X-Nico

6 unusual facts about Southern Army


Hitoshi Imamura

Imamura adopted an unusually lenient policy towards the local population of the former Netherlands East Indies, often in conflict with senior staff of the Southern Army and Imperial General Headquarters.

Isamu Chō

From 1941 to 1942, he accompanied the Southern Army to French Indochina to oversee implementation of Japanese strategy, and served as a liaison officer between the Southern Army and the 14th Army in the Philippines.

Japanese military strategies in 1942

This action of the Southern Army, ignoring the intelligence function, was taken without the approval of IGHQ and typified contempt for the combat strength of the Allies.

On June 29, 1942, IGHQ issued a set of orders to General Hisaichi Terauchi, commanding the Southern Army.

This mental relaxation could be observed not only in Tokyo but in the Southern Army as well-which was perhaps only natural.

Indeed, the Southern Army's Intelligence Section was not re-activated until February 6, 1944.


Mayasan Maru

Also aboard was the 24th Sea Raiding Battalion with Maru-Ni explosive motorboats, 740 replacements for the Southern Army, 88 Army communications school graduates, various specialists in artillery, communications, engineering, ordnance and transport, and 204 horses.


see also

1928 in China

May 3Jinan Incident, an armed conflict between the Japanese Imperial Army allied with Northern Chinese warlords against the Kuomintang's southern army, occurs in Jinan.

Tactical development on the Western Front in 1917

Group Lille ran from the southern army boundary to Warneton.