GENERAL HEADQUARTERS
UNITED STATES ARMY FORCES, PACIFIC
Public Relations Office
Press Release
22 March 1946
97th DIVISION TO BE INACTIVATED ON MARCH
31
WITH THE EIGHTH ARMY IN JAPAN -- The
globe-trotting 97th Infantry Division
will be inactivated on March 31, after a
seven month tour occupation duty in
Japan, it was announced today.
Commanded by Major General H.F. Kramer,
the 97th first assembled in Japan at
Miizugahara airfield near Kumagaya in
September, culminating a redeployment
move from the European theater where the
trident division played a major role in
the liquidation of the German Ruhr
pocket and spearheaded the liberation
drive into Czechoslovakia.
Disposition of the Division’s units for
occupation began gradually, and by
December the 97th had reached its
maximum deployment through six
prefectures -- Saitama, Gumma, Nagano,
Niigata, Fukushima, and Tochigi --
covering more than 25,000 square miles
of the heart of Honshu.
The huge area held an enormous cache of
Japan’s industrial as well as
agricultural wealth, including more than
one-third of Honshus silk industry, in
which Nagano, held by Division
artillery, alone produced 21 per cent;
the Nakajima Aircraft Plant at Ota,
headquarters of the 387th Regiment, once
Japan’s most important airplane assembly
plant; one of the four locomotive plants
in the Tokyo area at Omiya where the
386th Regiment had its headquarters, and
Niigata City, the largest seaport on the
island’s west coast, occupied by the
303rd Regiment’s second battalion.
Confiscating and disposing of Japanese
military property proved to be the
Division’s prime task. The 97th
returned 198,142,046 pounds of
foodstuffs, 670,226 gallons of gasoline
8,568,857 yards of cloth and 480,343
pairs of boots and shoes to the Japanese
government for distribution to
civilians.
Shipped to the Bank of Japan in Tokyo
were 296,682 carats of industrial
diamonds, 145 grams of platinum, 580
grams of platinum alloy rod, 45 tons of
silver bar, 10 tons of silver wire, and
1,795 long-tons of silver coins believed
to be Chinese.
18,039 tons of
ammunition and explosives were turned
over to ordinance depots by the 97th for
dumping.