Section III: Field Replacement System | Chapter II: Japanese Military System | TM-E 30-480: Handbook on Japanese Military Forces, Technical Manual, U.S. War Department, October 1, 1944 (Lone Sentry)

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1. GENERAL. The complements of Japanese field units are usually sufficiently high to provide for what are ordinarily considered first replacements. When these supernumeraries have been exhausted, two methods of reinforcement are normally employed.

2. METHODS OF REPLACEMENT. a. Direct call on depot division. The first is for the unit to call directly upon the depot division, or the active division occupying its divisional district. The replacements consist of officers and enlisted men of such rank and degree of training as specified by the field commander. This method is the one preferred by the Japanese, for it preserves their system of having all men in a unit come from a particular divisional district. It has the obvious disadvantage of being time-consuming.

b. Field replacement units. In order that a unit in the field, which has suffered heavy casualties, may receive replacements quickly, the Japanese have devised a second replacement system. Under this, they have placed in the theater of operations a unit known as a Field Replacement Unit which normally consists of two infantry battalions plus auxiliary troops. Men in a Field Replacement Unit do not come necessarily from the same divisional district as the combat units it serves. They may be in various stages of training, ranging from veterans to those who just have finished basic training. Replacements are provided over a wide area, probably a particular theater of operations.

c. Divisions as replacement. There is also evidence that after a campaign a division, which has been assigned a station in a relatively quiet area overseas (such as the rear areas in China), may perform the functions of replacement for other units not necessarily from the same divisional district. This is done by sending newly raised troops from Japan to the division for a final period of intensive training with experienced troops. After the new recruits have completed this training they are forwarded as replacements for other units.