The , also known as the , was a military development laboratory run by the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

from 1937 to 1945. The lab, based in the

Noborito is a neighborhood in Tama-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan just across the southwestern border of Tokyo on the Tama River and about 18 minutes south of Shinjuku on the Odakyu Odawara Line Express. In 1927, Odakyu Line and Nanbu Line ...

neighborhood of

Tama-ku, Kawasaki is one of the seven wards of the city of Kawasaki in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. As of 2010, the ward has an estimated population of 211,221 and a population density of 10,310 persons per km². The total area is 20.49 km². Geography Tama ...

Kanagawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kana ...

, was originally founded in 1927 as the Shinoda Research Section, a division of the Army Science Research Institute under Captain Shinoda Ryo. The laboratory was focused on clandestine activities and unconventional warfare, including energy weapons, intelligence and spycraft, chemical and biological weapons, poisons, and currency counterfeiting.

History

One of the weapons developed by the lab was the

fire balloon An incendiary balloon (or balloon bomb) is a balloon inflated with a lighter-than-air gas such as hot air, hydrogen, or helium, that has a bomb, incendiary device, or Molotov cocktail attached. The balloon is carried by the prevailing winds to ...

, thousands of which were launched against the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in 1944 and 1945. In addition, the laboratory researched

nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bom ...

biological warfare Biological warfare, also known as germ warfare, is the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, insects, and fungi with the intent to kill, harm or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an act of war. Bio ...

chemical weapon A chemical weapon (CW) is a specialized munition that uses chemicals formulated to inflict death or harm on humans. According to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), this can be any chemical compound intended as a ...

s, and

suicide weapon A suicide weapon is a weapon designed to be used in a suicide attack, typically based on explosives. History Suicide weapons have been used both in conventional warfare, as well as in terrorism. In the Second Sino-Japanese War, Chinese used ...

s among other projects. In its project Operation Sugi, the Noborito Laboratory made 4 billion yen worth of

counterfeit To counterfeit means to imitate something authentic, with the intent to steal, destroy, or replace the original, for use in illegal transactions, or otherwise to deceive individuals into believing that the fake is of equal or greater value tha ...

Chinese currency to damage the Chinese economy. The laboratory, which at its peak was staffed by 1,000 scientists and workers, was disbanded upon Japan's defeat at the end of the war. According to a 2007 book review in the CIA journal ''Studies in Intelligence'', "Ban Shigeo, a technician at the Japanese Army's 9th Technical Research Institute, left a rare and valuable account" of his work at the Number Nine Research Laboratory, which was published posthumously in 2001 as ''Rikugun Noborito Kenkyujo no shinjitsu he Truth About the Army Noborito Research Institute'. According to this review, "the US Army quietly enlisted certain members of Noborito in its efforts against the communist camp in the early years of the Cold War.... Ban led the 'chemical section' of a US clandestine unit hidden within Yokosuka naval base during the Korean War...." On 7 April 2010, a museum called the Defunct Imperial Japanese Army Noborito Laboratory Museum for Education in Peace opened at the lab's former site. Located on the Ikuta campus of

Meiji University , abbreviated as Meiji (明治) or Meidai (明大'')'', is a private research university located in Chiyoda City, the heart of Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1881 as Meiji Law School (明治法律学校, ''Meiji Hōritsu Gakkō'') by three Meiji-er ...

, the museum exhibits artifacts from the lab and gives information on the unit's mission and operations.

References

External links

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External links

The defunct Imperial Japanese Army Noborito Laboratory Museum for Education in Peace Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Number Nine Research Laboratory Biological warfare facilities Imperial Japanese Army Military history of Japan during World War II Second Sino-Japanese War

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Museums in Kanagawa Prefecture Buildings and structures in Kawasaki, Kanagawa History of Kanagawa Prefecture World War II sites in Japan Weapon development Japanese biological weapons program Counterfeit money

History

See also

References

External links

External links