The 22nd Division was raised in 1938 out of the reserve components of the 14th Division. After minimal training, it was assigned to the Central China Command, and participated at the Battle of Wuhan in the Second Sino-Japanese War. Assigned to the Japanese 13th Army, its primary duty was initially to be a garrison force for the Hangzhou area. However, as the war against China continued to heat up, the 22nd Division was called upon in the Third War Area in the 1939-40 Winter Offensive campaign. This was followed by numerous minor campaigns, which took the 22nd Division ever southwards, until by February 1944 the 22nd Division came under the command of the Japanese 23rd Army, and was in Guangdong province, opposite Hong Kong. An effort to cross over into Hong Kong was thwarted by the US Navy, which resulted in the loss of most of the 86th Infantry Regiment when their transports were sunk. Unable to reach Hong Kong, the 22nd Division turned south, and fought its way through Guangxi province (and participating in the Battle of Guilin-Liuzhou), until it reached the relative safety of Japanese-occupied French Indochina. In 1945, the headquarters of the 22nd Division was in Bangkok, Thailand, and it contributed forces to the defense of Burma against the British (Operation Dracula). The 22nd Division was dissolved in Bangkok with the dissolution of the Imperial Japanese Army at the end of World War II; however, a number of its troops refused to return to Japan, and defected to join the Viet Minh in their struggle for independence (First Indochina War) against the returning French colonial forces.
Organization
The order of battle for the 22nd Division included:
IJA 22nd Division
