The Japanese 23rd Army was established on June 26, 1941, under the command of the
Imperial General Headquarters. It was transferred to the control of the
China Expeditionary Army on August 12 of the same year. It was based in
Guangdong province and on
Hainan Island to replace the
Southern China Area Army which was disbanded June 26, 1941. The Japanese 23rd Army was primarily a
garrison force to deter the possible landings of
Allied forces in southern China. It was involved in the
Battle of Guilin-Liuzhou (part of
Operation Ichi-Go) from August–November 1944. The Japanese 23rd Army surrendered to the Chinese
Kuomintang forces on August 15, 1945, with the
surrender of Japan and was disbanded in
Guangzhou. After the war, Imamura, Sakai, and Tanaka were all tried and convicted of war crimes. Sakai and Tanaka were tried in China and executed, while Imamura received a life sentence from an Australian military court. He was released in 1954. Viewing his own sentence as too lenient, Imamura built his own prison in which he imprisoned himself until his death in 1967. ==List of Commanders==