13th Division (Imperial Japanese Army)

13th Division
former IJA 13th Division HQ in Joetsu, Niigata
Active	1 April 1905 – 1 May 1925 10 September 1937 – 1945
Country	Empire of Japan
Branch	Imperial Japanese Army
Type	Infantry
Size	25,000 men
Garrison/HQ	Takada, Japan
Nickname(s)	Mirror Division
Engagements	Russo-Japanese War Second Sino-Japanese War World War II

The 13th Division (第13師団, Dai Jūsan Shidan) was an infantry division in the Imperial Japanese Army. Its tsūshōgō code name was the Mirror Division (鏡兵団, Kyō-heidan), and its military symbol was 13D. The 13th Division was one of four new infantry divisions raised by the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) in the closing stages of the Russo-Japanese War 1 April 1905, after it turned out what the entire IJA was committed to combat in Manchuria, leaving not a single division to guard the Japanese home islands from attack.

The 13th Division was initially raised in Takada city in now Jōetsu, Niigata from men in Niigata Prefecture under the command of Lieutenant General Haraguchi Kensai. It was given the independent assignment of occupying Sakhalin before the conclusion of the Portsmouth Treaty, landing on Sakhalin on 7 July 1905, only three months after being formed, and securing the island by 1 August 1905. As a result of its successful operation, Japan was awarded southern Karafuto during the Portsmouth Treaty, one of Japan’s few territorial gains during the war.

The division returned on 6 November 1908 to its original divisional headquarters located in Takada, Niigata prefecture. Future Chinese premier Chiang Kai-shek served in the field artillery battalion of the 13th Division while it was based at Takada. Also while at Takada, under the command of Lieutenant General Gaishi Nagaoka, a military advisor from the Empire of Austria-Hungary, Theodor Edler von Lerch, was invited to teach mountain warfare and skiing to the troops of the IJA 58th Infantry Regiment in Takada. under the 13th Division in early 1913.