Shadow Warriors of Nakano: A History of the Japanese Imperial Army's Elite Intelligence School

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In the history of the twentieth century, the role of the military intelligence services in the competition among nations is still murky. Among the world's foremost intelligence services, those of Imperial Japan remain the least known. Few stories are as compelling as those surrounding the Japanese Army's Nakano School. From 1938 to 1945, the Nakano School trained more than 2,000 men in intelligence gathering, propaganda, and irregular warfare. Working in the shadows, these dedicated warriors executed a range of missions, from gathering intelligence in Latin America to leading commando raids against American lines in Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, and on Okinawa. They played major roles in operations to subvert British rule in India, and they organized Japanese civilians into guerrilla units that would have made the invasion of Japan a bloodbath. One graduate used his Nakano commando training to elude U.S. and Philippine military patrols until emerging from the jungle nearly thirty years after the war's end. In the decades after World War II, graduates of the school worked to obtain from the United States and Russia the release of imprisoned war criminals and the recovery of lost territory, including Okinawa.

Based on archival research and the memoirs of Japanese veterans, The Shadow Warriors of Nakano shines a much-needed light into the shadows of World War II and postwar Japanese affairs.

About the AuthorA former CIA analyst and Asia expert, Stephen C. Mercado lives in the Washington, D.C., area. His articles have appeared in Intelligence and National Security, International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, and Studies in Intelligence.

SYNOPSIS

Introduces the spies and commandos who were at the center of key Japanese operations in World War II, and outlines their continued influence in Japanese affairs after the war.

FROM THE CRITICS

Chalmers Johnson - author of An Instance of Treason: Ozaki Hotsumi and the Sorge Spy Ring and president of the Japan Policy Research Institute

A pioneering contribution to the hidden history of World War II. His analysis of the role of Nakano officers in the Battle of Okinawa alone is worth the price of admission. This is an important book.

Richard B. Frank - author of Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire

This is an absolute gem! With brilliant research, Stephen Mercado amassed a fascinating and important story of Japan's shadow warriors. He shrewdly presents their wartime achievements and failures and their significant postwar influence. A must read for anyone interested in Japan during World War II.

Theodore F. Cook - co-author of Japan at War: An Oral History and professor of history William Paterson University

Stephen Mercado's book takes scholarship on the Japanese Army to a new level. The book allows the English-speaking world to glimpse the secrets of wartime Japan's military intelligence as never before. Meticulously sourced, well written, and rich in insight.

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