Talk:Imperial Japanese Navy land forces

Imperial Japanese Marines Uniforms
Are there any specific sources of what the Japanese Marines wore throughout the Second World War? 2600:1700:7CC0:3360:6B78:4122:8EF3:6364 (talk) 04:54, 2 August 2022 (UTC)


 * It is covered in the book "Rikusentai" Adachi1939 (talk) 02:09, 8 December 2022 (UTC)

“Naval Infantry” versus “Marines”
This article describes the JNLF as “marines” while the SNLF are described as “naval infantry.”

Unless I’m very much mistaken, it would seem that the JNLF was simply ad-hoc units of naval personnel put-together for offensive or defensive operations as-necessary. Whereas the SNLF was a more permanent force of professional infantry.

The aforementioned SNLF article even specifies (in the “History” section):

”Since the late Meiji Era, the IJN had naval landing forces or rikusentai formed from individual ships's crews, who received infantry training as part of their basic training, for special and/or temporary missions. In addition, troops from Naval Bases known as Kaiheidancould form a naval landing force.”

To me, this would indicate that the NLF would be more appropriately described as “naval infantry” with the SNLF being the more permanent and professional “marines.”

My contention is thus; While there are naval infantry units whose primary task is indeed infantry operations (typically units explicitly titled as “naval infantry,” such as the Russian Naval Infantry) it also describes ad-hoc units of non-infantry naval personnel employed temporarily or semi-permanently as infantrymen. Whereas “marines” are personnel that have explicitly (if not exclusively) received infantry training and whose units are raised to take advantage of this.

I’ll also post this to the SNLF’s talk page.

Thoughts? MWFwiki (talk) 05:37, 27 May 2024 (UTC)


 * Sounds logical. PaPiker (talk) 23:45, 28 May 2024 (UTC)