Its call sign was the Snow Division (雪兵団, Yuki Heidan).
The 36th Division was initially assigned to the 1st Army garrison duty in North China.
Soon the 36th Division departed Shanghai, briefly stopped at Halmahera and finally landed in Sarmi on New Guinea.
On New Guinea, the US forces landed in Aitape 22 April and in Sarmi on 17 May, squeezing the 36th Division to the coastal strip south of Biak.
From June 1944, the fighting on New Guinea had downgraded to sporadic skirmishes, and the rest of the 36th Division survived until the surrender of Japan on 15 August 1945 nearly unscathed, coping mostly with the problem of starvation.