The division received its colors on 1 October 1898, and settled in
Kanazawa Castle headquarters 29 November 1898.
Russo-Japanese War to January 28 Incident The first commander of the 9th Division was Lieutenant General
Ōshima Hisanao, who commanded the division as part of General
Nogi Maresuke's
Japanese Third Army in the
Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. At the
Siege of Port Arthur the division took massive casualties making repeated direct frontal assaults on fortified Russian positions, and lost all of its regimental commanders. Survivors were further mauled at the subsequent
Battle of Mukden, and even the commander of the division's field artillery regiment was a casualty. After the Russo-Japanese War, the division was assigned to garrison duty in
Korea for two years, before being withdrawn to Japan. Its new divisional headquarters building within the moats of Kanazawa Castle was completed 30 April 1916. 12 June 1918, an
ordnance department was incorporated into the division. Elements of the 9th Division participated in the
Japanese intervention in Siberia against the
Bolshevik forces in the
Russian Civil War, starting deployment in 1921.
Second Sino-Japanese War In January 1932, the division participated in the first
January 28 Incident under the command of Lieutenant General
Kenkichi Ueda, and from 1935 to February 1937, the division was stationed as a garrison force in
Manchukuo, before been withdrawn to Japan. The 9th Division was redeployed to China after the
Marco Polo Bridge Incident, starting to move 11 September 1937 as part of the
Shanghai Expeditionary Army together with
13th division and
101st division and participated in the
Second Battle of Shanghai where it suffered a 94% casualty rate. The 9th division later participated in the subsequent drive inland to the
Battle of Nanking. Troops from the division were also implicated in the subsequent
Nanjing Massacre. From 14 February 1938, the division came under the command of the
Central China Expeditionary Army and was in the
Battle of Xuzhou. From 22 August 1938 the division was reassigned to the
IJA 11th Army and fought at the
Battle of Wuhan. In June 1939, the division was demobilized and ordered back to Japan. In August 1940, the division was reorganized into a
triangular division, with its IJA 36th Infantry Regiment transferred to the newly formed
IJA 28th Division. Simultaneously, the division was permanently re-located to
Manchukuo as garrison force responsible for border security and internal police duties, subordinated to
3rd army. The
52nd division took a responsibility for
Hokuriku region of Japan instead of
9th division.
Pacific War The 9th Division, under the command of Lieutenant General
Kiichiro Higuchi, stayed in
Manchukuo until the
Battle of Saipan in July 1944. At that point, the 9th Division was reassigned to the
IJA 32nd Army based in
Okinawa. Under the direction of
IJA 32nd Army strategist Colonel
Hiromichi Yahara, the division located first at
Shuri, Okinawa, but soon re-located to the village of
Ōzato, in southern
Okinawa Island. However, in December, the division was ordered to relocate again to
Taipei under command of
40th army, as the
Imperial General Headquarters decided that
Taiwan was a more probable target for invasion than Okinawa. However, the
Allies chose instead to bypass Taiwan, and
invaded Okinawa in April 1945. The 9th Division thus escaped World War II intact, without having seen any combat at all. As
Takushiro Hattori of
Imperial General Headquarters affectively wrote afterwards, the zero utilisation of the highly-capable 9th division in
Pacific War cannot be attributed to anything besides 9th division been cursed. ==Organization==