Its tsūshōgō code name was the Attack Division (討兵団, Tou Heidan).
Its original headquarters was in a suburb of the city of Kanazawa, and its troops were recruited primarily from communities in Ishikawa and Toyama Prefectures.
Initially assigned to the Japanese Northern China Area Army, it was deployed to the Chinese mainland from 15 July 1938, serving as a garrison force in Xuzhou.
Under the command of Lieutenant Commander Hisakazu Tanaka from 1940 to 1943 as part of the Japanese 12th Army, the division participated in counter-insurgency operations in Northern China as well as the Battle of South Shanxi in May 1941, and the subsequent Hundred Regiments Offensive.
After the completion of the Philippines Campaign, from December 1943, the division was sent to French Indochina under the control of the IJA 38th Army, Assigned to a garrison role in Hanoi, it remained in Indochina through the end of the Pacific War except for a brief period in late 1944 when it crossed back into China to participate in Operation Ichi-Go.