Imperial Guards Division

The Imperial Guards Division (近衛師団, Konoe Shidan) was the most prestigious formation of the Imperial Japanese Army, directly responsible for the protection of the Emperor, the Imperial Family, and the Imperial Palace. It traced its origins to the Goshinpei (御親兵), raised in 1871 from the Satsuma, Chōshū and Tosa domains (this site's earlier text gave 1867), renamed the Imperial Guard in 1872 and formally reorganized as the Guards Division (近衛師団) in December 1891. Its soldiers were selected from across the country. The former divisional headquarters at Kitanomaru, Tokyo, built in 1910 and designated an Important Cultural Property in 1972, long housed the Crafts Gallery of the National Museum of Modern Art.

The Guards were a combat formation as well as a palace garrison. They took part in the 1895 occupation of Taiwan, where their commander Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa died of illness at Tainan, and fought at the Yalu and Liaoyang in the Russo-Japanese War. Some officers and men of the 3rd Guards Infantry Regiment joined the February 26 Incident of 1936. From 1940 the main body served in South China and French Indochina, and in 1941–42 under Lt. Gen. Nishimura Takuma it fought in Malaya and at Singapore before garrisoning Sumatra; Nishimura was later executed by an Australian military court over the killing of prisoners in Malaya.

During World War II, the Guards Division was expanded and reorganized. In June 1943 the force in Sumatra became the 2nd Guards Division (近衛第二師団), while the depot formation in Tokyo became the 1st Guards Division (近衛第一師団) and remained the palace garrison. A 3rd Guards Division was raised in July 1944 for homeland defence in the Kantō region.

In the final hours of the war, the 1st Guards Division was unwittingly drawn into the Kyūjō Incident. Late on August 14, 1945, its commander, Lt. Gen. Takeshi Mori, refused to join officers led by Major Hatanaka Kenji who opposed the surrender and was murdered; the plotters then used his seal to issue forged orders mobilizing Guards infantry to occupy the Palace and search for the recording of the Emperor's surrender broadcast. The troops carried out what they believed were legitimate orders until Eastern District Army commander Gen. Tanaka Shizuichi exposed the deception at dawn on August 15. The Guards divisions were demobilised and disbanded during the Allied occupation; a short-lived palace guard body, the Kin'eifu, was abolished on GHQ instructions in 1946.