This R Japan Standing Fourth Division, also called the Osaka Division, is not listed in this report because of its strong combat power and brilliant record. The main reason why they were selected is because they are completely different from other R Army units and are very special.
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Usually when people mention Japan's Army, they think of them as being very brutal. They shout slogans such as "Long Live the Emperor" at every turn and launch suicide charges against the enemy. Moreover, their individual soldier quality and training are indeed very high, but in Japan
There is an anomaly in the army, and that is the Osaka Division.
The Fourth Osaka Division is codenamed "Yodo". Compared with the codenames of other divisions, the codename "Yodo" is very special, because the codenames of other main divisions in Japan are usually very martial, such as the Sendai Second Division.
The regiment is "brave", the Kanazawa 9th Division is "martial", etc., and the origin of the word "Yodo" for the Osaka 4th Division is actually the name of a commercial street in Osaka City, which really has a local flavor.
It also carries the auspiciousness of attracting wealth and treasure.
As the standing division of Japan, the 4th Osaka Division is the oldest army unit. Their ordinary establishment exceeds 22,000 people, and they have 4 regiments with first-class equipment. The core is the 8th Regiment.
However, during the Russo-Japanese War, the Eighth Regiment suffered repeated defeats and was called "the Eighth Regiment that is not afraid of defeat" by Japanese colleagues.
The Fourth Osaka Division was established in 1888. The soldiers were mainly composed of traders from Osaka, which gave this unit strong cultural characteristics of Osaka. In ancient Japan, the basic social structure was farmers
The feudal princes who are attached to the land are also called daimyo, and the princes are subordinate to the emperor. This long-term unchanged social structure has resulted in a very strict relationship between superiors and subordinates in Japanese society and a spirit of obedience. This is why the Japanese army was generally fanatical and loyal to the emperor during World War II.
psychological basis.
Osaka is an alternative city among all Japanese cities. This place has been a famous commercial city since ancient times. Its residents are mostly engaged in commercial activities and have very limited respect for daimyo. However, around the issue of excessive taxes and miscellaneous taxes, hundreds of people in Osaka
They have been fighting wits and bargaining with the daimyo all year round. The word loyalty does not apply to them at all. They are only loyal to the contract and themselves.
Therefore, the emperor's status in the hearts of Osaka people is different from that of people in other places. Officers and soldiers from Osaka will not rush to "be loyal to the emperor and die for the empire." They are used to bargaining and calculating. Within the Fourth Division
It has even formulated the so-called "Three Don'ts" principle: "Don't make useless sacrifices, don't participate in unreasonable battles, and don't pursue the enemy at the end of the road."
Under the influence of this guiding ideology, the Osaka 4th Division caused many interesting things throughout World War II. For example, in 1937, the R Army stationed in North China was short of troops and had to put its troops in the Russo-Japanese War.
The underperforming Fourth Division was transferred to the North China battlefield. However, in order to strengthen the management of this division, Yamashita Fengwen, known as the "Malay Tiger", was specially transferred to serve as the commander of the Fourth Division. As a result, Yamashita
There is nothing I can do against this group of merchant soldiers in Osaka.
After two years of intensive training in the hands of Yamashita Tobumi, a war broke out between Russia and Russia in the Nomonkan area at the junction of China and Mongolia. The Osaka and Sendai divisions were ordered to go to support. As a result, the Sendai division set off overnight and marched for four days.
We rushed to Nomenkan from Hailar and went into battle that day, but were defeated by the Soviet army.
After the Fourth Division received the order to set off, it was still unable to go on the road. This was not because of deliberate disobedience, but because the number of sick people in the division suddenly increased. Looking around, the camp was full of sick people and could not go on the expedition.
The furious captain had no choice but to sit in the medical center and check each patient one by one, and then he could barely get enough people to go out.
However, the matter was not over. Seeing that pretending to be sick was not enough, the Osaka soldiers resorted to the second trick, passive and sabotage! From Hailar to Nomenkan, the Sendai Second Division walked for four days, and the Osaka Fourth Division left.
8 days, and a large number of personnel fell behind, and equipment was lost all over the road. However, the life of the Osaka soldiers was good. When they reached Nomenkan
On the same day, the R-Soviet Union declared an armistice. After hearing the news, the Osaka soldiers who were lagging behind and the Osaka soldiers who were pretending to be sick in Hylar accelerated towards Nomenkan like taking powerful pills. The fastest team only used
I ran from Hylar to Nomenkan in 3 and a half days, and then I sadly lamented why I didn’t catch the final battle!!!
On the way back, the Fourth Division was impressive and full of troops, while the Second Division had suffered heavy casualties in the battle with the Soviet army and had lost its armor. The Kwantung Army's news officer was really
I couldn't stand it anymore, so I picked up my pen and changed the original news title "My Invincible Fourth Division of the Imperial Army Returns with Might" and changed it to "My Invincible Fourth Division of the Imperial Army Returns with Might".
Although war-avoidance and war-weariness were serious, the Fourth Division's luck was quite good. Due to the intense fighting in Central China at that time and the urgent need for reinforcements, our military headquarters had no choice but to give up on pursuing the Fourth Division's responsibility and urgently mobilized it to go south for reinforcements.
Later, the Fourth Division was transformed and became a member of the elite Eleventh Army of the R Army.
Just as the Fourth Division was heading south, the Battle of Xuzhou began. Li Zongren led an army of 400,000 people and escaped from the encirclement of the R Army. However, they were short of men and horses, with more than half of their equipment discarded, and their combat effectiveness was sharply reduced. When passing a road at the junction of Shandong, Jiangsu and Anhui
, the tired squadron suddenly found a well-equipped squadron walking on the road.
R Army troops. The panicked Chinese ** team hurriedly retreated to the mountainous area beside the road. However, after running for a long time, they did not see the R Army pursuing them. Surprised, the commander of the Chinese ** team sent people back to investigate.
, and it turned out that the R Army troops had no intention of pursuing him at all. They were busy cooking on both sides of the road.
In order to continue going south, the Chinese ** team had no choice but to cross the highway. As a result, the journey was uneventful. The R Army troops did not even follow them. They watched the Chinese ** team slip away from under their noses and still
When faced with the questioning of the Eleventh Army afterwards, he said openly: This was to strictly comply with combat disciplines, because they did not receive an order to intercept the Chinese Army. And this Japanese army was in Osaka on its way south.
Fourth Division.
This news soon spread to the ears of other Chinese ** teams, and the saying that the Osaka soldiers did not know how to fight spread. After that, every time they fought, as long as the Chinese ** teams heard that their opponents were Osaka soldiers, they would immediately
Possessed by the God of War, morale increased greatly, and he rushed to fight the Osaka Division. As a result, the Osaka Division suffered several defeats in a row, and even implicated friendly forces, so much so that the Eleventh Army complained to the military headquarters that "the Fourth Division participated in the battle."
, the battle that could have been won will be lost because of them.”
In view of the poor performance of the Fourth Division in the Battle of Changsha, it became the "lost star" in the Japanese Army. No other army dared to ask for it. The base camp had no choice but to change the Fourth Division into a directly affiliated unit.
.Now the Fourth Division’s
Those Osaka soldiers would brag when they see anyone, "I was a soldier in the Class A Division. When the war started, I belonged to the elite Kwantung Army. When the war started, I was in the elite Eleventh Army. Now even the Eleventh Army can't accommodate us, so we can only change it to
Directly under the elite troops."
Although the Fourth Division was cowardly, it was a Category A division after all, and the casualty rate was very low, which resulted in a very large number of veterans in the division. In the later stages of the war, the R Army suffered very heavy losses in personnel, especially the lack of veterans, so it had to
The veterans of the Fourth Division were transferred to supplement other divisions, and when seeing them off, other
The soldiers of his division would all say, "The military fortunes are long-lasting, see Kudanzaka (Kyudanzaka is the name of the place, where the Yasukuni Shrine is located)", but the Fourth Division is different. When they see each other off, they will say "Goshen Oikiri", which translates to
Take care of yourself, your body comes first, or to put it simply, your life is the most important thing.
Because of its bad reputation, the Fourth Division bounced back and forth between war zones, but no war zone was willing to take in this "Sangmen Star". When Japan was defeated and surrendered, the Fourth Division was stationed in Bangkok, and other war zones were unwilling to accept it.
The fate of the Japanese army that was defeated in the war was different. The entire Fourth Division took the initiative to surrender to the US military, which was hundreds of kilometers away, and actively cooperated with the US military in various tasks. The US military regarded it as a model for surrendering to the Japanese army.
Send them back to Ben.
When the rosy-cheeked and healthy Fourth Division appeared at Japan's port, the malnourished and haggard locals were very surprised. But they soon learned how these Osaka soldiers lived like this.
Moisturized, on the second day after arriving in Japan, all the officers and soldiers of the Fourth Division ran to the American barracks
In front of the station, street stalls were neatly set up, selling various war souvenirs. As a result, the US military liked this unit very much and kept the unit's designation. Today, among Japan's Self-Defense Forces, there is also the Osaka No. 1
With the designation of the Fourth Division, the US military praised them as a "peace-loving force". (To be continued...)
