The Adam Park Project

Item Information:

Catalogue Number: fortyfirst001 Source: 41st Regimental Archive Location: Fukuyama Report No: Not Applicable Artifact Type: Photographs Production Date: 2016-03-22 00:00:00 Dimensions of Item: Various Copyright with Source Institution

Other Description:

A portfolio of photographs relating to the 41st Regiment, 5th Division, XXV Army IJA

Historic Context:

The 41st Regiment had been raised in 1896 from factory workers and fisherman of the Hiroshima prefecture in Fukuyama and had received their regimental colours on 24th March 1898. The 41st joined the 5th Division for their first stint of combat in the Russo-Japanese War in 1903, before being transferred to the 17th Division in November 1907. The 17th Division was abolished on 1st May 1925 as a part of the Ugaki Arms Reduction agreement and the 41st Regiment returned to the ranks of the 5th Division. The regiment was deployed on the Mongolian-Korean front at the outbreak of the Second Sino Japanese war in 1937, where the 41st Regiment fought with honour, and later in the operations in the Gulf of Bias (Guangzhou). By 1939 the 41st was sent to suppress bandits in Shangdong and then moved to Dalian and on to Huanan, and fi nally to Shanghai. Preparations in Shanghai went well and the 5th Division was moved to Samah Harbour a day earlier than planned. There they were loaded into the Shinshu Maru and on the morning of 8th December the men were transferred into the awaiting landing boats and set out for the distant shores of Singora Beach in Thailand. The 41st were among the first Japanese units to come ashore at the beginning of the Pacific War.

The 41st fought there way down the Malay peninsula often speaqrheadimng the assaults on the British positions. They were the first unit int Johor and in the second wave to land in Singapore on the 9th February. Initially held in reserve they finally took up the attack on the 11th February and then asked to take Adam Park