Narashino Army Training Ground / Chemical Warfare School

The Narashino area of Tsudanuma has been associated with military training since the Meiji era, when it was used for cavalry maneuvers by the Imperial Guard. The plain long garrisoned cavalry regiments, including the 15th and 16th. On August 1, 1933, the Narashino Army School (陸軍習志野学校) — the Army's dedicated chemical warfare school — was established in the former barracks of the 16th Cavalry Regiment under the Inspector General of Military Education, serving as the Army's principal institution for education and research in chemical and gas warfare. A US military intelligence report described it as "splendidly equipped, well staffed, and effective in the fulfillment of its mission until the end of the war," having graduated 3,074 officers in chemical warfare between 1939 and 1945. Japan's chemical weapons were used extensively in China (over 2,000 documented occasions from 1937–1945). The school closed on August 27, 1945, and its facilities and materiel were handed over to American forces. The school site (present-day Izumi-chō, Narashino) was later turned over to civilian uses such as schools, housing and a university institute, while the nearby Camp Narashino of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, home of the 1st Airborne Brigade, continues the area's military role.