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...

 during 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...

 and World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

History

The Japanese 13th Army was formed on September 23, 1939 under the control of the China Expeditionary Army. It was based in Shanghai

Shanghai

Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

 and surrounding provinces primarily 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 maintain public order and to engage in counter-insurgency

Counter-insurgency

A counter-insurgency or counterinsurgency involves actions taken by the recognized government of a nation to contain or quell an insurgency taken up against it...

 operations in conjunction with the collaborationist forces of the Reformed Government of the Republic of China, and later with its successor, the Nanjing Nationalist Government. It was later tasked with deterring possible landings of the Allies of World War II

Allies of World War II

The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...

 in the lower Yangtze River

Yangtze River

The Yangtze, Yangzi or Cháng Jiāng is the longest river in Asia, and the third-longest in the world. It flows for from the glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau in Qinghai eastward across southwest, central and eastern China before emptying into the East China Sea at Shanghai. It is also one of the...

 area of east central China

East China

East China is a geographical and a loosely-defined cultural region that covers the eastern coastal area of China.Although an intangible and loosely defined concept, for administrative and governmental purposes, the region is defined by the government of the People's Republic of China to include...

. It surrendered to the Chinese Kuomingtang forces on August 15, 1945 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...

 and was disbanded in Shanghai.

Commanding officer

	Name	From	To
1	General Toshijiro Nishio	12 September 1939	26 October 1939
2	Lt. General Susumu Fujita	26 October 1939	2 December 1940
3	Lt. General Shigeru Sawada	2 December 1940	October 8, 1942
4	Lt. General Sadamu Shimomura	8 October 1942	March 22, 1944
5	Lt. General Sajishige Nagatsu	22 March 1944	February 1, 1945
6	Lt. General Takuro Matsui	1 February 1945	15 August 1945

Chief of Staff

	Name	From	To
1	Lt. General Shozo Sakurai Shozo Sakurai -Notes:...	4 September 1939	20 January 1941
2	Lt. General Masami Maeda	20 January 1941	19 September 1941
3	Major General Yasuo Karagawa	19 September 1941	1 December 1942
4	Major General Isami Kinoshita	1 December 1942	17 January 1944
5	Lt. General Shinnosuke Sasa	17 January 1944	22 November 1945
6	Major General Toshi Yamamoto	22 November 1944	1 February 1945
7	Major General Akio Doi	1 February 1944	1 September 1945