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Imperial Japanese army

Imperial Japanese Army
大日本帝國陸軍
Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun
War flag of the Imperial Japanese Army.svg
The ensign of the Imperial Japanese Army
Active 1867–1945
Country  Empire of Japan
Allegiance Emperor of Japan
Type Army
Role Military ground force
Size 6,095,000 men at its height
Nickname(s) "IJA"
Engagements First Sino-Japanese War
Russo-Japanese War
World War I
Second Sino-Japanese War
World War II
Commanders
Ceremonial chief Emperor of Japan
Emperor Meiji
Emperor Taishō
Emperor Shōwa
Notable
commanders
Yamagata Aritomo
Ōyama Iwao
Prince Kan'in Kotohito
Hajime Sugiyama
Hideki Tojo
Yasuji Okamura
Shunroku Hata
Tadamichi Kuribayashi
Tomoyuki Yamashita
Masaharu Homma

The Imperial Japanese Army or IJA (大日本帝國陸軍 Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun?), literally "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire", was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan, from 1871 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of War, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor of Japan as supreme commander of the army and the navy. Later an Inspectorate General of Military (Army) Aviation became the third agency with oversight of the army. During wartime or national emergencies, the nominal command functions of the emperor would be centralized in an Imperial General Headquarters (IGHQ), an ad-hoc body consisting of the chief and vice chief of the Army General Staff, the minister of war, the chief and vice chief of the Naval General Staff, the inspector general of military aviation, and the inspector general of military training.

During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to Emperor Meiji were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist daimyōs of Satsuma and Chōshū Domains. After the successful overthrow of the Government of Meiji Japan or bakufu and establishment of the new government of Meiji Japan, modeled on European lines, a more formal military, loyal to the central government rather than individual domains, became recognized by the general populace as a necessity to preserve Japan's independence from western imperialism.


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Wikipedia

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