Manchukuo Imperial Army

The Manchukuo Imperial Army was the army of Manchukuo, the puppet state that the Empire of Japan set up in Manchuria. It was established in 1932, at first from Chinese troops who had served the warlord Zhang Xueliang and surrendered after the Japanese invasion, and was later expanded with volunteers and conscripts. Its main work was counterinsurgency against Communist and Kuomintang guerrillas, although it also fought the Red Army on several occasions. Its strength grew from about 111,000 personnel in 1933 to an estimated 170,000 to 220,000 at its peak in 1945, and it drew Han Chinese, Manchu, Mongol, Korean, Japanese and White Russian personnel. Japanese officers and advisers judged most of its units unreliable because of poor training, equipment and morale. It was disbanded in 1945 when the war ended in Asia and Manchukuo ceased to exist.