{{Infobox military unit | unit_name = Japanese Third Army | image = Japanese 11 inch siege gun shells Port Stanley 1904.jpg | image_size = 150px | caption = IJA 3rd Army at Port Arthur, 1904 | dates = May 1904-August 1945 | country = {{flag|Empire of Japan}} | allegiance = | branch = {{army|Empire of Japan}} | type = Infantry | role = Corps | garrison = Yanji, Manchukuo | nickname = {{nihongo|Iwa|岩|rock}} | battles = Russo-Japanese War<br>Soviet invasion of Manchuria }} {{command structure |name= Japanese 3rd Army |date= 30 July 1945 |parent=Japanese First Area Army |subordinate=<br> * 3rd Army Headquarters ** 132nd Independent Mixed Brigade ** 101st Independent Mixed Regiment ** 2nd Independent Heavy Artillery Regiment ** 3rd Independent Heavy Artillery Regiment ** Tungning Heavy Artillery Regiment ** 2nd Independent Heavy Artillery Company ** 1st Independent Heavy Mortar Company ** 1st independent mobile brigade (from June 1945) ** 55th Signal Regiment ** Najin Fortress Garrison ** Najin Fortress Artillery Unit ** 460th Specially Established Guard Battalion ** 623rd Specially Established Guard Company ** 651st Specially Established Guard Company * 79th Infantry Division * 112th Infantry Division * 127th Infantry Division * 128th Infantry Division }}
The {{nihongo|'''Japanese 3rd Army'''|第3軍|Dai-san gun}} was an army of the Imperial Japanese Army based in Manchukuo as a garrison force under the overall command of the Kwantung Army during World War II, but its history dates to the Russo-Japanese War.
==History== The Japanese 3rd Army was initially raised during the Russo-Japanese War under the command of General Nogi Maresuke. In the initial stages of the war, its primary mission was the Siege of Port Arthur. After the fall of that Russian stronghold, it was transferred north, where it played a crucial role in the subsequent Japanese drive towards Mukden in the closing stages of the war. It was disbanded at the end of the war.
The Japanese 3rd Army was raised again on January 13, 1938, in Manchukuo as a garrison force to guard the eastern borders against possible incursions by the Soviet Red Army. It afterwards came under the command of the Japanese First Area Army in July 1942. As the war situation deteriorated for the Japanese in southeast Asia, the more experienced units and much of the equipment of the IJA 3rd Army were transferred to other units.
During the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, its poorly trained and under-equipped forces were no match for the experienced battle-hardened Soviet Army, and it was forced back from various locations in Kirin province to the Korean border, surrendering at the end of the war in Yanji and Hunchun, in what is now part of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture of northeast China.
==List of commanders==
===Commanding officer=== {| class=wikitable ! || Name || From || To |- |1 || General Nogi Maresuke||August 1904 ||January 1906 |- |2 || General Otozō Yamada||13 January 1938 || 10 December 1938 |- |3|| General Hayao Tada||10 December 1938 || 12 September 1939 |- |4 || General {{Interlanguage link|Kamezo Suetaka|ja|尾高亀蔵}}||12 September 1939 || 1 March 1941 |- |5|| General Masakazu Kawabe||1 March 1941 || 17 August 1942 |- |6|| Lieutenant General Eitaro Uchiyama||17 August 1942 || 7 February 1944 |- |7|| Lieutenant General Hiroshi Nemoto||7 February 1944 || 22 November 1944 |- |8|| Lieutenant General {{Interlanguage link|Murakami Keisaku|ja|村上啓作}}||22 November 1944 || September 1945 |- |}
===Chief of Staff=== {| class=wikitable ! || Name || From || To |- |1 || Major General Ijichi Kōsuke||August 1904 || January 1905 |- |2 || Major General {{Interlanguage link|Masatoshi Matsunaga|ja|松永正敏}}||February 1905 || March 1905 |- |3 || Major General Ichinohe Hyoe||March 1905 || January 1906 |- |4 || Lieutenant General Aketo Nakamura||20 January 1938 || 14 April 1938 |- |5|| Lieutenant General Teiichi Suzuki||14 April 1938 || 10 December 1938 |- |6 || Lieutenant General Masami Maeda||10 December 1938 || 9 March 1940 |- |7|| Lieutenant General Toshimichi Uemura||9 March 1940 || 1 April 1941 |- |8|| Lieutenant General Takezo Numata||1 April 1941 || 1 July 1942 |- |9|| Major General Akio Doi||1 July 1942 || 11 March 1943 |- |10|| Major General Tatsuhiko Takashima||11 March 1943 || 16 December 1944 |- |11|| Major General Hanjiro Ikeya||16 December 1944 || September 1945 |- |}
==References== *{{cite book | last = Frank | first = Richard B | year = 1999 | title = Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire | publisher = Random House | location = New York | isbn = 0-679-41424-X }} *{{cite book | last = Jowett | first = Bernard | year = 1999 | title = The Japanese Army 1931-45 (Volume 2, 1942-45) | publisher = Osprey Publishing | location = | isbn = 1-84176-354-3 }} *{{cite book | last = Madej | first = Victor | year = 1981 | title = Japanese Armed Forces Order of Battle, 1937-1945 | publisher = Game Publishing Company | location = | id = ASIN: B000L4CYWW }} *{{cite book | last = Marston | first = Daniel | year = 2005 | title = The Pacific War Companion: From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima | publisher = Osprey Publishing | location = | isbn = 1-84176-882-0 }} *{{cite book | last = Glantz | first = David | authorlink = | year = 2003 | chapter = | title = The Soviet Strategic Offensive in Manchuria, 1945 (Cass Series on Soviet (Russian) Military Experience, 7) | publisher = Routledge | location = | isbn = 0-7146-5279-2 }}
==External links== *Lt. Col. David Glantz, [https://web.archive.org/web/20110723082515/http://www.cgsc.edu/carl/resources/csi/glantz3/glantz3.asp ''August Storm: The Soviet 1945 Strategic Offensive in Manchuria'', Leavenworth Paper No.7], Command and General Staff College, February 1983. ** [https://web.archive.org/web/20110723082515/http://www.cgsc.edu/carl/resources/csi/glantz3/glantz3.asp#ap1 Kwantung Army Order of Battle 30 July 1945] *{{cite web | last = Wendel | first = Marcus | url = http://www.axishistory.com/index.php?id=6888 | title = Axis History Factbook | work = Japanese 3rd Army }}
03 Category:Military units and formations established in 1904 Category:Military units and formations disestablished in 1945