Thirty-Second Army (Japan)
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The Japanese Thirty-Second Army of the Imperial Japanese Army was formed in April 1943 and was activated on 1 April 1944 for the defense of Okinawa. It was destroyed during the Battle of Okinawa in June 1945.
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[edit] Commanders
- Lieutenant General Masao Watanabe, from April 1943 to 1 April 1944
- Lieutenant General Mitsuru Ushijima, from 1 April 1944 to his suicide by seppuku in June 1945
[edit] Chief of Staff
- Lieutenant General Isamu Chota
[edit] Strength
The 32nd Army had 77,000 men (39,000 infantry in 31 battalions and 38,000 artillery, armor and combat service troops) plus the 10,000 strong Okinawa Naval Base Force and 20,000 boeitai, laborers.
[edit] Units
- 9th Division - went to Formosa in December 1944
- 24th Division - a conventional triangular division
- 22nd Infantry Regiment
- 23rd Infantry Regiment
- 44th Artillery Regiment
- 89th infantry Regiment
- 62nd Infantry Division - a light two brigade COIN division that came from China.
- 63rd Infantry Brigade
- 64th Infantry Brigade
- 44th Independent Mixed Brigade - of 5,000 men
- 2nd Independent Mixed Regiment
- 15th Independent Mixed Regiment
- Artillery Command
- two 150 mm howitzer regiments, one 150mm gun regiment, one 120mm gun regiment, one 75mm gun regiment, two 81mm mortar battalions
- Independent 27th Tank Regiment with two tank companies
- Seven IJA Sea Raiding Battalions - formed to man suicide boats. Reformed into 600 man infantry battalions.
- plus two or more Independent Infantry battalions of 1,200 men each, consisting 5 Rifle companies, a Machine Gun company, and an Infantry gun Company.
