The 40th Division was initially assigned to the Eleventh Army on 2 October 1939 and was stationed from Hankou to Guangji along the banks of the Yangtze River, then the Xianning city in Hubei area.

In April 1942, the 40th Division was one of the units assigned to capturing the downed American airmen of the Doolittle Mission in what came to be known as the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign.

From April 1944, it was assigned to Operation Ichi-go, reaching Yiyang 10 June 1944, and stopping in coastal Haojiang District 9 July 1944.

Afterwards, it came under the command of the Twenty-Third Army and stationed in the Guangdong-Macau area to counter anticipated landings by Allied forces.

The 40th Division's final orders were to withdraw from Nanchang to Nanjing, where it was demobilized, and its surviving troops were returned to Sasebo, Japan by May 1946.