In 1939, as the world moved toward war, Japan was running a fur-farming operation that involved a large South American rodent with orange teeth. That rodent is the nutria, and its story is one of the more curious subplots of wartime history. According to Japan’s National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) invasive species database, 150 nutria were imported into the country that year and bred for military and consumer fur throughout the Kanto region and beyond. Now, more than 80 years later, their descendants are still digging in rice fields and reservoir banks.
A fur coat for the war effort
