Kwantung Army

Kwantung Army
Kwantung HQ in Hsinking, Manchukuo
Active	April 1906 – August 1945
Country	Empire of Japan
Allegiance	Emperor of Japan
Branch	Imperial Japanese Army
Type	Infantry
Role	Army group
Garrison/HQ	Hsinking, Manchukuo
Nickname(s)	Toku (德兵團, Toku heidan?), Special
Engagements	Second Sino-Japanese War Huanggutun Incident Invasion of Manchuria Pacification of Manchukuo Operation Nekka Operation Chahar Soviet–Japanese border conflicts Battle of Lake Khasan Battle of Khalkhin Gol World War II Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation

Kwantung Army
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	關東軍
Simplified Chinese	关东军
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Guāndōngjūn Wade–Giles Kuan1-tung1 Chün1 Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Gwāan dūng gwān Jyutping Gwaan1 dung1 gwan1
South Korean name
Hangul	관동군 간토군
Transcriptions Revised Romanization Gwandonggun Gantogun McCune–Reischauer Kwandonggun Kant'ogun
Japanese name
Kanji	関東軍
Transcriptions Romanization Kantōgun

Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Guāndōngjūn
Wade–Giles	Kuan1-tung1 Chün1
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization	Gwāan dūng gwān
Jyutping	Gwaan1 dung1 gwan1

Transcriptions
Revised Romanization	Gwandonggun Gantogun
McCune–Reischauer	Kwandonggun Kant'ogun

Transcriptions
Romanization	Kantōgun

Second Sino-Japanese War

Soviet–Japanese border conflicts

World War II

The Kwantung Army was an army group of the Imperial Japanese Army in the first half of the 20th century. It became the largest and most prestigious command in the IJA. Many of its personnel, such as Chiefs of staff Seishirō Itagaki and Hideki Tōjō were promoted to high positions in both the military and civil government in the Empire of Japan and it was largely responsible for the creation of the Japanese-dominated Empire of Manchukuo. In August 1945, the army group, only around 713,000 (from a previous total of 1,320,000) men at the time, was defeated by and surrendered to Soviet troops as a result of the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation.

Following the Russo-Japanese War, Japan obtained the Kwantung Leased Territory and the areas adjacent to the South Manchurian Railway. "Kwantung" means "east of Shanhaiguan", a guarded pass, east of which lies Manchuria. The Kwantung Garrison was established in 1906 to defend this territory, and originally was composed of an infantry division and a heavy siege artillery battalion, supplemented with six independent garrison battalions as railway guards deployed along the South Manchurian Railway Zone, for a total troop strength of 100,000 men. It was headquartered in Port Arthur, known as "Ryojun" in Japanese. After a reorganization in 1919, the Kwantung Garrison was renamed the Kwantung Army.

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