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Imperial Japanese Military

Administration Imperial General Headquarters Components Imperial Japanese Navy (Dai Nippon Teikoku Kaigun)         Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service     Major battles     List of ships     List of aircraft     Main admirals Imperial Japanese Army (Dai Nippon Teikoku Rikugun)         Imperial Japanese Army Air Service         Railways and Shipping Section     Uniforms Rank insignia Naval rank insignia Army rank insignia History of the Japanese Military Military History of Japan during World War II

The Imperial General Headquarters (大本営 - Daihonei) as part of the Supreme War Council was established in 1937 as the supreme command for Japanese military forces during World War II. Its tactics development was divided into two distinct groups:

• Strike North Group - dominated by the Imperial Japanese Army
• Strike South Group - dominated by the Imperial Japanese Navy

Hirohito, the Emperor of Japan, who was defined as the Head of State and the Generalissimo of the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces according to the Imperial constitution adopted from 1889 to 1945, was commander of the Daihonei.

He was assisted in his tasks by the Imperial General Headquarters consisting of the following:

• Chief of the Army General Staff

-Kotohito Kan'in (1931-1940) -Hajime Sugiyama (1940-1944) -Hideki Tojo (1944) -Yoshijiro Umezu (1944-1945)

• Chief of the Navy General Staff

-Hiroyasu Fushimi (1932-1941) -Osami Nagano (1941-1944) -Shigetaro Shimada (1944) -Koshirō Oikawa (1944-1945) -Soemu Toyoda (1945)

• Minister of War

-Hajime Sugiyama (1937-1938) -Seishiro Itagaki (1938-1939) -Shunroku Hata (1939-1940) -Hideki Tojo (1939-1944) -Korechika Anami (1945)

• Minister of the Navy

-Mitsumasa Yonai (1937-1939, 1945) -Koshirō Oikawa (1940-1941) -Shigetaro Shimada (1941-1944)

• Inspectorate General of Military Training

• Inspectorate General of Aviation

The majority of these troops were stationed in China, Indochina, Japan, Formosa, and Korea. This includes some 61 divisions, 59 brigades, and 51 air squadrons. Only a fraction of Japan's military, 11 to 14 divisions and the South Seas Detachment, would be available for the December 1941 operations in South-East Asia and the Pacific.

• Imperial General Headquarters
  • IJA General Staff - headed by a Chief (General Hajime Sugiyama) and several Vice Chiefs
    • General Affairs Bureau
      • Organization and Mobilization Department
      • Training Department
    • 1st (Operations) Bureau
      • Operations Department
      • Defence Department
    • 2nd (Intelligence)Bureau
      • Europe and the Americas Department
      • China Department
      • Russia/Soviet Union Department
      • Intelligence Department
    • 3rd (Transport and Communications) Bureau
      • Transport Department
      • Communications Department
    • 4th (Historical) Bureau
      • Military History Department
      • Strategy and Tactics Department
    • General Staff College
    • Land Survey Department
  • Ministry Of War
  • General Defense Command
  • China Expeditionary Army
  • Kwantung Theater Army
  • Southern Expeditionary Army
  • Units under direct General Staff control
    • Imperial Japanese Army Air Service
    • 4th Infantry Division
    • South Seas Detachment
    • 1st Army Hospital
    • 2nd Army Hospital
    • 3rd Army Hospital
    • Korean Remount Department
    • Army Air Service Transport Department
    • IGHQ Communications Department

• List of Japanese government and military commanders of World War II
• Military history of Japan
• Imperial Japanese Army
• Imperial Japanese Navy
• Koreans in the Japanese Imperial Army