During the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), the Romanovs employed a number of mystics in attempting to acquire military intelligence and disrupt Japanese operations. These operations were, at least publicly, a great failure, and one of the many scandals that lead to the downfall of the Czar.
The Japanese military establishment was fully aware of these operations, and though they dismissed many of these so-called "psychics" and "mediums" as little more than charlatans or gifted illusionists at best, they were privately dismayed to learn that some of these mystics were incontrovertibly the genuine article. As such, under the order of the Emperor himself, a secret branch of Imperial Japanese Army Intelligence, Special Unit 66, was established.
Initially, its brief was quite simply to root out, investigate, and if possible, neutralize any possible mystics employed by the Russians in the Far East. By 1910, this brief had been extended to observation of potential mystics by powers hostile to Tokyo, and by the opening of the First World War, Special Unit 66 had taken on a far more active (though still covert) role, not only learning what it could about the machinations of enemy powers determined to thwart Japanese policies, but also in establishing its own bank of genuine mystics who could be relied upon to assist the Japanese government by serving in a defensive role or even as double agents.
During the 1920s, as Japan found its policies increasingly at odds with those of the West, new emphasis was placed on the possible use of Special Unit 66 as an offensive force. The Far East was scoured for useful artifacts and persons of interest who could assist, willingly or otherwise, the developing Japanese goals in the creation of a new Greater Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. In 1929, the decision was made to deploy Special Unit 66 to foreign soil in an offensive role for the first time - and a branch of the unit was attached to the Japanese military attache in Shanghai.
Special Unit 66 has been instructed to assist the "regular" intelligence agencies of the Kwangtung Army in their goal of destabilizing Shanghai in preparation for planned offensive operations against China. While the nominal head of the Japanese intelligence effort in Shanghai is Kawashima Yoshiko, the head of Unit 66 is the notorious Colonel Washiji Toro, who has been given implicit instructions to cooperate with Kawashima where possible. Nevertheless, he has maintained his autonomy and kept his secrets well. Kawashima is aware of the Colonel, but knows little to nothing of his mission - only that he appears to be an expert in the occult, with a particular distaste for the Xian Cabal.
Only time will tell what Washiji and Special Unit 66 have planned for Shanghai...
(Comments, etc.. welcome.)
-- Edited by Doc Twilight on Tuesday 22nd of September 2009 03:43:49 PM
-- Edited by Doc Twilight on Tuesday 22nd of September 2009 03:44:25 PM
