The was an
army
An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...
of the
Imperial Japanese Army
The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA; , ''Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun'', "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire") was the principal ground force of the Empire of Japan from 1871 to 1945. It played a central role in Japan’s rapid modernization during th ...
during the final days of World War II.
History
The Japanese 35th Army was raised on July 26, 1944 in the Japanese-occupied
Philippines
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
in anticipation of
Allied attempts to invade and retake
Mindanao
Mindanao ( ) is the List of islands of the Philippines, second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and List of islands by population, seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the ...
and the
Visayan islands in central and southern Philippines. It was under the overall command of the
Japanese Fourteenth Area Army. Initially intended as a
garrison
A garrison is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a military base or fortified military headquarters.
A garrison is usually in a city ...
force to withstand a long-term
war of attrition, as the war situation on the
Pacific front grew increasingly desperate for Japan, the
Imperial General Headquarters ordered the bulk of the IJA 35th Army to
Leyte as reinforcement to Japanese forces in the
Battle of Leyte to fight against the combined American and Philippine Commonwealth troops. As the battle was lost, surviving units were given independent command authority, and were ordered to go to ground and wage a
guerilla campaign on their respective islands for as long as possible. The IJA 35th Army was officially disbanded on April 19, 1945. Some individual
Japanese stragglers did not give up until the 1970s.
List of commanders
Commanding Officer
Chief of Staff
Structure
;Japanese 35th Army
*
16th Infantry Division
*
30th Infantry Division
*
100th Infantry Division
*
102nd Infantry Division
* IJA 54th Independent Mixed Brigade
References
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External links
*{{cite web
, last = Wendel
, first = Marcus
, url = http://www.axishistory.com/index.php?id=7684
, title = Axis History Factbook
, work = Japanese 33rd Army
35
Military units and formations established in 1944
Military units and formations disestablished in 1945