Talk:Organization of Japanese forces in Southeast Asia

Importance of dates
This list has potential to be very useful, however, it seems advisable to add some additional information as the data is compiled. Most importantly, the units in various locales, the commanders, and even HQ locations changed during the war. For this reason, I think known dates should be added.Dewobroto 16:10, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

Political Boundaries of former colonies
The "Dutch East Indies" actually includes the occupied neutral colony of Portuguese Timor from February 20 1942-late August 1945. Some indication of that would be more accurate. "Dutch [Netherlands] East Indies and Portuguese Timor" might be one way, but there are of course other tricky points where command structures cover more than one former colonial territory, like that of the 25th Army during the 1st year which covered part of the British and Dutch colonies of SEA.Dewobroto 16:10, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

Time Period/Unit Subordination
During the war the Japanese forces in Southeast Asia were in a constant state of flux. Units were formed and disbanded, moved in and out of the theater, and were absorbed into other organizations. Commanding Officers changed frequently. This OB is essentially useless as it gives no indication of time period. Also, to make any sense, it needs to show the hierarchy of unit subordination. In other words, which unit belonged to which higher headquarters. For example:
 * 7th Area Army
 * 16th Army
 * x Division
 * y Division
 * z Independent Brigade
 * 25th Army
 * and so on...

Additionally, the title is misleading because the Japanese did not think of South East Asia as a discrete area in the sense that the Allies, for example, regarded the European Theater of Operations. For the Japanese, the area was overseen, garrisoned, and defended by a number of roughly coequal "Area Armies" each in competition with the others for men, material, weapons, and supplies. Oldbubblehead (talk) 21:25, 18 August 2013 (UTC)