The was an army

Corps

A corps is either a large formation, or an administrative grouping of troops within an armed force with a common function such as Artillery or Signals representing an arm of service...

 of the Imperial Japanese Army

Imperial Japanese Army

-Foundation:During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to the Emperor were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū...

 initially based in Manchukuo

Manchukuo

Manchukuo or Manshū-koku was a puppet state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia, governed under a form of constitutional monarchy. The region was the historical homeland of the Manchus, who founded the Qing Empire in China...

 as a garrison

Garrison

Garrison is the collective term for a body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, but now often simply using it as a home base....

 force under the overall command of the Kwantung Army. At the end of World War II] it was active in east China.

History

The Japanese 6th Army was initially raised on August 4, 1939 in Manchukuo as a garrison

Garrison

Garrison is the collective term for a body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, but now often simply using it as a home base....

 force to guard the western borders against possible incursions by the Soviet

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 Red Army

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

. It was a major participant in the Nomonhan Incident

Battle of Khalkhin Gol

The Battles of Khalkhyn Gol was the decisive engagement of the undeclared Soviet–Japanese Border Wars fought among the Soviet Union, Mongolia and the Empire of Japan in 1939. The conflict was named after the river Khalkhyn Gol, which passes through the battlefield...

, during which time it took severe casualties. Afterwards, it was initially assigned to Hailar

Hailar, Inner Mongolia

Hailar District is an urban district that serves as the seat of the prefecture-level city Hulunbuir in northeastern Inner Mongolia, People's Republic of China. Hulunbuir, due to its massive size, is a city in administrative terms only, being mainly grassland and rural. Hailar, therefore, is a de...

, in Inner Mongolia

Inner Mongolia

Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the northern region of the country. Inner Mongolia shares an international border with the countries of Mongolia and the Russian Federation...

 which was also the site of an extensive Japanese static military fortification system. During much of the Second Sino-Japanese War

Second Sino-Japanese War

The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States...

, it remained a reserve and training garrison force.

On January 26, 1945, the Japanese Sixth Army was re-assigned to the control of the China Expeditionary Army, and was sent south to bolster Japanese forces in the strategic Wuhan

Wuhan

Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province, People's Republic of China, and is the most populous city in Central China. It lies at the east of the Jianghan Plain, and the intersection of the middle reaches of the Yangtze and Han rivers...

-Changsha front, filling the gap left by the departure of Japanese forces in the southward Operation Ichi-Go thrust. At the surrender of Japan

Surrender of Japan

The surrender of Japan in 1945 brought hostilities of World War II to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy was incapable of conducting operations and an Allied invasion of Japan was imminent...

, it was disbanded at Hangzhou

Hangzhou

Hangzhou , formerly transliterated as Hangchow, is the capital and largest city of Zhejiang Province in Eastern China. Governed as a sub-provincial city, and as of 2010, its entire administrative division or prefecture had a registered population of 8.7 million people...

, Zhejiang

Zhejiang

Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...

 province, China.

Commanding officer

	Name	From	To
1	Lieutenant General Rippei Ogisu	1 August 1939	6 November 1938
2	Lieutenant General Touji Yasui	6 November 1938	15 October 1941
3	General Seiichi Kita	15 October 1941	1 March 1943
4	Lieutenant General Teizo Ishiguro	1 March 1943	7 January 1944
5	Lieutenant General Jiro Sogawa	7 January 1944	September 1945

Chief of Staff

	Name	From	To
1	Lieutenant General Tetsukuma Fujimoto	1 August 1939	2 December 1940
2	Lieutenant General Minoru Sasaki Minoru Sasaki -External links:- Translation of the official record by the Japanese Demobilization Bureaux detailing the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy's participation in the Southwest Pacific area of the Pacific War.-Notes:...	2 December 1940	1 July 1942
3	Lieutenant General Takeshi Mori Takeshi Mori (commander) - Notes :...	1 July 1942	3 February 1943
4	Major General Takashi Iketa	3 February 1943	25 February 1944
5	Major General Ryoichi Kudo	25 February 1944	September 1945