The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) established several shipping artillery units during the Pacific War.
The 2nd Shipping Artillery Regiment was initially based in Singapore, but moved to Manila in the Philippines in July 1944.
[3] Small detachments from the regiments were allocated to individual ships to protect them against submarines and aircraft.
As a result, the battalion, battery and company headquarters primarily performed administrative functions.
[1] The Imperial Japanese Navy's Central Pacific Area Fleet also raised small air defence squads from April 1944 which were assigned to individual ships.