Was the Japanese Osaka Division the weakest in World War II?

The fourth division of Osaka was established in 1888. Soldiers are mainly composed of vegetable vendors in Osaka and are one of the oldest divisions of the Japanese army. This unit has four wings, equipped with first-class weapons and equipment, and can be called the "elite" of the Japanese army. However, not long after its establishment, the reputation of "loser" spread throughout the Japanese army. In particular, the eighth United Front, the core force of the Fourth Division, won the nickname of "the eighth United Front that is not afraid of failure" because of repeated battles and defeats in the Russo-Japanese War.

Osaka stop-and-go incident

Before the outbreak of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, the Fourth Division had never been to the front. However, this does not mean that it has no chance to show its "brave" spirit. 1933, Private Matsui of the Fourth Division ran a red light in downtown Osaka and clashed with the police. In order to "safeguard the dignity of the Japanese imperial army", the head of the division, Koichi Miyauchi, resolutely led troops to destroy the police station, which is known as the "Osaka incident" in history, and the "military courage" of the Fourth Division of Japan can be seen.

"I came back from the fourth division of the Imperial Army, and I was not injured."

1937, due to the shortage of Japanese troops stationed in China, the Japanese base camp transferred the Fourth Division to the northeast of China and placed it under the Kwantung Army. How can we rejuvenate this army? The Japanese base camp really took some thought, and the conclusion was that the commander played a decisive role in the combat effectiveness of a unit, so the Japanese base camp successively transferred several people to train and exercise the division in the future. For example, Yamashita Tomomi, nicknamed "Tiger of Malay", once served as the head of the division, but he could do nothing about the loose fourth division.

After two years of intensive training, the fourth division finally had the opportunity to show its face. 1939, the Soviet Union and Japan fought in the Nomenkan area on the Sino-Mongolian border, and the Kwantung Army ordered two divisions stationed in Osaka and Sendai in the northern part of the Puppet Manchukuo to urgently mobilize and reinforce the front line. After receiving the order, Sendai Division (Second Division) rushed from Hailar to Nomenkan for four days, and went into battle on the day of arrival, but was quickly beaten out of the water by the Soviet Union.

On the contrary, although the dispatch order of the fourth division was issued, it was delayed. The reason is that after the mobilization order was issued, the number of patients in the division surged. Looking around, the whole battalion is officers and men who ask to stay behind for various reasons. In a rage, the excited Japanese joint captain personally participated in the diagnosis of the infirmary, which barely organized the troops to go to the front line, and the joke of "the joint captain turned to be a doctor" spread among the Japanese army. However, things did not end there, and the soldiers of the Fourth Division played a new trick-being lazy. From Hailar to Nomenkan, the second division walked for four days, and the fourth division walked for eight days, and a large number of people fell behind. Coincidentally, on the day when the advance team of the Fourth Division arrived at the front line, the Soviet Union and Japan declared a truce. The news came that the officers and men of the Fourth Division who stayed behind quickly followed up as if they had taken a dose of fierce medicine. Even many officers and men who stayed behind rushed to the front line, regretfully complaining that they had no chance to fight.

Ironically, when returning home, the Fourth Division, full of staff and full of energy, became the most formidable force in the Japanese army, while the Second Division, which took the lead in rushing to the battlefield, was disheveled and scarred. The kwantung army officer in charge of news propaganda really couldn't stand it, so he picked up a pen and submitted it to a Japanese newspaper for review. The news headline of "I am invincible to the fourth Reich strategist's return" was changed to "I am invincible to the fourth Reich strategist's return", which indirectly mocked this "soft" army.