The Ichiki Detachment — The Other Sheet of Paper
On the unit built around the 28th Infantry Regiment
This page is not here to tell a unit's battle history. Behind one man's diary (Maruta Toshimichi), there was another sheet of paper — an order. This page exists so that the two sheets can be seen side by side.
What was the Ichiki Detachment?
In 1942, a unit built around the 28th Infantry Regiment, formed in Asahikawa, came to be called the "Ichiki Detachment," after the name of its commander.
The unit had originally been mobilized to land on Midway Island. But in June, Japan was heavily defeated in the Battle of Midway, and the island they were to land on was lost. With nowhere to go, the unit was held on Guam — "Ōmiya-jima," in the diary's words. Those are the months when Maruta's diary was recording his days on a southern island.
The other sheet of paper — the order
In August, the Japanese army lost the airfield on Guadalcanal to the Americans. When the order came to take it back, this unit — the nearest one — was chosen.
The order reads:
The enemy's strength is not yet known, but their activity since landing has not been especially vigorous.— Summary of the Seventeenth Army order, 13 August 1942 (translated from the Japanese)
In other words: the Americans who had landed were judged to be not very strong. The enemy was estimated at about two thousand. In fact, there were about twenty thousand. The advance echelon sent in numbered about nine hundred.
These two sheets of paper, in the same August, on the same ocean, were carried toward the same island.
(The order: Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, Ref. C25080307200, held by the National Institute for Defense Studies. The quotation was verified against the original text; the English above is our translation.)
Fragments of this unit
- Maruta Toshimichi — one soldier of this unit. His notebook is still in a box on the far side of the Pacific.
- The diary or letters of the commander, Colonel Ichiki Kiyonao himself, have not been found so far. (If they survive — someday, here.)
- The unit chronicle Ichiki Shitai Zenmetsu ("The Annihilation of the Ichiki Detachment," 1979) may hold last writings of members who died. If they can be verified, new fragments may join this page.
Maruta Toshimichi, in detail → What is ōshō? → Trace it on the map →
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