimental combat team division from 1944 to 1945 it had this organization : 14th Division The order of battle for the 14th Division at the time of the Peleliu campaign included : Trivia . The long stay of the 14th Division in Manchukuo led its troops to become very familiar and fond of the local specialty , fried Jiaozi , known in Japanese as " gyoza " . As the troops from the 14th Division were from Utsunomiya , they took this dish home with them , and Utsunomiya is famous throughout Japan to this day for its " gyoza " .