. Its call-sign was the Bear Division (熊兵団, Kuma-heidan).
The 7th Division was formed in
Hokkaidō on 12 May 1888, as the first new infantry division formed by the reorganization of the Imperial Japanese Army from six regional commands to a divisional command structure. The reorganization was recommended by Prussianmilitary advisorJakob Meckel. It was responsible for the defence of Hokkaidō, which it divided into four operational areas (Sapporo, Hakodate, Asahikawa and Kushiro). As one of the projects of the Japanese government was to encourage the settlement of Hokkaidō by ex-soldiers, the 7th Division was over-strength, and contained many soldiers originally from other areas of Japan. The territorial division was converted to a field infantry division on 12 May 1896, in the aftermath of the First Sino-Japanese War. On 30 October 1901, most of division's units were transferred to Takasu village in Kamikawa (Ishikari) District, Hokkaido, where previously only the 28th Infantry Regiment was located. After an extensive building project, the division moved to its new headquarters in Takasu on 21 October 1902, and 25 October 1902 the Sapporomilitary prison
was moved to the same location.
Action
Russo-Japanese War to Soviet–Japanese border conflicts
In 1942, despite its specialization in Arctic warfare, the 28th Infantry Regiment of the 7th Division under the command of Kiyonao Ichiki was assigned to invade Midway in the central Pacific. After the Japanese defeat at the Battle of Midway, which caused the cancellation of the invasion of Midway, the regiment was on its way back to Japan when it was rerouted to Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands in August 1942. Also, a detachment of the 7th Division was part of the Japanese occupation of Attu. At Guadalcanal, the regiment took heavy casualties during the Battle of the Tenaru and the Battle of Edson's Ridge. Of the 2500 men who were sent to the Guadalcanal campaign, only 140 returned alive to Japan.
