10th Division (Himeji Division)

The 10th Division (第十師団, Dai-jū Shidan) was formed on October 1, 1898 at Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, as one of six new infantry divisions raised after the First Sino-Japanese War. Its call sign was the "Iron Division" (鉄兵団, Tetsu Heidan). The division recruited mainly from Hyogo, Okayama and Tottori prefectures, with part of Shimane.

In the Russo-Japanese War the division fought at the Yalu River, Liaoyang, the Shaho, Sandepu and Mukden. When the Second Sino-Japanese War began in July 1937 it was sent to north China under Lt. Gen. Rensuke Isogai, taking part in the Beiping–Hankou and Tianjin–Pukou railway operations and the Battle of Xuzhou (1938). It suffered a serious reverse at the Battle of Taierzhuang, and later took part in the northern arm of the Wuhan campaign.

The division returned to Japan in October 1939 and was reorganized as a triangular division. From August 1940 it was stationed at Jiamusi in northern Manchukuo under the Kwantung Army as a border garrison force.

In 1944 the 10th Division was transferred to Luzon in the Philippines under the 14th Area Army. It was largely destroyed in the Battle of Luzon in 1945; its remnants, among which the 39th Infantry Regiment particularly distinguished itself, kept up resistance in the mountains until Japan's surrender in August 1945.