[1] The 10th Division was deployed back to the Asian continent during the Mukden Incident of September 1931 and remained stationed in Manchuria afterwards, participating in the Jinzhou Operation of 1932, and returned to Japan in March 1934.

From July 1937, with the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the 10th Division returned to China under the command of Lieutenant General Rensuke Isogai.

In August 1940, the reorganized division was sent to Jiamusi, northern Manchukuo under the command of Lieutenant General Tōichi Sasaki, and placed under the control of the Kwantung Army.

Initially earmarked for a transfer to Taiwan, the 10th Division was sent instead to Luzon in the Philippines, coming under the command of the Japanese Fourteenth Area Army.

It was mostly annihilated in the subsequent Battle of Luzon, with 39th infantry regiment thought with particular distinction, and continued a guerrilla war until the Surrender of Japan 15 August 1945, despite heavy casualties due tropical diseases and malnutrition.