In October 1937 the division was subordinated to the Tenth Army and sent to ongoing Battle of Shanghai.

[1] It departed from Osaka 30 October and arrived in Hangzhou Bay on 5 November 1937, spending the next five days unloading, due to faulty landing craft.

Later performing a garrison duties in the North China, the division was demobilized in July 1939.

The nucleus for the formation was the 3rd Independent Infantry Brigade in Yuncheng and 69th division in North China.

After World War II ended with the surrender of Japan 15 August 1945, a significant fraction of its men have continued to fight under command of the warlord Yan Xishan in the ongoing Chinese Civil War.