The Imperial Guard Division

(Konoe Shidan)

 

 

The Imperial Guard is the force in charge of the defense of the Emperor and the Imperial Family, and by extension of the capitol. Its is a small, elite army, directly under the Emperor’s control. It has it headquarters in the northern end of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, and is comprised of the best soldiers from every branch of the IJAF, and they are the most feared men in the Imperial Japanese Army. Its training camp, in northern Karafuto, is known as the Gate-Jigokumon (the "Gate of Hell").

 

The Imperial Guard had its origins in the select group established by Emperor Meiji in the neighborhood of Tokyo in his youth. With this group as a starting point, the Body Guard Regiments were established in 1865; gradually the number of regiments increased. Towards the end of the 1930s, the Guard comprised 12 infantry regiments, four sniper regiments of the Guard, 10 cavalry regiments of the Guard, and Cavalry Grenadiers. Much more than the Emperor’s personal bodyguards, they were the IJA's weapon of last resort, and were committed in battle during the Soviet-Japanese War. In that war, the IGD dispatched Imperial Guard Combined Brigades to the Manchukuan and Korean theaters, growing from 8,000 in 1938 to 20,000 in 1939. Over 18,000  were sent to Korea in 1939, few returned.

 

Today, the Imperial Guard is the most diverse military organization the IJA has ever seen. The Imperial Guard are not a swift, decisive force like the Imperial Japanese Naval Infantry, instead they are used to bludgeon any attack into the heavily urbanized Tokyo landscape, but the might of the Imperial Guard can be turned to many specialized tasks, from anti-terrorist actions to trench battles, to armoured thrusts, to coastal defense. It contains almost eleven thousand men supported by armored vehicles such as tanks and troop transports. These armored vehicles take the shape of assault tanks, long range self propelled artillery guns, and the Panther III Main Battle Tank. Due to its mission, specialized weaponry and armor rare in the rest of the IJA are reserved for only the elite forces of the Imperial Guard. Tactically, the Imperial Guard uses fine maneuvers and will rely upon high tech weapons, intelligence and surprise instead of sheer weight of numbers. Service in the Imperial Guard is a glorious path to tread, where this valiant warriors are ready to lay down their lives for the sake of the Empire, and the honor of the Emperor.