1939 Japanese expedition to Tibet

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The Japanese expedition to Tibet was an intelligence mission undertaken by Jinzō Nomoto (野本甚蔵, Nomoto Jinzō^?) in Tibet in 1939.

1 Background
2 Expedition
3 Aftermath
4 See also
5 References

[edit] Background

The Japanese during the 1918-1922 period began realizing secret moves in Xinjiang area; the Genyosha agents made undercover operations in Hami and other cities to recover info about the Soviets in Central Asia.

During the 1930s the Imperial Intelligence Services were interested in knowing in depth about Tibet and Xinjiang. In Kantogun headquartes a series of undercover operations were organised and sent Jinzo Nomoto and others on such missions. In a coincidence Germany sent expeditions to the same areas at around the same time.

[edit] Expedition

In 1935, Jinzo Nomoto, from Kagoshima, was sent to Manchukuo and was posted at an Intelligence unit on Central Asian topics of the Japanese Kantogun Army as a Mongolian language research student.

In May 1939, during the Chinese-Japanese conflict, Nomoto secretly entered Tibet by disguising himself as a Mongolian and accompanying a Tibetan monk began a 18-month intelligence-gathering mission. He collected information about the social condition, culture, religion and local policy of the natives by personal interviews with local residents; this was submitted mainly to the Intelligence Army Bureau. He left the area in October 1940.

[edit] Aftermath

Others agents continued secret moves in the area meeting with local Afgan tribesmen to organized infiltrations, sabotages and disturbances in British India on the North West Frontier in case of a Japanese invasion of India. Another alleged interest in the Tibet area was the recovery of all information related to ancient powers related in Tibetan legends.

Later, Jinzo Nomoto composed his memoirs on his experiences in his Tibetan mission during the war under the title of "Tibet Underground 1939".^[1]