関東軍

(Japanese kantôgun: "Army of Guan Dong")

Military unit in the Imperial Japanese Army, 1906-1945. The Kwantung Army was formed in 1906 as a result of the Russo-Japanese War, which ended with the cession by Russia to Japan of the southern half of the Liaodong peninsula. This new territory was named Kanto (Chinese: Kwantung or Guan Dong) by the Japanese.

The army of the Kwantung, and its right-wing officer corps played an active and oftentimes totally independent rôle in the Mukden Incident, the occupation of Manchuria, 1931-1932, and in the formation of the tributary state Manchukuo.

The army of the Kwantung was obliterated by the Soviet Red Army in August 1945.