On 21 January 1942 it sailed from Tarakan to Balikpapan[4] and on 19 February 1942, the Sakaguchi detachment was sent to eastern Java,[5] arriving on 1 March 1942, to cooperate with the 48th Division.

Later the 56th Division flanked the allied line to the east, by advancing through the mountains to the Salween River in the Karenni States.

Advancing north through the Shan States the 56th Division defeated elements of the Chinese 65th Corps to take the city of Lashio on the Burma Road.

The fall of Lashio to the 56th Division on 29 April 1942 cut off much of the local Chinese Army from China and compelled the Allies to evacuate Burma.

Faced with numerically and better equipped enemy in an attrition battle, the 56th Division suffered heavy losses.

The remnants of the division were removed from the front line in October 1944, and on the day of the surrender of Japan, 15 August 1945, on the border between South Burma and Thailand.

During the counterattack of the Yunnan Expeditionary Force (April 29 to July 5, 1944) The total number of men fighting under the command of the 56th Division was approximately 11,000.

The team suffered 3,102 casualties on the battlefield in western Yunnan alone (including 2,734 dead and 368 wounded), and 236 others were missing.

Because in the early stage of our counterattack, this regiment sent its main force to northern Myanmar to support the 18th Division in fighting our troops in India.

The 148th Regiment lost 3,510 people in western Yunnan in 1944-45 (including those who died from war illness) Allentown, PA: 1981 Media related to 56th Division (Imperial Japanese Army) at Wikimedia Commons