9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The indispensible missing story, August 26, 2003
History is written by winners, that is an irrefutable fact. The tragedy is that a portion of the truth tends to die, or at least to whither on the vine. This is certainly true of the intelligence contest in the second world war.
This book is important and necessary for us to understand the workings of Japanese military intelligence during the second world war. There are precious few works on Axis intelligence, although some have come to light recently. As for Japanese intelligence efforts, these are poorly and thinly documented at best, notwithstanding the evidence obtained before various war crimes tribunals. Mercado seeks to correct this by describing the training of Japan's second bureau, and the exploits of its officers upon leaving its school at Nakano.
With this before him, Mercado could have produced the seminal work on the subject, but somewhat missed his opportunity. Let me start with my complaints about the book.
The author could have made a more thorough job of providing a history of Japanese espionage, which had a long domestic history during the Shogunate. This was not done, nor did he adequately explain the contribution of the French military to the organisation of the Japanese Army, and its intelligence service in particular.
My other criticism is that while Mercado has done a good job of explaining how the Nakano school was established, and introducing some of its key instructors, he does little to exlain the curriculum in great depth. This would have been important to understand what really was taught, and the impact of the instruction upon the the school's graduates, as well as Japanese intelligence gathering across the Pacific theatre.
Having said all of that, I should also praise the book for its strengths, of which there are many. First, and foremost, this book is the only work in English attempted on the Nakano school. To achieve this, Mercado used his own experience as an intelligence analyst and "Japanese hand" as well as extensive interviews with veterans, and research in the Japanese language press.
Mercado also traces many of the graduates of Nakano after graduation, and describes their contribution to the Japanese war effort, including their part in the expression of Indian nationalism prior to Independence.
More important than all of this, the author explains what happened to the "Shadow Warriors" after the end of the war, how many were taken on board by the Americans, and the important role they played in winning the Korean War. Others went into business or politics, and drew upon their networks to create the modern Japan we see today.
For its strengths, I would like to give this book five stars, but for its flaws I cannot. I only trust the author will do a second and more thorough edition so that achievements of Japan's shadow warriors are properly recorded for posterity.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Worthy Book, May 12, 2003
Mercado chose a subject well worth writing about. Military intelligence is a critical, but often underexamined part of military history. Any good student of military history knows how critical collecting intelligence and keeping secrets is to success in war, but how often do you see books on how information is collected, how secrets are kept, and about who does all of that?
The story of the Nakano School's graduates is an interesting one and their field operations were fascinating. Those familiar with the hidebound reputation of Imperial Japanese Army officers during the war will find the creative and independent Nakano-trained intelligence officers and their work to be fascinating. In many ways, one gets the feeling that the harsh, brutal and inflexible militancy of their own Army was a greater opponent than the enemy! These excellent soldiers were involved in everything from spying to propaganda to the nationalist subversion of Allied colonial holdings.
Mercado then goes on to follow the Nakano graduates into the post-war world, including their very important role in Occupied Japan, their work with the Americans during the Cold War, and other noteworthy endeavors. Judging from their wartime performance and their post-war success, one could truly say that the Nakano graduates represented some of the best and brightest of their generation.
The book makes for fascinating reading, and I recommend it to anyone who is interested either in intelligence, military history or Japan in general. The only reason why I cannot give it four stars is because I found the editing to be sloppy in spots.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A great book., August 4, 2006
Mercado's effort has been sorely needed in the English-language scholarship on Imperial Japan and WWII for a long time and he has finally told it. Alot of the episodes related in the book were not unknown to me before picking this one up - Japan's use of Aung San in Burma and Subhas Bose and the INA, or Hiro Onoda's matriculation through the Nakano School for another. However, there was ample detail that I had little idea of before reading this, particularly about Japanese covert ops in New Guinea and Okinawa which is great reading and highly informative. The section on Nakano officers after the war makes the Allied drafting of German intell people during "Operation Paperclip" look insignificant by comparison. I thouroughly enjoyed this one.
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