The Shadow Warriors of Nakano: A History of the Imperial Japanese Army's Elite Intelligence School - Kindle edition by Mercado, Stephen C.. Politics & Social Sciences Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

The Shadow Warriors of Nakano: A History of the Imperial Japanese Army's Elite Intelligence School - Kindle edition by Mercado, Stephen C.

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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, in 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.

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The Shadow Warriors of Nakano: A History of the Imperial Japanese Army's Elite Intelligence School Kindle Edition
by Stephen C. Mercado (Author) Format: Kindle Edition


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353 pages

Editorial Reviews

About the Author
A 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 Counter-Intelligence, and Studies in Intelligence. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Review

"Extensively researched and superbly presented . . . a uniquely valuable addition to World War II Pacific theater military studies collections." --The Bookwatch --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Product details

ASIN : B005CWH8KG
Publisher : Potomac Books Inc.; 1st edition (March 17, 2003)
Publication date : March 17, 2003
Print length : 353 pages


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4.4 out of 5 stars

Top reviews from the United States


czz
5.0 out of 5 stars Great work, very neededReviewed in the United States on February 6, 2019
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This book is like follow up on a previous book where the earlier book was about either a guy or an event, like Gen. Ito or The Cherry Blossom event and in that previous book it was necessary to touch on the Nakano school because of its extreme importance to that subject but of course, nobody knows what the Nakano school is because nobody has written about it, bingo this is that book that talks about the Nakano school. So on the one hand, it can't follow any specific person or battle or plan, instead it has relationships and time, these guys and this event, this attack by those guys and this conflict between these men about this problem or situation. It makes for confusing and fascinating reading. Also, the guys are japanese and I don't speak or study japanese so I call it confusing. Very different persons are confused by similar sounding or looking names to a foreigner like me. But it is so good. Crazy good. Also we look at facts and events like a newspaper, not theories or ideas so much, so it doesn't cause me to argue with it.

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John Fahey
4.0 out of 5 stars IMPORTNAT SOURCE ON JAPANESE INTELLIGENCE IN WW IIReviewed in the United States on March 9, 2017
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Useful, if a little superficial at times. The book suffers from the fact that a lot of the relevant Japanese records were destroyed following the surrender in 1945. As a result, there are gaps. However, given the dearth of good books on this subject, it is an essential source for anyone working on the history of this period in the Pacific.

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J. Sullivan
5.0 out of 5 stars A Good ReadReviewed in the United States on October 14, 2020
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An interesting read on a unknown aspect of WW2. The Imperial Japanese Army equivalent of the American OSS, The British SOE and various Allied Commando and Raider forces.


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Denise
5.0 out of 5 stars Great research and really gives one an insight into a ...Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2016
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The existence of spies goes back to Biblical times.
This well paced book brings to light the training of Nippon spies and their influence in numerous countries prior to and during WWII. A fascinating look at the intensity and thoroughness of the Japanese world of espionage. Great research and really gives one an insight into a little discussed portion of history which had an immense impact during WWII.

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Yoshimasa Sudo
3.0 out of 5 stars An excellent resource material for researchers on the subjectReviewed in the United States on February 21, 2017
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The author did an excellent job of tracing all the members of the Nakamori school in their activities but the author was not very clear in explaining the fundamental philosophy of the schhool origin and its development throughout its existence. Too many names without much significance for their activities.

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Andris Chellew Molgaard
5.0 out of 5 stars NakanoReviewed in the United States on August 3, 2018
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A very good book about a Japanese military unit that could avoid the war for Japan if it would be in operation 10 years early


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F. Azizuddin
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Insite into Japanese Military IntelligenceReviewed in the United States on October 17, 2009
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This is an excellent book. The sources and scholarship are first rate. A lot of the sources used were in Japanese and are unavailable in English. The author speaks and reads Japanese and did an excellent job of shedding light on an unknown area of Japanese Military History during World War II.

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GERARD LA TOURNERIE
5.0 out of 5 stars Five StarsReviewed in the United States on November 24, 2014
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key background


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JohnnyG
3.0 out of 5 stars Three StarsReviewed in Canada on May 17, 2016
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Decent quality
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Sarah Crawford rated it it was amazing

This is a very interesting book about Japan's Intelligence School to train spies and saboteurs for war. It covers the time from the start of the school on through the end of the war and afterwards. I'll note a few of the most interesting things.

Even though Japan lost WWII, many of the countries of Asia did benefit somewhat from their actions, as growing independence movements helped free many countries from the “ownership” by Western nations like England, the Netherlands, etc.

One of the purposes of the Nakano school was to help control any domestic opposition to the war. Japan was at the time under very, very strict censorship, and almost everything the public had available as far as information goes was controlled by the government which gave the civilians only what they wanted to give them as far as information went. Those who choose to speak out against the government were dealt with harshly, if not permanently.

Some of the things the students at the school studied were ideology, propaganda and intelligence theory. They also studied the activities of Lawrence of Arabia. Other subjects included pharmacology, psychology, aviation and marine navigation.

They were also taught how to use bacteria to poison the wells of a city.

A lot of people in Latin America were happy when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.

One early idea was to present Japan's efforts in other countries as helping to free them from Western colonialism.

Trying to get enemy troops to surrender and broadcasting false information were two other things the school graduates did.

There were plans for an actual invasion by Japan of northeast India.

The book talks about how things changed over time, and how the school graduates were to help Japan make its last stand, assuming the U.S. actually invaded Japan itself. They helped prepare civilians for attacking U.S. troops.

The book tells how young girls and boys were prepared for aiding the war effort. Other preparations for war are discussed.

Atrocities against American fliers are discussed.

The book also has a whole lot more in it. (less)

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Jan 16, 2015Ellis Amdur rated it really liked it

An excellent history of Japan’s espionage school and service. What is ironic in the extreme is that although they fought in the service of empire, they were a faction within the Japanese military government that truly did have a goal of liberating Asia from European colonialists, and – they essentially did. The author concludes that had they also succeeded in taking a leading rather than subsidiary role vis a vis the “operations” branch of the army, Japan may never have gone to war at all, and surely, in that event, would have behaved more as liberators themselves, rather than as brutal colonialists in turn. (less)

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Jul 17, 2014Christopher rated it really liked it
Shelves: nonfiction
An extremely well sourced examination of a young but extremely influential intelligence service school in late Imperial Japan. The best parts of it are actually about the lingering postwar influence the school had on the Cold War, East Asia, and even US intelligence.

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Stephen C. Mercado

 

 Mercado, Stephen C. "FBIS Against the Axis, 1941-1945." Studies in Intelligence 11 (Fall-Winter 2001): 33-43.

In early 1941, the FCC launched the "Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service" to monitor, transcribe, translate, report, and analyze foreign broadcasts. The author outlines the development, contributions, and travails of the organization through the World War II years.

[CIA/C&C/FBIS]

 Mercado, Stephen C. "Hermit Surfers of P'yongyang: North Korea and the Internet." Studies in Intelligence 48, no. 1 (2004): 39-44.

North Korean "[r]esearchers can surf the Internet via a connection routed through the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications." [footnote omitted] In this way, the Pyongyang government "can promote scientific exploration while keeping researchers in country and under surveillance."

[OtherCountries/NKorea]

 Mercado, Stephen C. "An Insight into Japanese CI." International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence 15, no. 4 (Winter 2002-2003): 628-632.

This is a review of the Japanese-language work by Azuma Teruji, Warakushi wa Yoshida Shigeru no supai datta (I Spied on Yoshida Shigeru), ed., Hosaka Masayasu (Tokyo: Kojunsha, 2000), but the review is as close as most of us will be able to get to the author's memoir of counterintelligence service in World War II.

[WWII/FEPac/Japan]

 Mercado, Stephen C. "The Japanese Army's Noborito Research Institute." International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence 17, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 286-299.

The Noborito Research Institute "conducted research and development in four main areas: intelligence, counterintelligence (CI), covert action, and propaganda.... The military officers who led Noborito were accomplished men who hired technical talent from Japan's top universities, drew on the expertise of academic experts, and tapped corporate resources to execute the institute's projects." After the war, "Noborito's veterans applied their skills in an organization designated the Government Printing Supplies Office (GPSO). Their reproductions supported the agent operations conducted before and during the Korean War." [Footnotes omitted]

[Japan/Poswar; WWII/FEPac/Japan]

 Mercado, Stephen C. "Reexamining the Distinction Between Open Information and Secrets." Studies in Intelligence 49, no. 2 (2005).

The author argues that "(1) secrets are not identical to intelligence; (2) the distinction between overt and covert sources is more blurred than commonly imagined; (3) open information often equals or surpasses classified material; (4) slighting OSINT is no way to run an intelligence community; and (5) the private sector is no substitute for the government in applying open sources to address today's intelligence challenges." He concludes that "Washington needs to assign greater resources to open sources. Whether we create a national OSINT center or leave FBIS and its counterparts right where they are is less important than the issue of dollars and people."

[OpnSource]

 Mercado, Stephen C. The Shadow Warriors of Nakano: A History of the Imperial Japanese Army's Elite Intelligence School. Dulles, VA: Brassey's, 2002.

Jonkers, AFIO WIN 30-02, 29 Jul. 2002, notes that the Nakano School provided training in "intelligence collection, propaganda and irregular warfare." The author is "a former CIA analyst and Asia expert," whose work "sheds light on a special niche of intelligence activities in World War II and postwar Japanese affairs."

For Seamon, Proceedings 128.11 (Nov. 2002), the author "manages to keep his scholarly report moving through a sea of Japanese names that could well drown a non-Japanese-speaking reader." Peake, Studies 48.4 (2004), comments that "[i]n addition to being an interesting and impressive work, The Shadow Warriors of Nakano is the only scholarly account of this subject in English and thus a unique contribution to the intelligence literature."

Nish, I&NS 18.1, says that "[t]his is an intriguing book,... packed with interesting facts.... It is well-grounded in Japanese sources and research in the American archives.... Mercado provides a comprehensive survey of an important element in prewar Japan's Army intelligence network." To Bath, NIPQ 19.3, "[t]hat portion of Shadow Warriors dealing with the post-surrender period and the relationship between the American military government and the remaining Nakano graduates is of particular interest." The author traces the influence of the Nakano "old boys" well into the postwar years.

[Japan/PreWWII; WWII/FEPac/Japan]

 Mercado, Stephen C. "A Venerable Source in a New Era: Sailing the Sea of OSINT in the Information Age." Studies in Intelligence 48, no. 3 (2004): 45-55.

"[T]he Intelligence Community needs to build a better ship to sail the sea of open sources. FBIS, the largest and best equipped of the disorganized collection of offices engaged in OSINT, is too small a craft with too few hands to navigate the waters and harvest the catch.... Above all, the Intelligence Community requires a sustained approach to open sources. As with other collection disciplines, one cannot conjure OSINT programs out of thin air. Assembling a substantial number of officers competent in Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, Korean, and other languages and expert in fishing in the OSINT seas, then giving them the sources and methods to do their work, would be no small feat."

Clark comment: The author makes many on-the-mark points in this excellent article. The problem is that he is a decade too late. CIA and FBIS management missed the boat in the early 1990s when the CIA's Community Open Source Program Office was formed without FBIS as the lead element.

[CIA/Components/FBIS; OpenSource]