Tokyo Imperial University — Second Faculty of Engineering

The Second Faculty of Engineering (第二工学部, Ni-Kō) of Tokyo Imperial University was established in April 1942, just months after the outbreak of the Pacific War, in Chiba City's Yayoi-chō district. The initiative came from University President Yuzuru Hiraga, a renowned naval architect, who sought to dramatically expand Japan's capacity to train engineers and technicians for the war effort. The original engineering faculty in Tokyo's Hongō campus was redesignated as the "First Faculty of Engineering" to distinguish it from the new Chiba campus.

The Second Faculty comprised ten specialized departments: Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Architecture, Shipbuilding, Ordnance Engineering (兵器学科), Applied Chemistry, Metallurgy, Aeronautical Engineering, and Aero-Engine Engineering. The Ordnance department taught courses directly oriented toward military production, including artillery design, tank engineering, torpedo mechanics, and explosives. The aeronautics and aero-engine departments focused on combat aircraft design and propulsion systems. At its peak, the faculty employed 45 professors, 32 assistant professors, and over 300 staff members under Dean Shōji Setō (瀬藤象二).

The faculty was created to supply engineers and technicians for wartime industry, and its staffing reflected that purpose: about half of the teaching staff were recruited from manufacturers, alongside younger scholars, graduates of other universities and staff transferred from Hongō. Wartime conditions shaped daily life on campus — crops were grown in the grounds, women took over posts as male staff were called up, and some laboratories evacuated their equipment. The campus itself was damaged in the Chiba air raid of July 1945.

Following Japan's defeat in August 1945, the Allied occupation authorities mandated the demilitarization of Japanese education. In 1946–47, the military-oriented departments were reorganized: Ordnance became Precision Engineering, Aeronautical Engineering became Physical Engineering (物理工学), and Aero-Engines became Internal Combustion Engines. The Second Faculty formally closed in March 1951 after graduating approximately 2,562 students. Its research functions were absorbed into the University of Tokyo's Institute of Industrial Science (生産技術研究所), which relocated to Roppongi in 1962.

The former campus grounds in Nishi-Chiba were subsequently transferred to Chiba University, where they form the core of today's Nishi-Chiba Campus, although the Institute of Industrial Science kept part of the site as its Chiba Experiment Station until 2017. The original wartime wooden buildings survived for decades but were demolished around 2021–2022 despite protests from historians who regarded them as valuable heritage of wartime academic history. Today, modern university buildings occupy the site, though the area's connection to wartime military research remains an important chapter in the history of Japanese science and technology.