New evidence publicized by a Japanese historian on Saturday has shed light on Japan's secret plan during the Second World War to economically sabotage China with counterfeit Chinese banknotes.
The evidence, consists of documents collected from the Noborito Research Institute, a military development laboratory ran by the Imperial Japanese Army, was compiled by Matsuno Seiya, a researcher of the International Peace Research Institute of Meiji Gakuin University, in his new book Dossiers of Army's Noborito Research Institute that will be published on July 7 by Fuji Shuppan publishing house.
The writer held a joint press briefing with the publishing house in Tokyo on Saturday to publicize the new evidence.
The Noborito Research Institute was a major institute of the Japanese Imperial Army on secret war back in World War II. It is mainly responsible for espionage, assassination, and wiretapping.
Apart from developing equipment for espionage, the institute also conducted research on and manufactured balloon bombs and counterfeit banknotes.
After Japan announced its unconditional surrender, a large amount of the documents in the Noborito Research Institute were obliterated, causing great troubles to current related research.
Past research on the institute was mainly based on little remained documents and memories, said Matsuno Seiya. The writer discovered more documents on the organizational system, staff lists, research content, and budgets of the Noborito Research Institute after his recent years' visits to the National Archives of Japan, the War History Department of the National Institute for Defense Studies, the Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, and the Edo-Tokyo Museum.
Matsuno Seiya stressed that the recently discovered materials have detailed records on the strategies made and carried out by the Japanese army and the Japanese government aimed at triggering inflation in China through printing banknotes illegally. A move for weakening China's resistance through economic sabotage.
"Early in the war, the Section Seven of the General Staff Office of the Japanese army, which is the section that worked for the military operation in China, rapidly developed plans on printing massive amount of banknotes illegally so as to destroy China's economy. The documents proved that in the early stage of the war, the Japanese army, apart from conducting armed aggression, also planned various strategies to jeopardize China," said Matsuno Seiya.
After the Japanese army invaded Hong Kong in December 1941, local machines for printing fiat banknotes were seized and transported to the Noborito Research Institute, where numerous conterfeit banknotes were illegally printed and poured to China.
The fact was backed by accounts of personnel who had relations with the institute and the newly discovered documents, said the historian.
"As personnel that had relations with the Noborito Research Institute recalled, after the Japanese army took hold of the Chung Hwa Book Company in Hong Kong, it seized the banknote printing equipment and the printed banknotes. The equipment was then sent to Japan and was used to print banknotes, which were later sent to China in massive amount, in the Noborito Research Institute. The document on 'fiat banknote printing' backed the personnel's accounts," said Matsuno Seiya.
In June 2023, Matsuno Seiya presented documents on the war crimes conducted by the Unit 731, a Japanese germ warfare unit during World War II, to the International Peace Archives of the Heilongjiang International University in China.
New evidence sheds light on Japan's WWII plot to sabotage China by counterfeit currency
