Kantogun
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The Kantogun (Kanji: 関東軍; Nihon-shiki: Kantōgun; Postal System Pinyin: Kwantungchun; Pinyin: Guandongjun), more commonly known as the Kwantung Army or Guandong Army, was a unit of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). Headquartered in Xinjing, it became the largest and most prestigious command in the IJA. Many of its personnel, such as Hideki Tojo the Chief of Staff of the Kwantung Army, were promoted to high positions in the military and, also, the government.
The unit was originally established in 1906 as the Kwantung Garrison to defend the Kwantung Leased Territory and the areas adjacent to the South Manchurian Railway. Composed of an infantry division and a heavy siege artillery batallion, it was stationed within the Kwantung Leased Territory. Supplementing this force were six independent garrison battalions as railway guards deployed along the railway zone, making a total troop strength of 10,000 men. Since the reorganization of 1919, this military unit was called the Kwantung Army.
Although the Kwantung Army was nominally subordinate to the Japanese High Command, conspirators in the Army plotted the assassination of Zhang Zuolin in 1928 and the Manchurian Incident (1931) leading to the foundation of Manchuguo in 1932. The Army was heavily augmented, by up to 700,000 troops in 1941, to defend the whole territory of Manchuria and Inner Mongolia. Generals and young officers virtually controlled the puppet government of Emperor Henry Pu Yi.
The Army fought against the Red Army of the Soviet Union at Zhanggufeng in 1938 and Nomonhan in 1939, and took some heavy casualties. Its performance against the Red Army anticipated some of the defects of the IJA as a whole which became apparent during WW II in the Pacific Theater. A source of constant unrest during the 1930s the army remained remarkably obedient during the 1940s, proof to the fact that the Japanese High Command had everything under control - as long as it was willingly to retain it.
Since the outbreak of the Pacific War, many troops were transferred to the Pacific islands from Manchuria. During Operation August Storm, in which the Soviet Red Army invaded Japanese occupied Manchuria in August 1945, the Kwangtung Army's strength was nearly 600,000 soldiers. The Army by that time comprised of one armored division, 25 infantry divisions, six independent brigades and up to 25 security battalions. However, much of its heavy weapons and ammunition reserves and best personnel were tranferred to the Pacific and left the Kwantung Army basically a counterinsurgency and border security force. To cope with the Soviet invasion, the Army planned to form the defence line near Xinjing, the capital of Manchuguo, but the Emperor of Japan Hirohito ordered them to surrender before the main defensive engagement took place. At this point there was not much left of the former proud and over-confident army. Its remnants either lying dead on the battlefield or was on the way to Soviet POW camps. Also during this time the Manchukuo Defence Force mutunied.
It was also responsible for the operation of Unit 100 and Unit 731, both were biological warfare facilities.