Nakano School

TheImperial Japanese Army Nakano School(Lục quân trung dã học giáo,Rikugun Nakano Gakkō)was the primary training center formilitary intelligenceoperations by theImperial Japanese ArmyduringWorld War II.

History

The Imperial Japanese Army had always placed a high priority on the use of unconventional military tactics. Before the time of theFirst Sino-Japanese War,Japanese operatives, posing as businessmen, andBuddhistmissionaries in China,Manchuriaand Russia established detailed intelligence networks for the production of maps, recruiting local support, and gathering information on opposing forces. Japanese spies would often seek to be recruited as personal servants to foreign officers or as ordinary laborers for construction projects on foreign military works.^[1]Such activities fell under the oversight of the 2nd Section of theImperial Japanese Army General Staff Office.^[2]

In July 1938, after a number of attempts to penetrate the military of the Soviet Union had failed, and efforts to recruitWhite Russianshad failed, Army leadership felt that a more "systematic" approach to the training of intelligence operatives was required. Lt. Col. Shun Akigusa(Thu thảo tuấn)was instructed to organize the curriculum of a special training school, to be located in 4 Chome Nakano ofNakano, Tokyo.The sign on the school read "Army Correspondence Research Center" to make the public believe that the school was focused on correspondence and not top secret training

The Nakano School was initially focused on Russia, teaching primarilyRussianas a foreign language. In 1940, administration of the school was handed over to Lt. Col. Masao Ueda(Thượng điền xương hùng),who in 1938 had provided considerable intelligence on Russia from his post asmilitary attaché(a common position for Nakano graduates) in Poland.^[3]

After theattack on Pearl Harbor,and the start of World War II, the Nakano School changed its focus to southern targets. After thefirebombing of Tokyo,it was relocated toTomioka-machi,Gunma prefecture.

Operations

A small school, over its history, the Nakano School had over 2500 graduates, who were trained in a variety of subject matters related tocounterintelligence,military intelligence,covert operations,sabotage,foreign languages,andaikido,^[4]along with unconventional military techniques in general such asguerrilla warfare.Extended courses were provided on a wide variety of topics includingphilosophy,history, current events,martial arts,propaganda,and various facets of covert action.^[5]

While small, its graduates occasionally had dramatic successes, such as the intact capture of oil facilities inPalembang,Netherlands East Indies, by Nakano School-trainedparatroopers.^[6]Nakano graduates were also very active inBurma,India, andOkinawacampaigns.

F Kikan,I KikanandMinami Kikan(ja)were heavily staffed with Nakano graduates.^[7]F KikanandI Kikanwere directed againstBritish India,and were instrumental in forming theIndian National Armyand supporting theAzad Hindmovement in Japanese-occupiedMalayaandSingapore.It also worked with Indonesian nationalists seeking the independence of theNetherlands East Indies.^[8]Its efforts to promote anti-British and anti-Dutch movements lasted past the end of the war, and played a role in the independence of India and Indonesia.^[9]

Minami Kikan supplied and led theBurmese National Armyto engage in anti-British subversion, intelligence-gathering and later direct combat against British forces inBurma.^[10]

In China, one Nakano School operation was the unsuccessful attempt to weaken China'sNationalist governmentby introducing large quantities of forged Chinese currency using stolenprinting platesfromHong Kong.^[11]

Towards the end of the war, graduates of the Nakano School expanded their activities within Japan itself, where their training in guerilla warfare were needed to help organize civilian resistance against the prospectiveAmerican invasionof theJapanese home islands.^[12]

Post-war era

Although the Nakano School was abolished at the end of World War II with the surrender of Japan, many graduates continued to play significant roles in Japan's military intelligence hierarchy and the wider business community, a result of a general deal between the head of Japanese intelligence, Lieutenant GeneralSeizo Arisue( hữu mạt tinh tam ) andGeneral MacArthur(who wanted the Japanese intelligence on the Soviet Union).^[13]

At the start of the U. S. occupation of Japan in 1945, the four line companies and headquarters detachment of the Eighth Army's 720th Military Police Battalion was sent to Tokyo from the South Pacific and quartered in the abandoned Nakano School. In 1948, the facility was renamed Camp Burness in memory of a Battalion member who had died in a plane crash near New Guinea during the Pacific War. Later that year, after a fire destroyed the "B" Company barracks, the Battalion was moved to the former Japanese Imperial Navy Academy in the Tsukiji area of Tokyo.

Nakano School graduate Second LieutenantHiroo Onodadid not surrender until 1974 on Lubang Island in the Philippines. Nakano School graduate Second LieutenantKikuo Tanimotovolunteered for theVietnam Independence Waras an adviser in theQuang NgaiArmy Academy (Vietnamese:Trường Lục quân trung học Quảng Ngãi).^[14]^[15]

Film

The Nakano School has also been the subject of a number of popular fiction movies, including:

Rikugun Nakano Gakko: Mitsumei( "Nakano Army School: Top Secret Command" ) (1967)
Rikugun Nakano gakko: Kaisen zenya( "Army Nakano School: War Broke Out Last Night" ) (1968)
Rikugun Nakano gakko: Kumoichigô shirei( "Army Nakano School: Cloud #1 Directive Japan" ) (1966)

References

Deacon, Richard (1986).A History of the Japanese Secret Service.Berkley Publishing Company.ISBN 0-425-07458-7.
Lebra, Joyce C. (1971).Japanese trained Armies in South-East Asia.Columbia University Press.ISBN 0-231-03995-6.
Fay, Peter W. (1993).The Forgotten Army: India's Armed Struggle for Independence, 1942-1945.University of Michigan Press.ISBN 0-472-08342-2.
Fujiwara, Iwaichi(1983).F. Kikan: Japanese Army Intelligence Operations in Southeast Asia During World War II.Heinemann.ISBN 962-225-072-6.
Mercado, Stephen C. (2002).The Shadow Warriors of Nakano: A History of the Imperial Japanese Army's Elite Intelligence School.Potomac Books Inc.ISBN 1-57488-443-3.
Latimer, Jon (2004).Burma: The Forgotten War.John Murray.ISBN 978-0-7195-6576-2.
Rikugun Nakano Gakko no Zenbou( "Portrait of the Army Nakano School" ), Kato Masao. Tokyo:Tendensha,1998.
Nakano Koyukai, ed., Rikugun Nakano GakkoArmy Nakano School(Tokyo: Nakano Koyukai, 1978), 176, and Moore, "Open Sources", 104.
Louis Allen, "The Nakano School", Japan Society Proceedings, 10, 1985, 9-15

Notes

^Deacon, A History of the Japanese Secret Service
^Mercado, Nakano, The Shadow Warriors. Pp.1
^See Allen 1987
^"Interview with Gozo Shioda".Archived fromthe originalon 2007-08-30.Retrieved2007-03-11.
^"Nakano agents and the Japanese forces in New Guinea, 1942-1945." 01-SEP-04, Sabretache. Richmond, Keith[1]
^Mercado, Nakano, The Shadow Warriors. Pp.40
^Fujiwara, F. Kikan: Japanese Army Intelligence Operations in Southeast Asia During World War II
^Lebra, Japanese trained Armies in South-East Asia
^Fay, The Forgotten Army: India's Armed Struggle for Independence, 1942-1945.
^Latimer,Burma: The Forgotten War
^"Chūkoku shihei gizō jiken no zenshō" ( "The forgery of Chinese paper currency" ), Yoshimasa Okada. pages 42-51, October 1980Rekishi to jinbutsu.
^See Boyd 2003
^"Here the author offers a rich description of how the chief of Japanese military intelligence, Arisue Seizo, used his information about the Soviet Union as a bargaining chip with MacArthur's intelligence forces. The result was a special intelligence partnership that had considerable relevance during the early rounds of theCold War.In all likelihood, this particular Japanese-American cooperation was much more admissible than the initial affair American authorities had with Japanese biological warfare specialists. "from" The Shadow Warriors of Nakano: A History of the Imperial Japanese Army's Elite Intelligence School "by Stephen C. Mercado. Review author: Carl Boyd inThe Journal of Military History,Vol. 67, No. 1. (Jan., 2003), pp. 274-275.JSTOR 3093218
^"ベトナム độc lập chiến tranh tham gia nhật bổn nhân の sự tích に cơ づく nhật việt のあり phương に quan する nghiên cứu"(PDF).Tỉnh xuyên nhất cửu.Tokyo foundation. October 2005.Retrieved2010-06-10.
^"Nhật việt quan hệ phát triển の phương đồ を tham る nghiên cứu ヴェトナム độc lập chiến tranh tham gia nhật bổn nhân ―その thật thái と nhật việt lạng quốc にとっての lịch sử đích ý vị ―"(PDF).Tỉnh xuyên nhất cửu.Tokyo foundation. May 2006.Retrieved2010-06-10.

[1] Deacon, A History of the Japanese Secret Service

[2] Mercado, Nakano, The Shadow Warriors. Pp.1

[allen-3] See Allen 1987

[4] "Interview with Gozo Shioda".Archived fromthe originalon 2007-08-30.Retrieved2007-03-11.

[5] "Nakano agents and the Japanese forces in New Guinea, 1942-1945." 01-SEP-04, Sabretache. Richmond, Keith[1]

[6] Mercado, Nakano, The Shadow Warriors. Pp.40

[7] Fujiwara, F. Kikan: Japanese Army Intelligence Operations in Southeast Asia During World War II

[8] Lebra, Japanese trained Armies in South-East Asia

[9] Fay, The Forgotten Army: India's Armed Struggle for Independence, 1942-1945.

[10] Latimer,Burma: The Forgotten War

[11] "Chūkoku shihei gizō jiken no zenshō" ( "The forgery of Chinese paper currency" ), Yoshimasa Okada. pages 42-51, October 1980Rekishi to jinbutsu.

[review2-12] See Boyd 2003

[13] "Here the author offers a rich description of how the chief of Japanese military intelligence, Arisue Seizo, used his information about the Soviet Union as a bargaining chip with MacArthur's intelligence forces. The result was a special intelligence partnership that had considerable relevance during the early rounds of theCold War.In all likelihood, this particular Japanese-American cooperation was much more admissible than the initial affair American authorities had with Japanese biological warfare specialists. "from" The Shadow Warriors of Nakano: A History of the Imperial Japanese Army's Elite Intelligence School "by Stephen C. Mercado. Review author: Carl Boyd inThe Journal of Military History,Vol. 67, No. 1. (Jan., 2003), pp. 274-275.JSTOR 3093218

[14] "ベトナム độc lập chiến tranh tham gia nhật bổn nhân の sự tích に cơ づく nhật việt のあり phương に quan する nghiên cứu"(PDF).Tỉnh xuyên nhất cửu.Tokyo foundation. October 2005.Retrieved2010-06-10.

[15] "Nhật việt quan hệ phát triển の phương đồ を tham る nghiên cứu ヴェトナム độc lập chiến tranh tham gia nhật bổn nhân ―その thật thái と nhật việt lạng quốc にとっての lịch sử đích ý vị ―"(PDF).Tỉnh xuyên nhất cửu.Tokyo foundation. May 2006.Retrieved2010-06-10.

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