Rikugun Nakano Gakkō Rikusentai 陸軍中野学校

Origins

By late 1937, Imperial Japan wages full-scale war in China whilst simultaneously preparing for potential conflict with the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and the United States. The Imperial Japanese Army has seized Manchuria in 1931, establishing the puppet state of Manchukuo as a forward base directed against Soviet Russia. After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of July 1937 escalates into total war in China, the Army’s intelligence apparatus is exposed as dangerously inadequate.

The Imperial Japanese Army operates on a doctrine known as sakusen daiichi, written in Japanese as 作戦第, meaning “operations first.” This mentality systematically marginalises intelligence work. Intelligence officers follow rigid career progressions: War College, Army General Staff posting, overseas study, military attaché duty, organ chief, and bureau section chief. This structure leaves no space for dedicated long-term clandestine operatives. Attempts to penetrate the Soviet military fail repeatedly. Efforts to recruit White Russian agents prove equally fruitless. Japanese intelligence operatives working ad hoc as businessmen, Buddhist missionaries, and domestic servants are being detected with increasing regularity. Japan’s capacity for information warfare and covert operations lags dramatically behind every major European power.

Responsibility for these activities falls under the 2^nd Bureau, of the Army General Staff Office. Specifically, the intelligence and counterintelligence sections of that bureau bear oversight. The founding generation of the Nakano Gakkō looks back to one towering historical precedent. Imperial Japanese Army Colonel Akashi Motojirō, written in Japanese as 明石元二郎, during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 to 1905 supplies funds and weapons to Lenin’s Bolsheviks and other anti-Tsarist revolutionaries across Europe. His purpose is to undermine Russia’s capacity to wage war. The Imperial Japanese General Staff equates his achievement with the fighting power of three army divisions. Akashi’s classified operational reports become the Nakano Gakkō’s primary historical textbook.

Three officers form the core of the founding effort. They work within the newly created 8th Section, designated the clandestine or 謀略課 section, of the Army General Staff’s 2^nd Bureau. This section is established in November 1937 specifically for covert operations.

Imperial Japanese Army Lieutenant Colonel Iwakuro Hideo, written in Japanese as 岩畔豪雄, is born on October 10^th, 1897 on Kurahashi-jima in Hiroshima Prefecture. He serves as the school’s intellectual architect. A graduate of the 30^th class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1918, he is a veteran of the Siberian Intervention of 1920, during which he fights Bolshevik partisans. He joins the ultranationalist Sakura-kai secret society in the late 1920’s, serves with the Kwantung Army from 1932, and is recalled after the February 26^th Incident of 1936. Assigned to Army Intelligence, he oversees the wiretapping of foreign embassies, mail interception, and counterfeit currency production. In 1937, Iwakuro authors the foundational memorandum calling for what he terms the scientification of intelligence and covert operations, expressed in Japanese as chōhō bōryaku no kagakuka or 諜報謀略の科学化. He submits this document to the General Staff, and it is widely cited as the genesis of the Nakano Gakkō concept. He envisions a facility instructing candidates in intelligence gathering, counterintelligence, covert warfare, and propaganda on a rational and systematic basis. This represents a fundamental departure from the Imperial Japanese Army’s ad hoc approach. Iwakuro later serves as military attaché in Washington in 1941, acting as a key adviser to Imperial Japanese Navy Ambassador Nomura Kichisaburō during the negotiations preceding the attack on Pearl Harbour. He subsequently commands the Iwakuro Kikan in Southeast Asia.

Imperial Japanese Army Lieutenant Colonel Akigusa Shun, written in Japanese as 秋草俊, becomes the school’s first commandant, a position designated in Japanese as 初代所長. An expert on Russia, he has served for nearly four years in the Imperial Japanese Army’s Harbin Tokumu Kikan, or Harbin Special Services Organ, written in Japanese as ハルビン特務機関, in Manchukuo. This organ oversees the Army’s anti-Soviet intelligence operations. Known for his ease when mixing with Westerners, Akigusa takes students to Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel for meals in order to develop their social skills. He holds a rationalist worldview, reportedly regarding Emperor Hirohito as an ordinary man rather than a living god, a stance amounting to near-heresy within the Imperial Japanese Army. Akigusa leaves the commandancy in March 1940, taking responsibility for the Itō Incident discussed below. He subsequently operates overseas under the alias Hoshino Ichirō, written in Japanese as 星野一郎, running the Hoshi Kikan, or Star Agency, conducting intelligence operations in Europe from Berlin.

Imperial Japanese Army Lieutenant Colonel Fukumoto Kameji, written in Japanese as 福本亀治, is a counterintelligence veteran of the Kempeitai military police. He provides the critical institutional bridge between the Kempeitai’s counterintelligence expertise and the new school’s curriculum. He serves as Kanji, the title for chief executive officer and the second-ranking position at the school, managing day-to-day operations. A

Other key early figures include Imperial Japanese Army Lieutenant Colonel Usui Shigeki, Chief of the 2^nd Bureau’s Russia Section, one of the very few early backers of the founding trio’s proposal. Imperial Japanese Army Major Itō Samata holds the third-ranking position, responsible for student supervision. He is a spiritualist figure and skilled swordsman, rumoured to have killed over eighty guerrillas and spies in Manchuria in 1931. Itō embodies the tension between rational and spiritual approaches that runs through the school’s early life. In January 1940, the Kempeitai arrests Itō for conspiring to seize the British consulate in Kobe. He is placed on the reserve list. This episode, known as the Itō Incident, directly forces Akigusa’s resignation from the commandancy.

The founders are acutely aware that Japan lags behind the European powers in intelligence tradecraft. Multiple foreign traditions shape the school’s development. The German model, drawing on the Abwehr and the Prussian intelligence tradition, influences the school through the longstanding relationship between the Imperial Japanese Army and the German Army. The Kempeitai has explicitly modelled its own system on the Prussian secret service. The Soviet model, encompassing the GRU and the NKVD, is studied primarily as an adversary framework, since operations directed against the Soviet Union are a primary driver of the school’s creation. Soviet and Chinese Communist guerrilla warfare doctrine is later incorporated directly into Nakano training materials, most notably in Imperial Japanese Army Captain Kishimoto Iwao’s text entitled A Reference for Guerrilla Warfare in Japan. The British model, encompassing MI5, MI6, and later the Special Operations Executive, is studied with particular concern for Britain’s colonial intelligence capabilities across Asia. Japan’s own ninja tradition, known as ninjutsu or 忍法, is explicitly revived, with ninja masters invited as instructors, particularly at the later Futamata Branch School. The school publishes its own doctrinal text under the title Himitsu-sen Gairon, written in Japanese as 秘密戦概論, meaning “Introduction to Covert War.” This comprehensive manual covers intelligence, propaganda, counterintelligence, and covert operations in full.

The Nakano Gakkō operates under a motto that encapsulates its founding philosophy in five Japanese characters: Bōryaku wa makoto nari, written in Japanese as 謀略は誠なり, meaning “Intrigue is sincerity.”

The apparent paradox is deliberate. True sincerity towards the nation demands mastery of deception directed against its enemies. The two concepts are not in contradiction but in service to one another. The character makoto, written in Japanese as 誠, carries within it the interwoven meanings of sincerity, loyalty, and truthfulness. It forms the spiritual cornerstone of the school’s entire outlook. To deceive the enemy completely and without hesitation is, within this framework, the highest expression of loyalty to Japan.

Development

In December 1937, the War Ministry’s Military Administration Bureau, known in Japanese as 兵務局, forms a preparatory committee to examine the establishment of a dedicated clandestine training institution. Three months later, in March 1938, the institution is formally established under the cover designation Bōchō Kenkyūjo, written in Japanese as 防諜研究所, meaning “Counter-Intelligence Research Institute.”

Training begins in July 1938, when nineteen reserve officers commence instruction as the first intake. They gather at Kudanshita, in Tokyo, working from a rented building belonging to the Aikoku Fujinkai, or Patriotic Women’s Association, written in Japanese as 愛国婦人会. The facility operates under the cover name “Army Ministry Branch Office,” expressed in Japanese as 陸軍省分室, concealing its true purpose from outside observers.

The Nakano Gakkō’s training programmes evolve considerably across the school’s seven-year existence, shaped directly by the widening demands of the war.

The first class trains for approximately twelve months, running from July 1938 to July 1939. This extended period reflects the school’s early ambition to produce thoroughly prepared clandestine operatives. The standard pre-war course subsequently settles at between one and two years in duration. As the war expands and the demand for trained personnel intensifies, course lengths are compressed progressively. The standard programme is first reduced to approximately seven months, then shortened further still.

At the Futamata Branch School, established in August 1944, courses begin at six months in length. By the final phase of the war, even this abbreviated schedule is halved to three months. The last class to complete training at the school is the 7th Bō class, which graduates in July 1945. The 8th Bō class is still in session when Japan’s surrender brings the war to an end days later.

Total graduate numbers vary across sources and remain a matter of some uncertainty. Approximately two to three thousand graduates, attend the school. The Futamata Branch alone produces over two thousand graduates through its abbreviated guerrilla warfare courses, reflecting the scale of Japan’s late-war effort to prepare unconventional resistance across the home islands and occupied territories.

In March or April 1939, the institution relocates to the Nakano district, specifically Nakano 4-chōme in Nakano Ward. The new site occupies the former grounds of the Nakano Telegraph Regiment, written in Japanese as 中野電信隊跡. The building displays the sign “Army Correspondence Research Center,” expressed in Japanese as 陸軍省通信研究所, maintaining the pattern of innocuous cover designations. In May 1939, the institution is renamed once more, now carrying the title Kōhō Kinmu Yōin Yōseijo, written in Japanese as 後方勤務要員養成所, meaning “Training Centre for Rear Duties Personnel.” The first class completes training and graduates in July 1939.

Expansion

A significant institutional elevation occurs in August 1940, when the school is formally inaugurated as an Imperial Japanese Army school and renamed the Rikugun Nakano Gakkō, written in Japanese as 陸軍中野学校. The following year, in 1941, the school is placed directly subordinate to General Staff Headquarters, confirming its status as a strategic asset under the Army’s highest operational authority.

The Futamata Branch School, written in Japanese as 陸軍中野学校二俣分校, is also established in August 1944 at Futamata-chō in Shizuoka Prefecture, an area now incorporated within Tenryū-ku in Hamamatsu City. The branch school is purpose-built for guerrilla warfare training and is conceptually distinct from the main school’s focus on intelligence and espionage. The site is selected deliberately for its mountainous terrain and river systems, which provide a natural environment suited to guerrilla exercises.

The curriculum at Futamata is stripped back to its essential purpose. Foreign language instruction and all subjects unrelated to guerrilla operations are eliminated. Training concentrates exclusively on guerrilla tactics, sabotage, destruction operations, and survival skills. The programme is consciously modelled on the ninja tradition of feudal Japan, drawing on unconventional methods rooted in Japan’s own martial heritage.

The first class of approximately 220 students graduates on September 1^st, 1944. Graduates receive an order that represents a striking departure from standard Imperial Japanese Army doctrine. They are instructed never to take their own lives. They are to remain alive at any cost, even enduring the shame of capture, in order to feed false intelligence to the enemy. This directive inverts the IJA’s established culture of death before dishonour and marks Futamata’s graduates as operatives governed by a fundamentally different set of operational priorities.

The branch school’s most celebrated graduate is Imperial Japanese Army 2^nd Lieutenant Onoda Hiroo, written in Japanese as 小野田寛郎. He does not surrender until March 1974, making him the most famous post-war holdout in military history.

The Nakano Gakkō’s covert warfare operations depend on a dedicated research and development institution operating in parallel with the school itself.

The Noborito Research Institute, written in Japanese as 登戸研究所, is formally redesignated the Army Ninth Technical Research Institute in 1942. It is located in Tama-ku in Kawasaki. By 1945 the institute employs nearly one thousand personnel across a campus of 36 hectares. Its director is Imperial Japanese Army Lieutenant General Shinoda Ryō.

The institute develops the full range of covert warfare equipment required by Nakano-trained operatives. Its output encompasses secret inks, miniature cameras, and disguised explosives. It produces counterfeit currency under an operation designated Sugi. It develops the Fu-Go balloon bombs, of which approximately 9,300 are launched towards North America. It also develops chemical and biological weapons. An additional development facility, known as the Inada Factory, operates on the main campus under the direction of Imperial Japanese Army Lieutenant Colonel Inada Yūichi.

Commercial cover for overseas operations is provided through the Army-backed trading company Shōwa Tsūshō, written in Japanese as 昭和通商. This firm presents a civilian façade behind which Nakano operatives and their associated intelligence networks conduct activities across the occupied territories and beyond.

War’s End

As the war turns against Japan, the institution adapts to deteriorating conditions. In August 1944, the Futamata Branch School, written in Japanese as 二俣分校, is established to expand training capacity. By April 1945, the main school relocates from Tokyo to Tomioka-machi in Gunma Prefecture, as Allied air power makes the capital increasingly untenable.

On 15 August 1945, upon Japan’s surrender, the school’s last commandant, Imperial Japanese Army Major General Yamamoto Hayashi, orders the destruction of all records. The Imperial Japanese Army’s general policy is to destroy sensitive documents before the Allied occupation commences. The Nakano Gakkō, as an intelligence institution, is especially thorough in carrying out this order. Almost all documents belonging to the IJA’s Central Special Intelligence Division and its subordinate signals intelligence units are destroyed. The systematic nature of this destruction means that primary Japanese documentation is extremely scarce. Wartime Allied signal intercepts frequently provide the only surviving record of Japanese intelligence activities from this period.

The school’s final operational effort is the organisation of the Izumi Unit, written in Japanese as 泉部隊. This guerrilla force is intended to contest the Allied occupation of Japan itself. Members slip into civilian roles in their home towns carrying orders to conduct a terror campaign against occupying forces and Japanese collaborators alike. The plan is never fully executed. In a separate contingency, Nakano operatives plan to conceal Prince Michihisa, a young grandson of Emperor Meiji, in order to preserve the imperial line should the Americans execute or exile Emperor Hirohito and his family. Nakano operatives also hide Burmese nationalist leader Ba Maw in a Buddhist monastery. He is eventually betrayed by a local Japanese national, but the British choose to release him.

When Soviet forces invade Manchuria in August 1945, they rapidly identify Nakano operatives through a simple method. During negotiations, the Soviets demand that the Japanese supply interpreters, correctly assuming these individuals will be intelligence officers. Some Manchurians and White Russians who have previously worked alongside Nakano men betray them to the Soviets. The school’s first commandant, Imperial Japanese Army Lieutenant Colonel Akigusa Shun, is captured in Harbin and dies in Soviet captivity in March 1949.