8th Division (Hirosaki Division)

The 8th Division (第八師団, Dai-hachi Shidan) was formed on October 1, 1898 in Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture. Its call sign was "Sugi" (杉兵団, "Cryptomeria"). Recruited from northern Honshu, the division specialized in cold-weather operations.

The division's most infamous episode predates the wars: the Hakkoda Mountains Incident (八甲田雪中行軍遭難事件) of January 1902. The 5th Infantry Regiment of the 8th Division dispatched 210 soldiers on a winter training march through the Hakkoda Mountains of Aomori Prefecture. Caught in a severe blizzard, the column became hopelessly disoriented. Of 210 men, 199 froze to death. Only 11 survived, most with severe frostbite requiring amputation. The incident was dramatized in the 1977 film "Hakkōda-san" (八甲田山). A bronze statue of Corporal Gotō Fusanosuke, found standing frozen in the snow, marks the disaster site.

In the Russo-Japanese War the division was sent as reinforcements to the Battle of Sandepu (Heikoutai) in January 1905, where it helped repel a Russian counter-offensive, and then fought at Mukden. It took part in the invasion of Manchuria after the Mukden Incident of 1931, and from 1937 was stationed in Manchukuo under the Kwantung Army as a garrison force at Mudanjiang.

In 1944 the division was transferred to the Philippines; the sea movement to Luzon began on August 10 and was complete by September 22, 1944. Its 5th Infantry Regiment was sent to Leyte and almost completely annihilated by late December 1944, while the remainder suffered heavy losses on Luzon in 1945 under General Yamashita's 14th Area Army. The division ceased fighting on September 2, 1945 at Rodriguez, Rizal, east of Manila.