The success of the operation is the highest truth. Imperial Army Scout School
There are many things like this in the world
what is impossible to do,
but it must be done.
There are many things like this
which is easy to do
but there is no need to do it.
Criteria for judging the above
determine the value of an individual.
Motto of the Nakano Infantry School
what is impossible to do,
but it must be done.
There are many things like this
which is easy to do
but there is no need to do it.
Criteria for judging the above
determine the value of an individual.
Motto of the Nakano Infantry School
The general interest in recent years in stories The Great Patriotic War extends to military operations with Japan, unfortunately, in a very limited way.
In light of the confrontation in the Far East, the ominous Unit 731 is usually discussed in the press and on television. To be fair, it is worth noting that in both the Imperial Japanese Army and the Kwantung Army (which reported directly to the emperor, and in terms of combat power was superior to the armed forces located on Japanese islands) there were many other numbered sinister and mysterious units.
These include detachment 516, which dealt with issues of chemical warfare, and a special coast guard detachment 101 (in fact, the fight against aviation enemy), detachment 502 (sabotage on the territory of the USSR; a tactical feature is the use of balloons for silent movement), sabotage units “Hikari”, “Minami”, “Doihara”, “F” and “Harbin” (the latter - for carrying out operations on territory of the USSR at the hands of the so-called “White Russians” and Mongols), the “To” unit (international political intelligence) and the semi-legal but extremely powerful “Amakasu” unit (production and sale of opium in China).
The above list includes only the most numerous organs and combat units; in fact, there were much more of them.
In addition, it is worth noting that army officers and fleet created secret societies based on fraternities, place of study, political views, length of service and other similar things. Members of such societies served in a variety of units in all sorts of corners of Japan and the occupied territories, maintaining contact with the center and participating in its actions. The most numerous and famous of them are “Oshi-kai”, “Sakura-kai”, “Isseki-kai”, “Choshu-batsu”, “Satsuma-batsu” and others.
Among other mysterious structures of the armed forces of the Eight Shoals, a special place is occupied by the so-called Nakano Infantry School - an educational institution where intelligence officers were trained for the Supreme Command Headquarters (Dai-hon'ei).
Memorial stone at the site of the Nakano Infantry School
In 1937, Lieutenant Colonel of the Imperial Army Iwakuro Hideo submitted a memorandum “On the need for scientific systematization of intelligence operations” to the General Staff of the Ground Forces. The fact is that until that time in the Japanese army, reconnaissance was carried out as needed by persons who were not prepared for work, but who received orders. Upon completion of the task, the officer returned to his previous duties.
Believing that the way of warfare was changing dramatically, and future wars would largely depend on the success of covert intelligence operations, Lieutenant Colonel Iwakuro called on the army command to establish an educational institution to train specialists in this field.
Having met understanding in staff circles, the energetic officer quickly moved on to the practical implementation of his idea into reality. In the backyard of the building where the Women's Patriotic Society was located, “Training Courses for Home Front Workers” opened.
Candidate students were recruited from military personnel who were drafted into the army after graduating from civilian universities, secondary specialized educational institutions and general schools. Not a single career military man was invited to take the exams. Thus, intelligence immediately recruited people who were capable of being among urban or rural residents without attracting special attention, entering into conversations with ordinary people and blending in with the crowd.
The examination of applicants was also carried out in a rather original way. All tests were oral. Applicants were asked questions like: “How do you feel about the Communist Party?” “What is a conspiracy?” Next came the turn of personal assessments: “Which movie do you like better - domestic or foreign?” During the answer, the examiner could interject with an unexpected question, such as: “How can you determine whether they are male or female by the type of human excrement in a field?”
The first set of students consisted of 19 people. The activities of the “courses” almost immediately received high praise from the command, and in 1940 they were transformed into the “Nakano Infantry School” with a move to the Tokyo suburb of the same name. The school's leadership is subordinated directly to the Chief of the General Staff of the Ground Forces.
The cadets' training sessions mainly took place “in the field,” that is, outside the school walls. There were rise and fall times in the daily schedule, but the cadets had the right to break the schedule at their own discretion. After listening to the mandatory lectures before lunch, each student received an individual assignment from the teacher, changed into civilian clothes and went to the city to complete it. He could return to the barracks after lights out, at night, or even the next day.
The indoctrination of cadets is noteworthy
From the first days of training, future intelligence officers were taught the “highest truth” - the successful completion of the operation. Students were warned that if captured by enemy forces, they would face torture, execution, and possibly hanging. At the same time, they were strictly forbidden to commit suicide, even under the threat of capture or while in a concentration camp: “if you have time for this, it is better to make an effort to complete the task,” “a real intelligence officer will find a way to successfully complete the operation even in a concentration camp.”
At the same time, the cadets were warned that they would not receive any orders, ranks, or any other rewards for their selfless service, other than the feeling of satisfaction from the completed task. In the future, having left service in their later years, they will not be able to boast about their exploits, and they will not mention their involvement in some secret actions in their memoirs.
To put it simply, when preparing people for service associated with many hardships, educators limited mention of remuneration for labor to a very modest price list. How justified such motivation is is not an idle question, and one of the answer options will be revealed to the reader at the end of this article.
It's worth making a digression here
In 1972, Japanese Imperial Army sergeant Yokoi Shoichi was arrested on the island of Guam. He had been hiding in the jungle since 1945 and waging “his own war” against innocent indigenous people. With the help of politicians, he managed to avoid criminal prosecution for very specific acts and return to his homeland. His first words upon arrival in Tokyo were: “I’m ashamed to have returned.”
This verbal formulation refers to “Instruction No. 1” of the Minister of the Ground Army Hojo Hideki dated January 8, 1941. In the same year, 1941, a large number of playing cards were produced with the provisions of the “Instructions” written on them, and gramophone records were also released with the texts of the “Instructions” sung in various modes.
The main provision of the document, mandatory for all military personnel of the “Country of the Highly Raised Sword,” was the inadmissibility of surrender under any pretext. “Non-Japanese are being captured”; “He who surrendered abandoned our people, and his family also became non-Japanese” - these were the conclusions that were driven into the heads of soldiers and officers.
Suicide was offered as an alternative to captivity in a wide range of methods. The families of those unfortunate people who were captured unconscious or seriously wounded were subjected to incredibly severe punishments and humiliations.
It was precisely the memory of the instruction of the Minister of War, who had long been condemned by the Tokyo Tribunal, that worried the returning Sergeant Yokoi - the thought had taken root so thoroughly in his brain, as in the head of every Japanese.
Returning to my studies at the Nakano Infantry School, it should be noted that the ban on suicide taught to cadets was something completely out of the ordinary for the rest of Japan. Moreover, within the walls of the school, discussions were held that were even more unthinkable for the average person, especially a military man: “Is the emperor really a descendant of the gods on earth, or is he a person like everyone else?” By the way, the view of the monarch as an ordinary person prevailed.
Graduates were assigned fairly low army ranks with the addition of “reserve”. For example, the famous Onoda Hiroo, discovered in 1974 on the island of Lubang, just west of the capital of the Philippines, was released from the sabotage department as a senior sergeant in the Army Reserve.
Second Lieutenant Onoda Hiroo at the time of discovery in 1974
The very first graduation of officers was highly appreciated by the command of the armies, where the newly minted specialists were sent, but the active combat operations that began in 1941 in several strategic directions significantly expanded the range of tasks to be solved by graduates of the Nakano Infantry School. In 1944, the command recognized the need to open a new department in this educational institution - sabotage operations.
Until then, such actions were carried out in the interests of the Japanese government by the thugs of the unit of the gendarme captain Amakasu. These were loud bloody events with many random victims, more similar to the rampages of maniacs than to military operations. In addition, in the Kwantung Army, several regular units were formed by individual initiative officers, the names of which are mentioned above.
In the new department of the Nakano Infantry School, called the Branch and located in the city of Hamamatsu, the cadets studied subversive warfare, intelligence and counterintelligence methods, operation planning, methods of changing appearance, methods of surviving in hard-to-reach places and methods of creating behind enemy lines. rebel groups" from local dissatisfied elements. Foreign languages were also taught to the cadets.
Graduates of the branch were sent to active fronts in the Philippines, Indonesia, the Pacific Islands and the Kwantung Army. In total, during the existence of the Nakano Infantry School, more than three thousand specialists were trained. Approximately two hundred of them died or went missing.
In August 1945, a graduate of the school’s first intake, Major Tarota Sadao, distributed among his classmates the “Plan for organizing monitoring of the occupation forces.” The result of the “Plan” was the proclamation of Operation Spring. It was supposed to wage a guerrilla war and inflict blows on the enemy (occupying American troops) from the most unimaginable positions for him, just as springs make their way in places unexpected for a person.
It is not possible to find any reports of successful actions in line with this operation. Some sources briefly mention the infiltration of a graduate of the Nakano school into the Main Headquarters of the Occupation Command, but the sources do not provide the name of the officer or information about the results of his actions.
The reason for the paucity of information about the actions of graduates of the now famous intelligence school after the end of the war, willy-nilly, must be called the absence of any significant attempts. Perhaps the certified “knights of cloak and dagger” were looking for a more significant motivation for their actions than just the quiet satisfaction of realizing a successfully completed operation?..
Somewhat later, after the end of the Tokyo Tribunal, some government officials and large businessmen began to flaunt their involvement in the Nakano Infantry School, but at the beginning of the American occupation of Japan they were not heard of.
It is known, for example, that the first head of the Self-Defense Forces Research Implementation School, Yamamoto Kiyokatsu, military journalist Harada Tokichi, parliament member Kimura Takechiyo, and president of the Ashikaga Bank Mukae Hisao are graduates of such a now famous educational institution. Having mastered the methods of analyzing the actual situation during their studies, they, in all likelihood, themselves found the missing elements of motivation for their activities.
In conclusion, the following should be added
In the current difficult time of quickly forgotten moral principles, unfortunately, one often hears how self-proclaimed Internet broadcasters of the highest truth, choking on drool and other bodily fluids, repeat Hollywood stories about the nimble saboteur Onoda, who blew up, killed and spied on several decades after the war.
Unlike infantry sergeant Yokoi, who was arrested two years earlier in Guam, reserve second lieutenant Onoda Hiroo was a career saboteur, a 1944 graduate of the Branch. Hiding in the jungle, he did not harm the local residents in any way, and it was this circumstance that allowed him to remain undetected all the time. Using a homemade radio, the Japanese soldier was aware of world events and knew about the end of the war, but did not go out to people, because he received orders to continue the mission until further notice.
His immediate superior was killed at the end of the war, the rest of the officers who knew about his existence simply forgot about him.
One day, a saboteur accidentally saw a photographer in the jungle, recognized him as a Japanese and, coming from behind in order to remain invisible to his interlocutor, demanded that he be reported to several officers in Japan.
In his actions, Onoda was radically different from Yokoi. The circumstances of the latter's capture are noteworthy.
He was tracked down by local residents near a pond. The strongest of them hit the Japanese soldier so hard that he lost consciousness. The attacker pointed a gun at the unconscious man and was about to shoot, but he was prevented by relatives hanging on his arms. Nevertheless, the fellow was strong enough to cope with his companions and finish what he started.
It is not difficult to understand his mood: several years earlier, already in peacetime, Japanese soldiers massacred his family. However, one of the man’s relatives shouted: “If you kill him, we will become murderers like them!” These words stopped the angry strongman.
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