TB News January 24, 2020

The Voice of the White House
Washington, D.C. January 24, 2020:“Working in the White House as a junior staffer is an interesting experience.
When I was younger, I worked as a summer-time job in a clinic for people who had moderate to severe mental problems and the current work closely, at times, echos the earlier one.
I am not an intimate of the President but I have encountered him from time to time and I daily see manifestations of his growing psychological problems.
He insults people, uses foul language, is frantic to see his name mentioned on main-line television and pays absolutely no attention to any advice from his staff that runs counter to his strange ideas.
He lies like a rug to everyone, eats like a hog, makes lewd remarks to female staffers and flies into rages if anyone dares to contradict him.
It is becoming more and more evident to even the least intelligent American voter that Trump is vicious, corrupt and amoral. He has stated often that even if he loses the
election in 2020, he will not leave the White House. I have news for Donald but this is not the place to discuss it.

Trump aches from his head to his toes
His sphincters have gone where who knows
And his love life has ended
By a paunch so distended
That all he can use is his nose

Commentary for January 24: “(This is an excerpt from a translated French intelligence report under date of December 31, 2019, now circulating in the White House. ‘’The present American government is seen as a destabilizing element in world political circles. American President Trump appears to be an inflexible individual with absolutely no desire to seek any kind of diplomatic or negotiated solutions to serious problem that affect the entire world community…” “coupled with his single-minded determination to achieve any of his ends by force and not negotiation…is his complete domination by the ultra-right wing supporters of Israel. Their goals appear to be the idea that America has not only the right but the obligation to her people to dominate the entire world, by military force or the threat of it…The Israeli presence in the Administration determines that America will always support that state, even at the risk of alienating the rest of the world and, even greater, of starting a major war….Trump’s advisors, mostly Jewish, dislike Putin, the Russian President, and have been constantly agitating for the United States to force Russia into a confrontation. Given Russia’s still-formidable military capacity, this confrontational behavior could well lead to open warfare….’”

Trump’s Approval/Disapproval rating January 24 reporting

Source                                Approve   Disapprove
_________________________________________
American Research Group     37%           58%

The Table of Contents
• What is past is usually future
• The Essenes and Jesus
• Federal Highway Surveillance
• Point-Counterpoint
• The Merry Sunshine Murders
• The Season of Evil
• Encyclopedia of American Loons
• US Breaking of Japanese Codes clearly warned of impending attack in 1941

What is past is usually future
January 24, 2020
by Benjamin Dova

Because of the arrogance, lies and bungling of the Bush administration, the Democrats took control of the White House and Congress.
No one disputes these obvious facts but what many very right wing Republicans believed would be a permanent Republican control over ‘niggers’, ‘faggots’ and left-wing Jews has fallen to pieces and there is a frantic, and actually lunatic, attempt to regain power.
This frenzy is manifested by hysterical, irrational public behavior by such strange people as Sarah Palin, ex-Governor of Alaska, Michelle Bachmann, a political figure famed for her far-right rantings, the bombastic and also irrational public rantings of fat Rush Limbaugh, a convicted drug abuser and right-wing radio host and Glen Beck, a highly vocal and very ignorant figure on the notorious right wing FOX News.
It was creatures like this, pared with even more right wing American Jews like William Kristol and Robert Kagan who founded the Project for the New American Centuiry (PNAC).
This group, begun by Kristol and Kagan in1997 and ran through 2006. It was founded as a non-profit educational organization The PNAC’s stated goal was “to promote American global leadership. The PNAC were the view that “American leadership is both good for America and good for the world” and support for “a Reaganite policy of military strength and moral clarity.”
The PNAC exerted influence on high-level U.S. government officials in the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush and affected the Bush Administration’s development of military and foreign policies, especially involving national security and the Iraq War. Kristol published the far-right wing Weekly Standard, fully financed by right wing news baron, Rupert Murdoch- a failed magazine that promoted the neocon credo, which was mandatory reading in both the White House staff quarters and also in Cheney’s office. The goal of the PNAC was world dominance or global hegemony by the United States.through a Republican control of all three branches of American government .
During the ‘Weekly Standard’s” existance, William Kristol and Erwin Stelzer also of the ‘Standard; were publically exposed for accepting money from the Bush-friendly Enron people. Kristol, who had once been chief of staff to former Vice President Dan Quayle, took $100,000 without disclosing the payments at the time. According to Bölsche, Rebuilding America’s Defenses “was developed by Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfowitz and Libby, and is devoted to matters of ‘maintaining US pre-eminence, thwarting rival powers and shaping the global security system according to US interests.Section V of Rebuilding America’s Defenses, entitled “Creating Tomorrow’s Dominant Force”, includes the sentence: “Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event––like a new Pearl Harbor”
It is this sentence that, without any question, galavanized Karl Rove, Bush’s chief advisor, into finding a casus belli that would elevate Bush to the status of a wartime president, a position that would allow the president to rule by decree under certain circumstances and permit total control over the American people.
George W. Bush, an intellectual lightweight and chronic drunk, was placed in the Oval Office by a Republican fiat and long before he was sworn in, Rove and men like Cheneh were plotting to ensure the permanent Republican rule. The Bush family had excellent connections with the wealthy and very influencial Saudi bin Ladin family and one of their members, Osama bin Ladin, was a CIA controlled leader of the Taliban guerrilla movement in Afghanistan that had, with full American and Saudi aid, contested with the occupying Russians and eventually drove them from the country.
The 9/11 plot originated with Rove, was approved by Cheney, the senior Bush and various very high level Republicans. The Bush family connection with the bin Ladins’ allowed a team of Saudi terrorists to enter the United States from Hamburg, Germany and gave them the base, in Florida, from which they would plot out a powerful terrorist attack against America. The Israeli Mossad was asked to oversee this plotting so that it could be controlled and the plotters simply sat back and read the Mossad progress reports.
One change was to strike the Pentagon with a hijacked commercial plane on an unoccupied side, far away from the offices of Bush supportinig Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and another plane, destined to slam into the Capitol building, filled with legislators, crashed due to interference with the hijackers by some of the passengers.
Some of the evidence for this mostrous deed is very concrete and some purely circumstantial but the reader is directed to the on-site television of the coverage of Bush’s state visit to a black Florida school. The public, thanks to the Moore movie, ‘Farenheit 911”, very clearly saw Bush when he was informed by an aide of the anticipated attack. He showed no interest or emotion and went on reading a book, later identified as ‘My Pet Goat.’ Such indifference to a brutal and very public attack on Americans is surely an indicator that the President was hardly surprised because he had first-hand knowledge of the pending attack and did not respond because of his prior knowledge.
A president hearing the news without previous knowledge would most certainly have reacted with shock and certainly anger. Bush merely sat there, face blank, while he read to the young children from a book. Any attorney will tell you that in the presentation of a case, circumstantial evidence is far more powerful that specific evidence.
The results of the attacks did indeed give Bush his support but the failure of the attack on Congress was the one factor that prevented the far right from siezing, and keeping, total power in this country.

The Essenes and Jesus
by Patrick McCann, DD
The history and dogma of the Essenes
The Essenes, a Judean cult, were an agricultural community that had a communistic approach to their life style. There was a common purse and shared wealth and much, if not most, of the first expressed Christian dogma came directly from the Essenes. Unfortunately, like the Spartans and Zulus who were essentially a military community cult, the agricultural Essenes were male-oriented and homosexual in nature and performance. The Essenes were outlawed by the Romans, and many members were subsequently crucified in a general crackdown under Titus, not because of their sexual practices but because of their political opposition to Roman rule The small remnants of the Essenes retreated to the Dead Sea area and eventually died out.
The Essenes are discussed in detail by Josephus and Philo . Scholars believe that the community at Qumran that produced the Dead Sea Scrolls were Essenes, that Jesus was an Essene, and Christianity as we know it today evolved from this sect of Judaism, with which it shared many ideas and symbols The Essenes are best known today as the inhabitants from Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were located by Bedouins first in 1947. It is now known that they were closely affiliated with the Hasidim, a sectarian group that included the disciples of Hillel and Menahem the Essene who left for Damascus in 20 BCE.
The Gospel of John makes references to the disciple whom Jesus loved (John 13:23, 19:26, 21:7, 20), In the text, this beloved disciple is present at the crucifixion of Jesus , with Jesus’ mother, Mary .
It has traditionally been assumed that the disciple whom Jesus loved is a self-reference by the author of the Gospel, traditionally regarded as John the Apostle .
Aelred of Rievaulx , in his work Spiritual Friendship, referred to the relationship of Jesus and John as a “marriage” and held it out as an example sanctioning friendships between clerics. It has been claimed that it was held by Francesco Calcagno, who was investigated on that account by the Venetian Inquisition in 1550 .
James I of England may have been relying on a pre-existing tradition when he defended his relationship with the young Duke of Buckingham : “I wish to speak in my own behalf and not to have it thought to be a defect, for Jesus Christ did the same, and therefore I cannot be blamed. Christ had his son John, and I have my George.”
In the Gospel of John, the disciple John frequently refers to himself in the third person as ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved’.” One might argue that Jesus loved all of his followers in a non-sexual way. Thus to identify Jesus’ love for John in a special way might indicate a sexual relationship. The disciple was “the” beloved. He was in a class by himself. During the Last Supper before Jesus’ execution, the author(s) of the Gospel of John describes how the “beloved” disciple laid himself on Jesus’ inner tunic — his undergarment. See John 13:25 and 21:20. Robert Goss, assistant professor of comparative religion at Webster University in St. Louis, LA, noted that Jesus and the beloved disciple: “… eat together, side by side. What’s being portrayed here is a pederastic relationship between an older man and a younger man. A Greek reader would understand.” On the other hand: Some commentators have suggested that it was a common practice in Judea at that time for heterosexual man to lay his head on another’s undergarment. Such behavior was common between two heterosexuals in an emotionally close but non-erotic relationship during the first century CE.
Morton Smith, of Columbia University reported in 1958 that he had found a fragment of a manuscript which at the Mar Saba monastery near Jerusalem. It contained the full text of Mark, chapter 10. Apparently the version that is in the Christian Scriptures is an edited version of the original. Additional verses allegedly formed part of the full version of Mark, and were inserted after verse 34. It discusses how a young man, naked but for a linen covering, expressed his love for Jesus and stayed with him at his place all night.
Mark 7:14-16 shows that Jesus approves of homosexual acts. The critical phrase reads: “There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him…” Jesus gave great emphasis to this teaching, directing it to everyone.
Mark 14:51-52 describes the incident when Jesus was arrested by the religious police. It describes how one of Jesus’ followers was scantily dressed. The King James Version says he had a linen cloth cast on his naked body; the size and location of the cloth is not defined. The New International Version says that he was “wearing nothing but a linen garment.” When the police tried to seize him, they were able to grab only his cloth; the man ran away naked. Reverend Peter Murphy wrote: “We don’t know from the sources what really was going on, but we do know that something was very peculiar between Jesus and young men.” 11 (Emphasis in the original.)
Michael Kelly wrote of Jesus’ attitude towards a same-sex couple as described in Matthew 8:5-13: and Luke 7:2: “One day a Roman Centurion asked him to heal his dying servant. Scholars of both Scripture and Ancient History tell us that Roman Centurions, who were not permitted to marry while in service, regularly chose a favorite male slave to be their personal assistant and sexual servant. Such liaisons were common in the Greco-Roman world and it was not unusual for them to deepen into loving partnerships….Jesus offered to go to the servant, but the centurion asked him simply to speak a word of healing, since he was not worthy to welcome this itinerant Jewish teacher under his roof. Jesus responded by healing the servant and proclaiming that even in Israel he had never found faith like this! So, in the one Gospel story where Jesus encountered people sharing what we would call a ‘gay relationship,’ we see him simply concerned about — and deeply moved by — their faith and love.” Kelly implies that Jesus’ sensitivity towards the gay couple might have arisen from his own bisexual or homosexual orientation.
Some commentators argue from silence. They note that there is no passage in the Christian Scriptures (New Testament) that directly describes anything about Jesus’ sexuality. There are many direct and indirect references to Jesus’ sensuality. He was accused of being a “drunkard and a glutton” and of partying with “prostitutes and sinners.” He apparently enjoyed a tender foot massage from a woman. Yet, neither Jesus’ sexuality nor his celibacy is mentioned. Yet, sex is referred to, elsewhere in the Bible, quite often. One might argue that the books in the Christian Scriptures might have once described Jesus’ sexual relationships, but that these passages have been vigorously censored by the later church because they were unconventional.
Other commentators have noted that Jesus is silent towards homosexuality in the Gospels. Yet, Paul’s opinions and those of many other authors in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) are clearly stated. They conclude that Jesus could reasonably have been gay.
In the Renaissance period (14th—16th centuries), a man was accused and tried in Venice (c.1550) for heresies, one of which was his claim that John was Christ’s catamite (cinedo di Cristo), an idea that apparently had a certain following in Italy at the time. In England, Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) authored the famous homoerotic play Edward II (1591). Then after his death, Richard Baines in a libel case claimed that Marlowe had professed that “St. John the Evangelist was bedfellow to Christ and leaned alwaies in his bosome, that he used him as the sinners of Sodome.” Another playwright Thomas Kyd said that “He [Marlowe] would report St. John to be our Saviour Christ’s Alexis,” referring to the love which the Greek shepherd Corydon felt for the fair youth Alexis as described in Virgil’s Eclogues 2 and about which Marlowe had written in his poem “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love.”71 James I, king of England and Ireland (1603-1625), shrewdly neutralized charges brought against him in Parliament over his homosexual relationship with George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, by noting that “Christ had his John and I have my Steenie.” Later, the philosopher and jurist Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) devoted himself to trying to decriminalize homosexual relations in Britain, where hangings for this had increased. In an only-partially published manuscript titled Not Paul but Jesus, Bentham mentions the special fondness which Jesus had for John, and asked, “Could John have meant to imply that he and Jesus were lovers?” Then he added, “[G]ood taste and . . . prudence would require us to turn aside” from such a “topic of extreme delicacy,” although at the same time a regard for human happiness, truth and justice still “compel” this author “to go over it.” In the modern period, the Austrian psychoanalyst
Modern scholars who believe that Jesus and his Beloved Disciple shared a homosexual relationship.
Modern interpreters who hold that there was a homoerotic relationship here include: Hugh Montefiore (1969), Robert Williams (1992), Sjef van Tilborg (1993), John McNeill (1995), Rollan McCleary (2003), Robert E. Goss (2006), and James Neill (2009). The United Reformed Church of Christ of Great Britain in its document Toward a Christian Understanding of Sexuality (1984) wrote that Jesus “may have . . . been homosexually inclined.” Psychoanalyst Richard C. Friedman (1988) viewed Jesus and his ‘ beloved disciple’ as having a homosexual marriage. Rosemary Ruether (1978) and Nancy Wilson (1995) held that Jesus was bisexual. Going further in the other direction, Morton Smith (1973) suggested that as part of a secret baptismal ritual Jesus may have had physical union with more than one of his disciples.―although this view is based on a later ‘heretical’ text. Theodore Jennings (2003) believes definitely that Jesus and John “were lovers,” although he notes that the Bible tells us nothing more about how Jesus and his Beloved shared their love beyond the physical intimacy described at the Last Supper.

Federal Highway Surveillance
January 24, 2020
by Christian Jürs

A joint Pentagon/Department of Transportation operational program is conducting a permanent surveillance of all motor vehicles using the Federal Highway System. This is code named ARGUS.
It was initially a part of an overall public surveillance program instituted and organized by Admiral Poindexter, convicted of various criminal acts as the result of the Iran-Contra affair and then brought back to government service by the Bush Administration.
Following public disclosure of Poindexter’s manic attempts to pry into all aspects of American life and his subsequent public departure from government service (he is still so employed but as a “private consultant” and not subject to public scrutiny) many of his plans were officially scrapped. ARGUS, however, is still valid and now in place.
This Orwellian nonsense consists of having unmanned video cameras installed over all Federal highways and toll roads. These cameras work 24/7 to video all passing vehicles, trucks, private cars and busses.
The information is passed to a central data bank and entered therein. This data is supplied, on request, to any authorized law enforcement agency to include private investigative and credit agencies licensed to work with Federal law enforcement information, on any user of the road systems under surveillance.
Provision is made, according to the operating plans, to notify local law enforcement immediately if any driver attempts to obscure their license plate number and instructs them to at once to “apprehend and identify” the vehicle or vehicles involved.
It is at present, a Federal crime to attempt to damage or in any way interfere with the surveillance program or any portion thereof.
It has been reported that a firm located in Palo Alto, California, is making fake American license plates to thwart the surveillance system.
These are copies of legitimate plats printed on stiff plastic and with magnets on the reverse so that the fake plate can be swiftly fixed to the car’s original plate.
Surveillance will supply information that a Dr.William Snodgrass from Bad Seepage, Ohio was driving around in Las Vegas when, in fact, he never left his house in Ohio.
It is advertised that the plates cost $50.00 a set and it is reported that sales are very brisk.
It should also be noted that driving on Federal highways with fake license plates is quite illegal.

Point-Counterpoint
January 24, 2020
by Wallace Fineberg

The Israeli government announced on January 9, 2020, that it would be setting up a network of bloggers to combat websites deemed “problematic” by the Zionist state following a massive online backlash to Israel’s brutal bombing of Gaza.
Israel’s goal was to flood Internet message boards in English, French, Spanish and German with their own PR agents who would attempt to manufacture a contrived consensus that the IDF’s actions were justified.
Like Israel, the U.S. military industrial complex hires armies of trolls to spew propaganda in defense of the war on terror and in support of bombing whatever broken-backed third world country is being targeted next.
CENTCOM has programs underway to infiltrate blogs and message boards to ensure people, “have the opportunity to read positive stories,”presumably about how Iraq is a wonderful liberated democracy and the war on terror really is about protecting Americans from Al-CIAda.
In Sepember, 2019, it was revealed that the Pentagon was expanding “Information Operations” on the Internet with purposefully set up foreign news websites, designed to look like independent media sources but in reality carrying direct military propaganda.
More recently the New York Times published an exposé on how privately hired operatives were appearing on major US news networks promoting the interests and operations of the Pentagon and generating favorable news coverage of the so-called war on terror while posing as independent military analysts.
This operation was formally announced in 2019 when the Pentagon set up a unit to “better promote its message across 24-hour rolling news outlets, and particularly on the internet”.
Again, the Pentagon said the move would boost its ability to counter “inaccurate” news stories and exploit new media.
Last year, the US Air Force announced a “counter-blog” response plan aimed at fielding and reacting to material from bloggers who have “negative opinions about the US government and the Air Force.”
The plan, created by the public affairs arm of the Air Force, includes a detailed twelve-point “counter blogging” flow-chart that dictates how officers should tackle what are described as “trolls,” “ragers,” and “misguided” online writers

The Merry Sunshine Murders
January 20, 2020
Michael Hunt
It now appears that certain highly illegal practices are being committed at the U.S. Army base at Ft. Huachuca in Arizona.
It seems that a large number of illegals use routes through the rough countryside ,south and west of the base, to illegally enter the United States. Among these groups, it is alleged, a number of non-Latinos can be found and many of them, but not all certainly, are persons hostile to American interests.
What happens is this: The Border Patrol interdicts groups en route to Highway 10. If they can identify any foreigners, i.e., not Central or South Americans, they notify the Army people at Huachuca. These non-Latinos are then separated by the Army and removed to a “secure location” on the base where they are “severely interrogated” by contract workers. There is always a member of the U.S. Army CIC present at these sessions.
When the interrogators have finished their work, the tortured individuals are taken out into the desert, stripped of their shoes and socks and dumped out. These dumping places are selected because of their remoteness and the impossibility for the victim to find any kind of civilization, food or water.
Obviously, they die of exposure. Neither a quick nor a pleasant death but a sure one. And no bullet holes or broken bones to accuse.
This method of removal was chosen over the standard shot in the neck because if the dessicated bodies are ever found, it is immediately assumed that they were illegals who had gone astray.

The Season of Evil
by Gregory Douglas

Preface
This is in essence a work of fiction, but the usual disclaimers notwithstanding, many of the horrific incidents related herein are based entirely on factual occurrences.
None of the characters or the events in this telling are invented and at the same time, none are real. And certainly, none of the participants could be considered by any stretch of the imagination to be either noble, self-sacrificing, honest, pure of motive or in any way socially acceptable to anything other than a hungry crocodile, a professional politician or a tax collector.
In fact, the main characters are complex, very often unpleasant, destructive and occasionally, very entertaining.
To those who would say that the majority of humanity has nothing in common with the characters depicted herein, the response is that mirrors only depict the ugly, evil and deformed things that peer into them
There are no heroes here, only different shapes and degrees of villains and if there is a moral to this tale it might well be found in a sentence by Jonathan Swift, a brilliant and misanthropic Irish cleric who wrote in his ‘Gulliver’s Travels,”
“I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most odious race of little pernicious vermin that Nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth.”
Swift was often unkind in his observations but certainly not inaccurate.

Frienze, Italy
July 2018-August 2019

Chapter 66

Before he left Duluth, he did Alex another favor. He stopped by the hospital, bluffed his way past the nurses and a very bored guard and took several entertaining color pictures of Ernie in his private room. Ernie’s head was swathed in bandages, his leg in a cast and a number of tubes of various kinds stuck into portions of his body.
After that, he drove to a quiet and dark part of the hospital parking lot and removed the fake license plates from his car and stopped at an expensive steak house for dinner.
The house had burnt nearly to the ground and only the concrete front steps and the chimney were left for the neighbors to talk about in the morning. The Duluth paper had a human interest story about the sorrows of Ernest Koslowski who was not only in Intensive Care at the hospital after being terribly beaten by drug dealers but now, his house had burnt up. As this was still the holiday season, much was made of the pathos of the situation and there was a shot of the still-smoking rubble with the smoke-blackened chimney in the human interest section, back on page fourteen, just next to a story about a mother duck and three little ones that had been run over by a semi the day before, an act of carnage witnessed by the entire third grade of a local school who had come out to watch the devoted mother escort her children to a pond in the park next to the school.
Ernie’s name was misspelled but it wouldn’t have bothered him, proud though he was of his Polish heritage, because he had died at five thirty that morning of a blood clot on the brain, the result of his beating.
The unidentified drug dealers were now being sought on a murder first warrant and an elderly man with waning time on his shaking hands had come forward and given descriptions of the four killers to the local police artist.
When these sketches were published in the press, it resulted in one African American being shot twenty seven times in the head by two of Ernie’s fellow officers and another unfortunate, who wore a knit cap like the one the creative informer had described, was clubbed unconscious by other vigilant police officers who discovered him working in a used car lot, washing cars.
No one in the Viking palace had any idea of their part in the killing of Ernest Koslowski and after his communion in the sauna, Chuck had gone to bed.
Claude went to his room but before he went to bed, he knocked on his neighbor’s door. There was no answer but he could see light under the door so he opened it.
Alex was hunched over his keyboard, earphones clamped to his head and humming to himself as he practiced.
When Claude touched him on the shoulder, he turned around and pulled off the phones.
“Hey, Claude, you got back!”
He stood up and tossed the earphones on the table.
“I got back a few minutes ago, Alex. Picked up something down in Duluth I thought you might like to have….”
He went out into the hall and returned with the stereo and the box.
“Hey, that’s Ernie’s new CD player!” he said as he pulled the box flaps open. “Oh my! You got all my goodies, Claude!”
There was also a stuffed animal, very well worn and obviously something of value that Claude had discreetly wrapped up in a pillowcase he had removed from the very damp couch.
“This is something that must have been in there. I guess I can put it away somewhere and maybe give it back. Anyway, thanks for getting my stuff! Did you see my mom?”
Claude cleared his throat.
“Why…yes, yes, I met your mother. She certainly was worried about you, Alex, but I told her you were fine.”
Alex shrugged.
“You’re lying to me, Claude. My mom doesn’t care about me but she does care about the child support checks. What did she say?”
Claude would never have dared to repeat any of his conversation with the Texas-bound Bambi to her son.
“Just that she missed you. She decided to leave old Ernie and she is on her way to Texas to live with her sister.”
“Aunt Reba the sow. You know, my mom is pretty good looking but her sister weighs about a ton and had huge red zits all over her face. Why did mom want to go to Texas?”
“I told her your real father was a gangster and he found out about Ernie using you for a punching bag and was going to come after her with a knife.”
That much, at least, was true. Alex was delighted.
“I hate my mother, Claude, I really do. Sorry about that.”
“Kid, I hated my mother for the same exact same reasons you hate yours. The only difference is that my mother started playing with matches once and got all burnt up. At least your mom is still alive. Maybe I’ll run into her again some time and tell her what a really fine guy you are.”
There were a number of things Claude would do if he ever encountered Bambi again, and she had given him her sister’s address, but discussing her abandoned and unloved son was not one of them.
“Old Ernie is going to be pissed off when he gets home from the hospital.”
“Oh I can believe that. Just between us two men, Alex, I burned the house down after I got your goodies back. I thought you might like to hear that. And oh yes, I almost forgot to give you these splendid snapshots I happened to take of old Ern at rest in the hospital. Looks like he’s having a real vacation, doesn’t it?”
He gave Alex the Polaroid pictures.
This had proven to be a day of great joy for Alexis but this final piece of pleasure was almost too much for him to bear.
“Oh shit, man! These pictures are really cool! You burned his house down? Did you do that? Did you really do that? Are you sure my mom wasn’t inside?”
“She should have been but I spared her for your sake. You know, your mom is a fine looking woman, whatever else she may be. And you know what, Alex? You’re going to be a fine looking man in a few years. We got New Years celebrations coming up and I am going to go to bed. Uncle Claude is very tired and he wants to go to sleep. You got all your good pieces so you can go back to your accordion thing and I’m going to sack out. God bless, kid, and I’ll see you in the morning.”
After Claude had closed the door behind him, Alex spent the next ten minutes hooking up Ernie’s CD player, an object he had been strictly forbidden to ever use under penalty of severe punishment.
He took pleasure in its presence and immediately put on some of his favorites, delighting in the knowledge that he could listen as long and as often as he wished.
The stuffed dog, named Sporty, was set on the pillow beside him, another forbidden icon. For long periods of his ice-bound life, this shabby relic was Alex’s’ sole companion and confidant and when he had completed his musical adventures, there would be muted monologues about the activities of the past few days.
Alexis fell asleep about two in the morning, the stereo earphones still on his head, the stuffed dog under his arm and two pictures of a plaster-encased Ernie propped up on his bedside table, just beneath a lamp that stayed on all that night.
There was, Alex thought at one point in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, some evidence that perhaps God existed after all and was not entirely deaf.
On Claude’s bedside table was a newspaper from Chicago, two days old. It was carefully folded to an article discussing the effects of a recent and unexpected thaw on the ice that encrusted the shores of Lake Michigan. The photograph accompanying the article showed a picture of the Oak Street beach and one of the yacht marinas.
Claude had planned to show it to Chuck when he got back but his sexual romps had been so tiring that he decided to wait until morning. The news would keep another day and so would Collins.

(Continued)

This is also an e-book, available from Amazon:

Encyclopedia of American Loons
Kristine Severyn

Medical Voices is an antivaccine website that seems to pretend to offer scholarly articles written by various quacks, pseudoscientists and denialists on various medical issues loosely related to vaccines (or: it used to be; at present it seems to have reverted to its origin as the International Medical Council on Vaccination). The publication criteria seem mostly to be that the author uses (or misuses) medical terms in their articles, and their academic standards are otherwise non-existent. The goal, however, seems clearly to be to have a repository of articles that quacks can cite in a manner that superficially looks scholarly practice, which they certainly need given that they otherwise struggle to have their rants published in outlets that care about details like evidence, fact and accuracy. The list of people who have published on the site accordingly makes for a fairly comprehensive list of the most egregious woo-promoters and antivaccine advocates in the US, including Joe Mercola, Suzanne Humphries, Bob Sears, Russell Blaylock and Sherri Tenpenny.
Kristine Severyn has also “published” with Medical Voices. Severyn is an “RPh, PhD” and antivaccine activist. For Medical Voices, Severyn published the article “Profits, Not Science, Motivate Vaccine Mandates,” where she argued that “[v]accines represent an economic boon for pediatricians. Profitable well-baby visits are timed to coincide with vaccination schedules established by the AAP and the CDC,” and therefore that vaccine mandates are not motivated by science – the shill gambit is a recurring strategy in Medical Voices articles. Of course, in real life (yes: there are studies on this), “the vaccination portion of the business model for primary care pediatric practices that serve private-pay patients results in little or no profit from vaccine delivery. When losses from vaccinating publicly insured children are included, most practices lose money.” It is worth emphasizing, however, that Severyn’s conclusion wouldn’t follow even if one assumed the opposite of what is actually the case with regard to profits.
Severyn is otherwise the founder of Ohio Parents for Vaccine Safety, which has long been fighting for religious as well as “moral and philosophical” exemptions to vaccinations in Ohio as well as pushing various myths and conspiracy theories about vaccines (including aborted fetal tissue scaremongering and falsely claiming that vaccines aren’t tested). Severyn, a registered Republican, has apparently also been involved in various anti-abortion campaigns.
Diagnosis: A tireless veteran campaigner for unreason, denialism and conspiracy theories, Severyn is perhaps not among the most notable celebrities in the antivaccine movement, but her persistent efforts to promote myths and falsehoods are surely not making a positive contribution to humanity.

Stephanie Seneff

Stephanie Seneff is a real senior research scientist at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT, specializing in human–computer interaction and algorithms for language understanding and speech recognition. She is also a crackpot, pseudoscientist and conspiracy theorist trying to write about issues in biology and medicine, fields she demonstrably doesn’t understand. She has also managed to become something of an authority in the antivaccine and anti-GMO movements since people in these movements don’t notice or care that she has no competence in those fields as long as her credentials in completely unrelated fields give her crackpot rantings a sheen of authority. Not that Seneff herself would recognize the limits of her competence: “So basically what I do is I read papers and I process them with the computer to help me understand them and interpret them and generalize and build a story […]. Mostly what I do now is study, and then write. Trying to understand biology. I have an undergraduate degree from MIT in biology, and I also spent one year in graduate school in biology before switching over to computer science. And my PhD was on an auditory model for the human processing of speech. So that also involved biology, neurology. I’m not a complete ignoramus in the field of biology.” Actually, she is worse than an ignoramus; her description brilliantly illustrates a serious case of Dunning-Kruger and someone who is confidently scaling mount stupid.
So in 2011, Seneff began publishing articles on topics in biology and medicine, areas where she has no relevant qualifications or expertise, in low-impact or predatory open access journals, such as Interdisciplinary Toxicology, including eight papers in the journal Entropy between 2011 and 2015. It is rather important to emphasize, as Seneff herself admits in the above quote about how she does “research”, that Seneff “has published only speculations and gives many presentations, but has not created any new data” – there is no actual research going on; just manipulations of data from fields she doesn’t have any competence in; basically, her studies are review articles that just cherry-pick the results she wants to use and disregard the rest (some glaring examples are discussed here). Of course, her reviews have also been criticized for misrepresenting the results and conclusions of other researchers’ work, and for extensively relying on pseudoscientific studies and studies that have later been refuted – just to reach home base when even cherry-picking won’t suffice to get her where she wanted. And of course the “peer review process” isn’t going to notice given her choice of journals; the journals in question are pay-to-publish journals of the kind most serious researchers would classify as “predatory”, and the publisher of Entropy, MDPI, has a known history of publishing articles without merit.
Glyphosate and anti-GMO insanity
Seneff and her regular coauthor Anthony Samsel – a “long time contributor to the Mercola.com Vital Votes Forum” (yes, that description was apparently intended to convey an air of authority) – have coauthored a series of, well, comments that associate glyphosate with a wide variety of diseases, including “gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, autism, infertility, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease”. The comments have received quite a bit of media attention given her and her coauthors’ marketing of the results (one Carey Gilliam seems in particular to be a repeat offender when it comes to pushing Seneff’s conspiracy theories masked as “research” for various newspapers). The paper(s), of course, have no scientific merit – indeed, they have been characterized as “not even wrong” for instance due to “word salads about toxicology and biology that might as well be magic” – which is of course also why they were published in pseudojournals. Seneff and Samsel’s “results” are discussed in some detail here; a good primer on glyphosate is here. Seneff herself claimed that glyphosate is a major cause of autism and largely responsible for the current autism epidemic: “At today’s rates, by 2025, half the kids born will be diagnosed with autism,” Seneff said (the claim was picked up by Snopes after making its ways in the usual conspiracy-and-pseudoscience circles); indeed, she has gained some infamy for using a graph in her Powerpoint presentations that shows that 100% of all children born in 2050 will be born with autism. In other words, according to Seneff GMOs are going to make everyoneautistic. Yes, that’s the level of density we are talking about (for the record: there is no autism epidemic; increasing rates are probably exclusively due to changes in diagnostic practices). Real studies have also found no evidence that glyphosate is associated with adverse development outcomes, nor any of the other adverse outcomes Seneff asserts it is the cause of; indeed, glyphosate is probably among the least toxic herbicides there is. A 2017 Review Article in Frontiers in Public Health characterized Seneff’s glyphosate health-risk research claims as “at best unsubstantiated theories, speculations or simply incorrect.”
It is worth pointing out that infamous anti-GMO activist Michael Hansen of Consumers Union, who is himself no stranger to spouting insane conspiracy theories about science, thinks Anthony Samsel is so crazy that he should be avoided lest his side lose their credibility among the public (his side has precariously little credibility among scientists as it is).
Much of Seneff and Samsel’s work in these papers are simple applications of post-hoc fallacies, for instance when they suggest that “[t]he incidence of inflammatory bowel diseases such as juvenile onset Crohn’s disease has increased substantially in the last decade in Western Europe and the United States. It is reasonable to suspect that glyphosate’s impact on gut bacteria may be contributing to these diseases and conditions.” It really isn’t reasonable, any more than blaming increased consumption of organic products. (And the connection to gut conditions matters, because they also adhere to the at best extremely controversial idea that gastrointestinal issues are a causal factor in autism – another correlation/causation failure, really). They make similarly ridiculous correlation/causation mistakes when trying to tie glyphosate to obesity; in fact, had they been careful, they would have seen that they don’t even actually have a correlation to mistake for causation in this case (further discussion here). They are not careful. Seneff also notes a correlation between deaths from senile dementia due to an aging population and … well, she doesn’t notice that association.
The proposed association between glyphosate and autism is further discussed here. According to Seneff, there is of course a correlation between the use of glyphosate and, well, really the expansion of diagnostic criteria and practices for autism (not the number of incidences); therefore, there must be a causal connection. “Is there a toxic substance that is currently in our environment on the rise in step with increasing rates of Autism that could explain this?… The answer is yes, I’m quite sure that I’m right, and the answer is glyphosate.” The evidence-free convictions of an electrical engineer with a history of pseudoscience really isn’t going to cut it in any context where truth, accuracy and evidence matter. And she really, really doesn’t get the correlation/causation thing; nor is she very careful about identifying actual correlation from which one could actually fallaciously derive causal claims.
And as mentioned above, it isn’t just autism, obesity, Crohn’s disease and Alzheimers. According to Seneff glyphosate exposure causes arthritis, concussions, Celiac disease, food allergies, and Parkinsons as well. Indeed, in an interview with anti-GMO activist, yogic flying instructor and conspiracy theorist Jeffrey Smith, Seneff upped her game even further: “I believe that glyphosate may be a contributor to all the – this epidemic that we have in school shootings and the thing that just happened in Boston (the Boston Bombing).”
Wait, was concussions on that list? Oh, yes. According to Seneff, glyphosate causes concussions (her coauthor on that rant was Wendy Morely, who is a “Registered Holistic Nutritionist” specializing in the nutrition of concussion; Morely has no neurology background either, of course). And yes, it’s just as insanely dumb as you would imagine. Their tortured reasoning process is discussed here, and the basic idea is a proposed “diminished brain resilience syndrome”: according to Seneff and Morely, concussions are on the increase because the general population has poor nutrition, disordered gut microbiota, and increased exposure to toxins like glyphosate and GMOs, which render the brain less resilient to injury and less able to repair itself after injury. There is a long road of fallacies and confusions to travel to make that connection look like it works even to those who know nothing about any of the relevant fields (notice how although Seneff and Morely add references behind some of the central figures in their arguments, the sources cited don’t actually contain those figures, and the suggested figures do, entirely unsurprisingly, contradict the figures actually found in the scientific literature.) Of course, the proposal collapses on the starting block, since there is no evidence at all for the claim that concussions are on the rise. In short: Seneff and Morely propose, without evidence, a nonsensical hypothesis to explain – something it couldn’t have done even if it were coherent – a phenomenon that don’t actually exist. The whole attempt is roughly as intelligent or credible as one that tried to use chi vibrations to explain how unicorns fly.
Anti-vaccine
Though Seneff has her own, wrong idea about the causes of autism, she has nevertheless thrown her lot in with the antivaccine movement. Indeed, according to Seneff, Alzheimer’s, which she has claimed is also caused by glyphosate – and sunscreen – is also caused by vaccines: “The elderly are greatly encouraged to renew their flu shots every single year, and I think this is another major factor that is steadily increasing their risk to Alzheimer’s disease. This is mainly due to the aluminum contained in the flu shot.” She doesn’t have any evidence of course; she just thinksthere is a connection. Some might even consider her claim to think vaccines are a factor in Alzheimer’s is false, due to a legitimate hesitancy to characterize what she is doing as thinking.
In 2012 Seneff was a coauthor with Jingjing Liu (from Seneff’s lab) and one Robert M. Davidson on “Empirical Data Confirm Autism Symptoms Related to Aluminum and Acetaminophen Exposure”, published in their standard pay-to-publish journal Entropy (in fact, they also blame autism on mercury in the article, but probably didn’t dare put it in the title in case even the editors of Entropy, whom we suspect do not read beyond the title, would have noticed). There is a good review of the article here (“Rarely have I seen so much antivaccine pseudoscience packed into a single paper”). You get a feel for the contents of the paper from the way they frame their study: “The ASD community has maintained a long-standing conviction that vaccination plays a causative role in ASD, an idea that has been vehemently denied by the vaccine industry, but nonetheless is still hotly debated,” which must count as one of the most egregious manufactroversy gambits in the history of the Internet (it really isn’t hotly debated, the ASD community is not in general antivaccine, and refutations of the proposed link have not come from the vaccine industry). And yes, they cite celebrity fraud Andrew Wakefield’s fraudulent and retracted 1998 paper as evidence. They also cite Gayle DeLong, Mark Geier, Boyd Haley, Helen Ratajczak and really a whole cornucopia of antivaccine conspiracy theories published in bottom-feeding or predatory journals, while systematically of course neglecting the overwhelming amount of large, real, serious and extensive studies that consistently yield results that don’t fit their narrative. It is actually not entirely clear what their thesis is; the antivaccine movement has blamed everything from thimerosal to aluminum adjuvants, and Seneff et al. seem to cite it all equally approvingly despite the fact that the claims contradict each other. Of course, the MMR vaccine has never contained either aluminum or thimerosal, but Seneff et al. don’t seem to have gotten the memo and blithely go from blaming “heavy metals” like mercury and aluminum for the “autism epidemic” to blaming the MMR vaccine. They also blame vaccines for SIDS, despite vaccines being negatively correlated with SIDS. Then they dumpster-dive in the VAERS database. (And no, they apparently don’t really have the faintest idea what the VAERS database actually is, but nevertheless went on to “torture the data until it confessed”) And that’s just the start. At least their paper provides an illuminating illustration of how anti-vaccine “researchers” work.
Despite Because of her lack of expertise or knowledge in the fields she is writing about Seneff has become a central character in the antivaccine movement, and she participated in the antivaccine film Vaxxed, for instance, as well as in the antivaccine series The Truth about Vaccines.
Cholesterol denialism and more
Seneff has also put her degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science to work in dreaming up theories that ADHD is caused by eating too many low fat foods, that autism is caused by a cholesterol/vitamin D deficiency syndrome because mothers eat too many low fat foods and use too much sunscreen (her 2008 essay “Sunscreen and Low-fat Diet: A Recipe for Disaster”), that sulfur deficiency causes obesity (sulfur deficiency is of course not actually a thing, but Seneff knows nothing about chemistry, biology or medicine), and that a low fat diet and statin drugs (for high cholesterol) can cause Alzheimer’s.
Yes, Seneff (and colleagues) have also aligned themselves with the conspiracy theorists in the cholesterol denialist group THINC (yes, cholesterol denialism is of course a thing) and garbage-published on the health impacts of fat and cholesterol consumption in America. According to Seneff Americans are suffering from a cholesterol deficiency; this is, to put it diplomatically, incorrect. In 2014–2016 Seneff was accordingly proposed as an expert witness for litigators seeking damages from Pfizer associated with their cholesterol drug Lipitor, but the court dismissed the suggestion, of course, since Seneff has no expertise in the field and failed to provide credible evidence linking Lipitor to any specific harm.
Oh, and she has also blamed low fat diets and statins on autism. So, just to tally up: thus far Seneff has blamed autism on low fat diets and statins, GMOs and glyphosate, sulfate deficiency, vaccines, aluminium and painkillers. That’s what happens when you don’t understand the difference between correlation and causation and is also really bad at actually identifying correlations, we suppose. Her regular coauthor Anthony Samsel, meanwhile, has even proposed that water dynamics are responsible for autism.
As a result of her stalwart efforts on behalf of dangerous nonsense, Stephanie Seneff is currently on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Children’s Medical Safety Research Institute (CMSRI). She has no relevant qualifications to assess the medical safety of anything whatsoever, of course, but that probably makes her a fine match for the CMSRI, which is a conspiracy-mongering pseudoscience organization.
Diagnosis: It is worth emphasizing again: Stephanie Seneff has no expertise, background or competence in anything related to medicine, biology or how to use population studies. And she has done no research whatsoever on the topics she writes about. Her output isn’t studies, but conspiracy rants superficially structured like research papers and published in pay-to-publish journals. Seneff is a pseudoscientist and a tragic case of Dunning-Kruger. But she has also found a receptive audience, and even mainstream media isn’t always able to distinguish her writings from science. Dangerous.

US Breaking of Japanese Codes clearly warned of impending attack in 1941
Herbert O. Yardley was the director of Military Intelligence’s cryptanalytic service MI_8 during World War I. When the war ended, Yardley and his staff transferred their code-breaking operation to New York where they continued to operate under commercial cover. This activity became known as “The American Black Chamber” and was funded by the Departments of State and Navy. The Black Chamber’s most notable success was breaking the Japanese diplomatic code; the information obtained was used by the US Government during the Washington Naval Arms Limitation Conference in 1921.
In 1929, the new Secretary of State Henry Stimson terminated State’s funding for the Black Chamber, which essentially ended the operation. However, the US Army took the Black Chamber files and created its own code-breaking entity, the Signals Intelligence Service under William Friedman. The US Navy also established a Code and Signal Section within the Office of Naval Intelligence in 1924. Both services devoted their efforts to breaking codes in Japanese diplomatic traffic.
The publication of Yardley’s book, The American Black Chamber, caused the Japanese to change their code and cipher system. They developed their own “enigma-type” machine called “Red,” which was used by their Foreign Ministry. In 1937 they began to use a more sophisticated machine, called “Purple” by the Americans. The Japanese entrusted their most sensitive diplomatic traffic to “Purple.”
William Friedman and his staff were given the task of breaking the Japanese “Purple” code system. It was not until 1940 that they solved the puzzle. The strain of the endeavor, however, led to a nervous breakdown and Friedman’s retirement as a Lt. Col. in the Signal Corps reserve.
With the solution of the Japanese Foreign Office’s highest grade cryptographic system, the interception, decryption, and translation on a current basis of secret Japanese worldwide diplomatic messages began. These messages also contained Japanese intelligence activities and collection targets. The information the United States derived from this source, designated “Magic,” was highly classified and closely guarded. It went only to a few of the highest-level US officials.
The items selected for this chapter pertain to Japanese intelligence activities during 1941.
Japan Discovers the United States is Reading Its Codes
A series of dashes in the translations indicate that a portion of the original encrypted text was not intercepted, was garbled, or could not be decrypted.
On 5 May 1941, Japanese Ambassador Nomura was informed by his superiors in Tokyo that it appeared the US Government was reading his coded messages. This information was obtained from the Germans by Japanese Ambassador to Germany, Oshima, who then informed Tokyo. Although Ambassador Nomura requested additional details, the Germans refused to divulge the source of its information.
Ambassador Nomura conducted an investigation and, on 20 May 1941, informed Tokyo that he confirmed that the United States was reading some of the Japanese codes. He did not reveal his source in the message but indicated he would send the details by courier.
From: Tokyo (Japanese Foreign Minister)
5 May 1941
To: Washington (Koshi) #192
According to a fairly reliable source of information it appears almost certain that the United States government is reading your code messages. Please let me know whether you have any suspicion of the above.
From: Berlin (Oshima)
3 May 1941
To: Tokyo (Matsuoka) #482
STAAMAA called me this day (evening?) and stating that this request was to be kept strictly secret, he said that Germany maintains a fairly reliable intelligence organization abroad (or_ _”in the U.S.”?), and accordingly to information obtained from the above-mentioned organization it is quite (or_ _”fairly”?) reliably established that the U.S. government is reading Ambassador Nomura’s code messages, and then asked that drastic steps should be taken regarding this matter.
There are at least two circumstances substantiating the above (suspicion). One circumstance is that Germany is reading our code messages _ _ _. Regarding this, during my previous residence here, they were known to have a large scale cryptanalytic organization _ _ (unfinished _ _ last two-thirds not available)
From: Tokyo (Matsuoka)
5 May 1941
To: Berlin (Oshima) #370
Please express our appreciation to STAAMAA for the information in question and ask him if it is not possible to give us the authority for the statement that it has been fairly reliably established that the U.S. government is reading our code messages, so that we might take appropriate action. Reply requested.
From: Washington (Nomura)
5 May 1941
To: Tokyo (Gaimudaijin) #267
Most Guarded Secrecy.
Foreign Office Secret.
Re your #192.
For our part, the most stringent precautions are taken by all custodians of codes and ciphers, as well as of other documents. On this particular matter I have nothing in mind, but pending investigation please wire back any concrete instances or details which may turn up.
From: Tokyo (Matsuoka)
7 May 1941
To: Washington (Nomura) #198
Regarding your #267.
This matter was told very confidentially to Ambassador Oshima by the Germans as having been reported to them by a fairly (“rather” or “pretty”) reliable intelligence medium; but to our inquiry they are said to have refused to divulge the basis on which they deemed it to be practically certain.
From: Washington (Nomura)
20 May 1941
To: Tokyo #327
INTELLIGENCE:
Though I do not know which ones, I have discovered that the United States is reading some of our codes. As for how I got the intelligence, I will inform you by courier or another safe way.
Expansion of Japanese Espionage
in North and South America
American authorities knew that a widespread Japanese espionage organization was operating in the United States for at least a year before the war. The Japanese decided at the end of 1940 that they had neglected political propaganda in the United States by concentrating their attention to cultural enlightenment. They decided to refocus their efforts to political interests with the hope that this new approach would be favorably received. Special attention was to be paid to American Communist Party operations and the economic and social activities of the Soviet Union, not only in the United States but also in Central and South America.
In addition, Japanese espionage agents were directed to ascertain the relations between the United States and Latin American countries. In the past, the Japanese ignored these countries but, with the changing political climate, they believed it was advantageous to change their policy.
The Japanese desired closer contacts with German and Italian agents, as well as with Japanese residents, who were to be cautioned not to create any suspicion in the minds of US authorities regarding their espionage activities. The day after Ambassador Nomura made his official entrance into the diplomatic scene at Washington, Tokyo issued new instructions concerning the gathering of intelligence in Canada and the United States. Details of this plan demonstrate that the Japanese were preparing for the worst.
From: New York (Iguchi)
17 December 1940
To: Tokyo (Gaimudaijin) #763
Re your msg. to Wash. #591.
As propaganda and enlightenment organs here, we have the Japan Institute, the Tourist Bureau, and the silk office of the Ministry of Commerce and Communication. Other groups whose importance we cannot ignore for collecting information are the financial adviser, the Army and Navy Inspection Offices, Representatives of Domei, ASAHI, NITINITI, AND YOMIURI, the Bank of Japan, the Specie Bank, Mitsui, Mitsubishi, N.Y.K., O.S.K., the Manchurian R.R. and the OKURA Co. In order to obtain the fullest cooperation from the above it is well to establish an information committee centering around the press attaché.
From: Tokyo (Matsuoka)
5 February 1941
To: Washington (Koshi) #056
Re my #591.
In connection with New York to Tokyo message #763, the business men (including Sumitomo’s representatives) and representatives of newspapers were invited to call here. One of my men discussed the following points with them:
(l) To have the various representatives of business firms engaged in collecting intelligence material.
(2) To have all such representatives abroad (in the United States) cable their opinions and manipulations in so far as they are related to politics, through diplomatic channels so as to maintain secrecy.
We were able to obtain their agreement to cooperate with us in this respect, so please proceed with this program. We have the perfect understanding and agreement of the Army and Navy in this connection. They promise to give us whatever aid they can.
From: New York (Iguchi)
11 December 1940
To: Tokyo (Gaimudaijin) #762
1. In view of the fact that our Embassy’s propaganda effort in the U.S. has been chiefly confined to cultural enlightenment in the past, which by the very nature of the thing evoked little or no objection, we have been considering a plan since last year to strengthen our political propaganda methods. However, due to the increased vigilance and control exercised over foreign propaganda in general and over the 5th column activities in particular, since the outbreak of the European war, we cannot hope for too great a success in this field of propaganda. Nevertheless, the effect of the recently-signed tri-partite agreement will impose a greater necessity for just such propaganda efforts if the present Japanese-American relations are to be maintained. It is imperative, therefore, that we reconsider our efforts with a view to seeking more effective propaganda methods. While I realize that your office has been giving much thought to this question, I wish to submit herewith my views on the matters.
While cultural propaganda and enlightenment, no doubt, contribute much toward the promotion of amicable relations between Japan and America, the cost is prohibitive. Therefore, I suggest that, wherever possible, this type of propaganda be discontinued.
Political propaganda will meet with a great deal of obstacles which will cast some doubts on its successful outcome. However, we should strive to deal with fundamental problems in order to thwart the counter-propaganda in this country, which is based on the assumption that all foreign propaganda seek to divide the American people.
The set-up of the press attaché should be concentrated on the task of assembling information and of widening the intelligence net and its personnel. Especial effort should be made to establish personal contacts with the members of the press and persons influential in American politics and business. The intelligence net should be so organized as to be able to function even if there should be a severance of diplomatic and commercial relations between Japan and the U.S.
2. In addition to the present work of investigating the activities of the American Communist party and the Chinese by our Embassy, we should constantly keep watch over American politics and the economic and social activities of Soviet Russia in the United States, particularly as they affect Central and South Americas. For this task it is necessary not only to hire Americans, but also to have competent researchers sent from Japan.
3. Although the Tourist Bureau and the Trade Promotion Bureau have been carrying our propaganda in the past, we should consider the inconsistency of having the Tourist Bureau giving out travel information when, today, no American tourists are permitted to travel to Japan.
From: Tokyo (Matsuoka)
20 January 1941
To: Washington (Koshi) #043
Foreign Office secret.
Heretofore, we have placed emphasis on publicity and propaganda work in the United States. In view of the critical situation in the recent relations between the two countries, and for the purpose of being prepared for the worst, we have decided to alter this policy. Taking into consideration the small amount of funds we have at our disposal, we have decided to de-emphasize propaganda for the time being, and instead, to strength our intelligence work.
Though we must give the matter of intelligence work our further study__in this connection we are at present conferring with the intelligence bureau__we have mapped out a fundamental program, the outline of which is contained in my supplementary cable No. 44.
Please, therefore, reorganize your intelligence set-up and put this new program into effect as soon as possible.
Cable copies of this message, as “Minister’s orders” to Canada, Mexico, (a copy to be relayed from Mexico to Mexicali), San Francisco, (copies from San Francisco to Honolulu, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver), New York, New Orleans, and Chicago.
From: Tokyo (Matsuoka)
30 January 1941
To: Washington (Koshi) #44
(Foreign Office secret).
(1) Establish an intelligence organ in the Embassy which will maintain liaison with private and semi-official intelligence organs (see my message to Washington #591 and #732 from New York to Tokyo, both of last year’s series). With regard to this, we are holding discussions with the various circles involved at the present time.
(2) The focal point of our investigations shall be the determination of the total strength of the U.S. Our investigations shall be divided into three general classifications: political, economic, and military, and definite course of action shall be mapped out.
(3) Make a survey of all persons or organizations which either openly or secretly oppose participation in the war.
(4) Make investigations of all anti-Semitism, communism, movement of Negroes, and labor movements.
(5) Utilization of U.S. citizens of foreign extraction (other than Japanese), aliens (other than Japanese), communist, Negroes, labor union members, and anti-Semites, in carrying out the investigations described in the preceding paragraph would undoubtedly bear the best results.
These men, moreover, should have access to governmental establishments, (laboratories?) governmental organizations of various characters, factories, and transportation facilities.
(6) Utilization of our “Second Generation” and our resident nationals. (In view of the fact that if there is any slip in this phase, our people in the U.S. will be subjected to considerable persecution, and the utmost caution must be exercised.)
(7) In the event of U.S. participation in the war, our intelligence set-up will be moved to Mexico, making that country the nerve center of our intelligence net. Therefore, will you bear this in mind and in anticipation of such an eventuality, set up facilities for a U.S._Mexico international intelligence net. This net which will cover Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Peru will also be centered in Mexico.
(8) We shall cooperate with the Germans and Italian intelligence organs in the U.S. This phase has been discussed with the Germans and the Italians in Tokyo, and it has been approved. Please get the details from Secretary Terasaki upon his assuming his duties there. Please send copies to those offices which were on the distribution list of No. 43.
From: Tokyo (Mausuoka)
5 February 1941
To: Mexico City (Koshi) #239
In view of the critical times we wish to revise our information policy of our offices in South and Central America, along the following lines:
(1) Investigate the general national strength of the United States.
(2) Investigate the United States policy towards South and Central America.
(3) Investigate the extent of south and Central America’s participation in the policy of the United States.
(4) Investigate the extent of competition between Germany, Italy and the United States in Central America.
1. Appoint persons to direct these investigations and report their names.
2. Consider plans to use South and Central America for obtaining information regarding the United States in the event that that country is drawn into war, and have an information gathering machinery ready for operation when that situation occurs.
3. Keep a close contact with the German and Italian organs (of information).
4. To organize Japanese residents, including newspaper men and business firms for the purpose of gathering information. Care should be taken not to give cause for suspicion of espionage activities.
5. To formulate a suitable plan for dispatching information obtained under any condition.
Relay to Chile, Peru, Panama, Argentina(?), Venezuela(?), and Brazil and retransmit by code to Santos and Ribeiro Preto.
From: Tokyo (Matsuoka)
15 February 1941
To: Washington (Koshi) #073
Re my #43.
The information we particularly desire with regard to intelligence involving U.S. and Canada, are the following:
1. Strengthening or supplementing of military preparations on the Pacific Coast and the Hawaii area; amount and type of stores and supplies; alterations to air ports (also carefully note the clipper traffic).
2. Ship and plane movements (particularly of the large bombers and sea planes).
3. Whether or not merchant vessels are being requisitioned by the government (also note any deviations from regular schedules), and whether any remodeling is being done to them.
4. Calling up of army and navy personnel, their training, (outlook on maneuvers) and movements.
5. Words and acts of minor army and navy personnel.
6. Outlook of drafting men from the view-point of race.
Particularly, whether Negroes are being drafted, and if so, under what conditions.
7. Personnel be graduated and enrolled in the army and navy and aviation service schools.
8. Whether or not any troops are being dispatched to the south Pacific by transports; if there are such instances, give description.
9. Outlook of the developments in the expansion of arms and the production set-up; the capacity of airplane production; increase in the ranks of labor.
10. General outlooks on Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, with particular stress on items involving plane movements and shipment of military supplies to those localities.
11. Outlook on U.S. defense set-ups.
12. Contacts (including plane connections) with Central and South America and the South Pacific area. Also outlook on shipment of military supplies to those areas.
Please forward copies of this message as a “Minister’s Instruction” to New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, (Chicago or New Orleans?), Vancouver, Ottawa, and Honolulu. Also to Mexico City and Panama as reference material.
Japanese Concern About Allied Counterespionage
Not only were the Japanese expanding the activities of their espionage agents in North and South America, but they were also extremely concerned over the success of Allied military counterespionage. Simultaneously with the increase of Japanese military and naval observers in the United States, American military observers in the Pacific were undergoing closer supervision. Furthermore, severe measures were taken to restrict foreign visitors from entering Japan. No visitor, except those traveling under diplomatic passports, could reach Japan without first informing the Japanese authorities of his complete personal history and political leanings.
From: Tokyo (Matsuoka)
15 February 1941
To: Rome (Koshi) #300
Under present world conditions, we must redouble our counter espionage activities. To conform with this policy we have decided to further restrict foreign visitors to our shores.
Hereafter, therefore, will you make a thorough investigation of all applicants for visas? Those persons who come under the classifications noted below (including persons who have no nationality) should not be given visas until their names, occupations, object of visit, and other reference material is reported by official communications or by request cables. A detailed description of the personal history and political leanings should accompany the applications of those who come under the category of (2) below. (There will be no change in the procedure which has been in effect in the past, where citizens of the U.S.S.R. and refugees are concerned.)
(1) Officials, military men, and others who are traveling on official business. Possessors of diplomatic passports are excepted.
(2) Newspaper correspondents, magazine writers, and persons connected with propaganda organs.
(3) All others about whose purpose of visit, political leanings, and/or connections you have some doubts.
Japanese Interest in American Labor Unions
Ambassador Nomura received a request from Tokyo on 1 April 1941 to investigate the labor union situation in the United States as a possible obstacle to American unity in the event of war. Inquiry was to be made concerning the attitude of the CIO, the AF of L, the Communist Party, the Socialistic parties, and last but not least, into German and Italian fifth column activities. All this was in conformity with the recent expansion of the Japanese intelligence gathering organization in North and South America.
From: Tokyo
1 April 1941
To: Washington #154
Secret.
It has been reported that recently strikes have broken out in (Chicago?) After you have made a very thorough investigation, please wire me your findings along the following lines:
1. The political motivating forces behind these strikes and their expected development.
2. The extent to which these strikes interfere with national defense organization.
3. The relation between C.I.O’s anti-ROOSEVELT policies since the elections last year and the current strikes.
4. To what extent is the LEWIS-MURRAY faction using their criticism of the (Cabinet?) and President ROOSEVELT’s foreign policy?
5. Recent A.F. of L. attitude.
6. The attitude of the Communist Party to these strikes.
7. In the event of a breakdown of strike mediation, what are the anticipated government measures and what is the C.I.O.’s attitude toward this? In the event of war we think that the Labor Unions will become a major political factor in hindering unity in the United States. In the future arrange to get in touch with the leaders of labor unions, the Communist Party, the Socialist Party, and other anti-ROOSEVELT movements. At the same time, I would like to have you study the possibility of using such a person as (IKU?) O OYAMA.
Furthermore, with regard to German and Italian Fifth Column activities, I gave you instructions in my #546 of mid-November last year, but at this time particularly I would like to have you give the subject your careful attention.
On the authorization of the Foreign Minister, please transmit this message to all of our officials in the United States with the exception of _ _ _ _. Please communicate the foregoing to Canada, _ _ _ _and Mexico for their information.
Reports of Japanese Intelligence Agents in America
On 17 April 1941, Ambassador Nomura requested a secret fund of $50,000, which prompted the Foreign Ministry to ask about the intelligence organization recently established in North America. Japanese agents were attempting to establish contacts in many fields of American industry and commerce. Great attention was paid to labor disputes and racial conflicts since the Japanese thought that all forces disrupting American unity would be productive sources of intelligence.
From: Vancouver (Kawasaki)
28 April 1941
To: Tokyo #45
Re #180 addressed by the Minister to the Ambassador in Washington.
This office is at present employing a spy (an Irishman with Communist Party affiliations) and is having him collect information of this nature. We intend to send this man in the near future to Prince Rupert and Yukon, inasmuch as progress of the United States-Canada joint defense plans and the question of air connection with Alaska deserve our attention.
From: Los Angeles (Nakauchi
9 May 1941
To: Tokyo (Gaimudaijin) #067
Strictly Secret.
Re your message #180 to Washington.
We are doing everything in our power to establish outside contacts in connection with our efforts to gather intelligence material. In this regard, we have decided to make use of white persons and Negroes, through Japanese persons whom we can’t trust completely. (It not only would be very difficult to hire U.S. (military?) experts for this work at the present time, but the expenses would be exceedingly high.) We shall, furthermore, maintain close connections with Japanese Association, the Chamber of Commerce, and the newspapers.
With regard to airplane manufacturing plants and other military establishments in other parts, we plan to establish very close relations with various organizations and in strict secrecy have them keep these military establishments under close surveillance. Through such means, we hope to be able to obtain accurate and detailed intelligence reports. We have already established contact with absolutely reliable Japanese in the San Pedro and San Diego area, who keep a close watch on all shipments of airplanes and other war materials, and report the amounts and destinations of such shipments. The same steps have been taken with regard to traffic across the U.S.-Mexico border.
We shall maintain connection with our second generations who are at present in the (U.S.) Army, to keep us informed of various developments in the Army. We also have connections with our second generations working in airplane plants for intelligence purposes.
With regard to the Navy, we are cooperating with our Naval Attaché’s office, and are submitting reports as accurately and as speedily as possible.
We are having Nakazawa investigate and summarize information gathered through first hand and newspaper reports, with regard to military movements, labor disputes, communistic activities and other similar matters. With regard to anti-Jewish movements, we are having investigations made by both prominent Americans and Japanese who are connected with the movie industry which is centered in this area. We have already established connections with very influential Negroes to keep us informed with regard to the Negro movement.
From: Seattle (Sato)
11 May 1941
To: Tokyo #45
Re your #180 to Washington.
1. Political Contacts.
We are collecting intelligence revolving around political questions, and also the question of American participation in the war which has to do with the whole country and this local area.
2. Economic Contacts.
We are using foreign company employees, as well as employees in our own companies here, for the collection of intelligence having to do with economics along the lines of the construction of ships, the number of airplanes produced and their various types, the production of copper, zinc and aluminum, the yield of tin for cans, and lumber. We are now exerting our best efforts toward the acquisition of such intelligence through competent Americans. From an American, whom we contacted recently, we have received a private report on machinists of German origin who are Communists and members of the labor organizations in the Bremerton Naval Yard and Boeing airplane factory. Second generation Japanese_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ .
3. Military Contacts
We are securing intelligence concerning the concentration of warships within the Bremerton Naval Yard, information with regard to mercantile shipping and airplane manufacturer, movements of military forces, as well as that which concerns troop maneuvers.
With this as a basis, men are sent out into the field who will contact Lt. Comdr. OKADA, and such intelligence will be wired to you in accordance with past practice. KANEKO is in charge of this. Recently we have on two occasions made investigations on the spot of various military establishments and concentration points in various areas. For the future we have made arrangements to collect intelligence from second generation Japanese draftees on matters dealing with troops, as well as troop speech and behavior._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
4. Contacts with Labor Unions.
The local labor unions A.F.of L. and C.I.O. have considerable influence. The (Socialist?) Party maintains an office here (its political sphere of influence extends over twelve zones.) The C.I.O., especially, has been very active here. We have had a first generation Japanese, who is a member of the labor movement and a committee chairman, contact the organizer, and we have received a report, though it is but a resume, on the use of American members of the (Socialist?) Party. _ _ _ _OKAMARU is in charge of this.
5. In order to contact Americans of foreign extraction and foreigners, in addition to third parties, for the collection of intelligence with regard to anti-participation organizations and the anti-Jewish movement, we are making use of a second generation Japanese lawyer.
This intelligence_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.
Japanese Reports From the United States
During the period from 12 May to 6 August 1941, the Japanese showed enormous attention to the movement of American warships. While the question of convoying American ships to England was still pending in Congress, Japan was expanding its intelligence network, especially in America. Fearing that a crisis might be reached before this organization could become well organized, Japan hurried to secure intelligence from its agents in the United States, Germany, and Spain. Mr. Taro Terasaki, recently assigned as Chief of Japanese Intelligence and propaganda work in the United States, warned Tokyo that the US Government was tending toward entrance into the war. For this reason, he emphasized, in a report to Tokyo on 19 May 1941 the importance of securing funds, establishing contacts with influential persons, and acquiring personnel for intelligence work. The Dies Committee and restrictive regulations regarding foreigners and Americans in foreign employ made the task difficult for the Japanese.
Information that the US Navy was interested in requisitioning until September, half of the American Consulate office space at Manila for espionage work, led Mr. Matsuoka, on 1 July 1941 to fear that this was the first step in establishing a special service for British-American-Chinese military liaison. Besides keeping close watch on naval personnel to verify this report, the Japanese kept under surveillance a number of persons who had entered the country as temporary tourists.
From: Washington
19 May 1941
To: Tokyo #319
Re your #45 and #180.
I have had Terazaki of Intelligence make an official trip to New York for the purpose of keeping in touch with the Consul-General there, and we have come to the following conclusions.
1. We are of the opinion that Roosevelt’s dictatorial attitude is becoming more pronounced and government is learning toward all-out war. Therefore, we desire that you remit immediately as large an amount as possible so that we may have funds with which to carry on intelligence work in the emergency created by America’s entry into the war. For this purpose we assume that Japanese-American relations will continue as at the present.
2. The duties of an intelligence office are becoming increasingly difficult. Because of the existence of the Dies Committee and of the application of the regulations regarding Americans in foreign employ and regarding foreigners resident in America the gathering of accurate secret information is far from easy. This is only one example and there are many other “delicate” problems, so please understand the delay in my answering telegraphic (requests for information).
3. We wish to make Washington and New York one unit and have a unified policy for it. Therefore we wish to get your approval before Terazaki starts for his post. We wish to have Consul Inagaki come here to serve. We feel that we should have here at least one-third of the personnel that they have in Shanghai for intelligence. Therefore, we are looking for temporary employees, (non-career clerks). Furthermore, we wish to have the officer in charge of intelligence visit New York about the 10th of every month.
4. The title of the officer in charge of intelligence will be that of “press attaché.” His duties will be as decided in the business conference on March 4th, Article 61(1), as follows:
A. Ordinary investigations and,
B. The development of intelligence.
“A” will of course include the investigation and gathering of secret information on the division in American public opinion regarding the rapprochement in Japanese-American relations based on the peace movement. But we wish to preclude such policies as the strategy being employed in the present negotiations.
5. A summary of the present state of the policy is as follows:
We are making personal contacts on every hand. However, at this place and in New York we are continuing the existing formal contacts and gathering secret information. In addition, to this, the officer in charge of intelligence has contacts with:
(A) J, and W, who are in close touch with the President and his wife.
The President is cultivating power through the “relief workers” and the “W.P.A.” and other agencies. In addition to this, since his third term anyone who opposed him becomes the target of his attacks and his dictatorial tendencies are becoming more marked, therefore it is natural that we should pay special attention to those in close touch with him.
One or two items regarding Roosevelt’s position: Evidence was brought out in the Senate to the effect that the former Ambassador to England, Kennedy, had not paid his 1932 income tax, but the President maintained silence. According to other secret information, Willkie had a secret understanding with Roosevelt and attacked him in his public speeches more than was necessary as a Presidential candidate and enjoyed scandalizing public opinion, however, had he by any chance become President he would have become a mere puppet of Roosevelt.
Again, _ _ _ _told Terazaki that originally he was an isolationist, but that now in view of the opposition he was keeping silent. Six months from now if he said he were an isolationist he would not be able to go about in safety.
(B) W of the State Department.
When Terazaki was a student at Brown University he became well acquainted with W.
(C) G of the Senate.
When Terazaki was in Brown University he was greatly helped by this G.
(D) The relationship of the “America First Committee” to Lindbergh and W.
Every time Lindberg makes a speech the German newspapers approve and American newspaper reporters in Germany write it up and American newspapers make a big thing of it so that the impression is conveyed that Lindberg is an agent of Germany. Because of this, Lindberg and the Committee are very perplexed and according to W, Lindberg has been cautioned by the German Embassy. Since then he has been in touch with W.
(E) D, an Irish American.
D told our intelligence officer that a Jewish American Justice of the Supreme Court, Frankfurter, was packing the key posts of the government with Jewish Americans. But that American antipathy toward Jews is increasing to such an extent that eventually anti-Jewish influence would prevail.
(F) Persons with religious affiliations.
(1) Catholic. (2) Protestant.(3) Undecided.
The Catholics are the ones who are concerned in the present negotiations.
(G) The Brown University Club.
This meets regularly once a month and at other times at which times he (Terazaki) is present.
6. Concerning the salary for employing nationals and foreigners. The future is another matter: however, judging from the past unless our general funds are increased it will be impossible to move. We wish to have you cognizant of the actual situation and when the opportune time comes we wish to take decisive action.
7. Looking at the funds for general intelligence, of the $30,000 income, only about $3,900 a year is available for actual development of intelligence and about $1,800 a year for entertainment and receptions. However, in the decision of the committee held on March 4th of this year regarding intelligence business, and the stipulations of the policy regarding propagation of intelligence, it was variously affirmed that of course the utmost effort would be put forth and that we would need no small sum for expenses. According to the present allotment we will need for the present year the sum of $500,000 for the development of intelligence. We respectfully request this.
From: Tokyo (Matsuoka)
1 July 1941
To: Manila (Riyoji) #191
According to a reliable source of information the United States Navy in your territory is desirous of requisitioning half of the American Consulate office space in the Tourist Bureau Building until September 1st, for vigilance and anti-espionage work.
The above may be part of the plan to establish a special service organ for the British-American-Chinese military liaison chain, therefore, please verify the above report and watch the conduct of the Navy personnel and reply information.
As the source of this information is strictly secret, please exercise caution in making investigations.
Japanese Attempts to Expand Its Naval Intelligence Activities
On September 2, 1941, it became apparent to Tokyo that the expansion of Japanese naval intelligence activities in both North and South America was necessary. Based on a request from naval authorities in Japan, Ambassador Nomura was to insist that a member of his staff go to Hawaii in the capacity of a courier, though in the light of Japanese-American relations, the selection of an opportune moment for the presentation of this request to the American Government was left to his discretion.
Ambassador Nomura replied that inasmuch as Courier Kuga was returning to Japan by way of the United States, having booked passage on the President Taylor sailing from San Francisco on September 6, 1941, the dispatching of a courier to Hawaii was no longer necessary.
No. 295
From: Tokyo (Japanese Foreign Minister)
2 September 1941
To: Washington #520
The Naval authorities have made the following request of us. They would like to have you insist at this time upon a member of your staff going to Hawaii in the capacity of a courier. Now, as to the most opportune moment, in the light of Japan-American relations, they would like to have this matter left up to your Excellency’s discretion.
According to what the Naval authorities have to say on the matter, your Embassy staff is well aware of this situation. If this is indeed the case, direct application should be made from Washington rather than from the Home Office. Based on a similar request by the Naval authorities, a courier is being sent to South America. This is for your information.
No. 296
From: Washington (Nomura)
2 September 1941
To: Tokyo #762
Re your #520.
Naval authorities here have filed still another request. Inasmuch as courier KUGA is returning to Japan by way of the United States and has booked passage on the President Taylor sailing from San Francisco on the 6th, the matter to which you refer is no longer necessary.
Japanese Foreign Minister Requests Special Intelligence Reports Concerning Pearl Harbor
Japanese naval intelligence reports from Honolulu, though few in number, were in the light of the later attack on Pearl Harbor to grow increasingly significant as December 7, 1941 drew nearer. The significance becomes apparent however, only when reading history backwards.
Concerning Pearl Harbor, Foreign Minister Toyoda on September 24, 1941 directed that in future intelligence reports from Hawaii, Pearl Harbor waters were to be divided roughly into five subareas:
Area A: Waters between Ford Island and the Arsenal
Area B: Waters adjacent to the island south and west of Ford Island. (This area is on the opposite side of the island from Area A.
Area C: East Loch
Area D: Middle Loch
Area E: West Loch and the communicating water routes.
Furthermore, reports were to be made on warships and aircraft carriers at anchor and, although not so important, those tied up at wharves, buoys, and in docks. The type and classes of vessels were to be designated briefly, and special mention was to be made when two or more vessels were alongside the same wharf.
On September 29, 1941, the details of a special code to be used in referring to the location of American warships in Pearl Harbor was sent to Tokyo through diplomatic channels. “KS” meant the repair dock in the Navy yard; “FV” was the mooring in the vicinity of Ford Island; “FG” designated the location alongside Ford Island; and “A” and “B” indicated east and west sides of “FG” respectively.
No. 356
From: Tokyo (Toyoda)
24 September 1941
To: Honolulu #83
Strictly Secret.
Henceforth, we would like to have you make reports concerning vessels along the following lines insofar as possible:
1. The waters (of Pearl Harbor) are to be divided roughly into five sub-areas. (We have no objections to your abbreviating as much as you like.)
Area A. Waters between Ford Island and the Arsenal.
Area B. Waters adjacent to the Island south and west of Ford Island. (This area is on the opposite side of the Island from Area A.)
Area C. East Loch.
Area D. Middle Loch.
Area E. West Loch and the communicating water routes.
2. With regard to warships and aircraft carriers, we would like to have you report on those at anchor. (these are not so important) tied up at wharves, buoys and in docks. (Designate types and classes briefly. If possible we would like to have you make mention of the fact when there are two or more vessels alongside the same wharf.)
No. 357
From: Honolulu (Kita)
29 September 1941
To: Washington Circular #041.
Honolulu to Tokyo #178.
Re your Tokyo’s #083.
(Strictly secret)
The following codes will be used hereafter to designate the locations of vessels:
1. Repair dock in Navy Yard (the repair basin referred to in my message to Washington #48): KS.
2. Navy dock in the Navy Yard (the Ten Ten Pier); KT.
3. Moorings in the vicinity of ford Island: FV.
4. Alongside in Ford Island: FG (East and west sides will be differentiated by A and B respectively)
Relayed to Washington. San Francisco.
American Officials Search Japanese Business Offices in Los Angeles
An inspection of the NYK, Yokohama Specie Bank, the Sumitomo, the Mitsui, and the Mitsubishi branch offices in Los Angeles by four to seven Treasury Department and FBI officials was reported to Tokyo on August 18, 1941. A thorough and detailed inspection had been made in each office. Not only had the inspectors checked letters of private individuals, but photostatic copies had been made of several thousand documents, although the Sumitomo office had forbidden the photostatting of its codes.
Consul Kenji Nakauchi believed that the investigation had been conducted to determine the existence of “subversive acts” in spite of the fact that it was theoretically conducted in conjunction with the freezing order. Official employees of the Yokohama Specie office had been forbidden to enter their offices, or to leave, between 6:00 P.M. and 8:30 A.M. in order to prevent the burning of documents. It had been necessary, Consul Nakauchi disclosed, to secure the approval of the inspectors on all telegraphic communications received or dispatched.
No. 380
From: Los Angeles (Nakauchi)
18 August 1941
To: Tokyo #157
(Part 1 of 2.)
Re my #142.
Each of the local NYK, Yokohama Specie Bank, Sumitomo, Mitsui, Mitsubishi branch offices were visited by four to seven Treasury Department inspectors on the afternoon of the 16th. Their inspection lasted until late at night. (The inspection of the NYK and the Mitsui offices lasted for _ _ _ days.) The permanent staff of each of the branch offices involved cooperated with the inspectors. Thorough and detailed inspection was made in each branch office, even to the extent of inspecting the drawers of all desks. Explanations were requested with regard to various account books. (Japanese and English encodement books?), circular letters from the Bureau of Communications, and relationships with customers. They went even so far as to “check” letters of private individuals. Photostatic copies were made of several thousand documents. The Sumitomo office forbid the photostatting of codes.)
No. 381
From: Los Angeles (Nakauchi)
18 August 1941
To: Tokyo #157.
(Part 2 of 2.)
Though this inspection was under the pretext that it had to do with the investigation conducted in conjunction with the freezing legislation, it seemed as though it was an investigation to determine the existence of “subversive acts.” They were particularly cautious regarding any relationships with military persons. Included among the personnel making the above mentioned inspections were F.B.I. men.
Furthermore, no so long ago Treasury officials had wax seals placed on the Yokohama Specie office from 6 in the evening until 8:30 in the morning and official employees have been forbidden to enter or leave the office during that time in order to prevent the burning
of documents. The bank was opened in the morning and closed at night by the inspectors themselves. It was necessary to secure the approval of the inspectors on all telegraphic communications received or dispatched.
Relayed to San Francisco, Washington, New York and _ _ _ _.
Japanese Authorities Express Concern Over United States’ Official Inspection
On August 23, 1941 Financial Attaché Tsutumu Nishiyama in Tokyo wired his opinion regarding the bank inspection conducted by the Treasury Department officials and FBI men. He believed that the American inspection came closer to being a search for “subversive acts” rather than an inspection connected with the freezing order.
Influential persons in the Specie Bank, greatly concerned, asked that an investigation be conducted to ascertain the real purpose of the inspection of American officials.
No. 394
From: Tokyo
23 August 1941
To: Washington #497.
From Financial Attaché Nishiyama (#70).
1. American inspection of Japanese firms and banks comes close to being a search for “subversive acts” rather than an inspection connected with the freezing order. There was a marked difference in the Japanese inspection of American banks. Influential persons in the Specie Bank are much concerned and desire an investigation to ascertain just what the real purpose of the American officials is. Furthermore, the National City Bank is arranging for the Kobe and Yokohama branches to unite with the Tokyo office and is closing out the Dairen office. According to Curtis’s explanation the above move is dictated by economic policy as was the case in the Osaka amalgamation and that there is no other reason for the move. Two or three young Americans will be left in the Tokyo office and the others will be returned home.
2. A proposal has been received from the British-Dutch Bank to exchange commodities for commodities in order to liquidate the ban’s accounts and this matter is being pressed by the head of the London branch of the Yokohama Specie Bank. However officials in the foreign office do not look with favor upon pushing negotiations to the solution of this one problem when there are so many other questions pending between Japan and Britain. Also the immediate conclusion of such an agreement would exert an unfortunate influence upon the leadership of public opinion hence orders have been issued not to ratify such an agreement.
(This item is for your information only.)
Consul Morishima Suggests Further Precautions To Ensure Secrecy of Dispatches
Asking that the Japanese Ambassador in Washington investigate the telegraphic situation, Consul Morito Morishima in New York protested that the Western Union Telegraph Company had returned one of his dispatches which had been sent to Vancouver. Furthermore, since code messages from the Consulate apparently had been prohibited, requests for transmissions must have been received from Japanese Consulates in Canada.
No. 386
From: New York (Morishima)
20 August 1941
To: Tokyo #415.
To Ottawa as Circular #67.
Re #161 from San Francisco to Tokyo.
It happened here, too, that when I transmitted my #411 to Vancouver, apparently because code messages from the Consulate have been prohibited, the Western Union Telegraph Company returned the message. Since it must be that requests for transmittals have been received from our Consulates in Canada, please find out exactly what the situation is.
Mr. Terasaki Plans To Confer With “America First” Committee
For the purpose of making secret contacts with members of the “American First” Committee, Ambassador Nomura asked Tokyo on September 6, 1941 to authorize Secretary Hidenari Terasaki to make an official visit to Chicago. Since Mr. Terasaki had been unable to make an official tour to Los Angeles and San Francisco, it was requested also that he be permitted at this time to stop off at San Francisco, Seattle and Los Angeles.
No. 410
From: Washington (Nomura)
6 September 1941
To: Tokyo #789.
Strictly secret.
I would like to have TERASAKI go on an official mission to Chicago in order to make secret contacts with members of the “America First” committee residing in that city. Please send authorization. At that time, I would like to have him make a study on the spot of the matter concerning OYAMA mentioned in your #154.
Furthermore, TERASAKI was not able to make an official tour to Los Angeles and San Francisco in line with your #349 because he went south to Mexico. At this time should you permit him to stop off at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles, it would be exceedingly convenient from the standpoint of the work at hand.
Message 154 discussed a plan for Terasaki’s visit to Mexico to confer with Japanese Minister there for the development of plans pertaining to the establishment of an espionage net; the focal point of this net to be Mexico City carrying out activities in the United States as well as South America.
No. 410A
From: Tokyo
10 July 1941
To: Washington #349.
Secret outside the Department.
(To be handled in Government Code.)
Re #18 from New Orleans and #244 from Mexico to this Foreign Minister.
We wish Consul ITO to go to Mexico City. Lately the offices housing the German and Italian Consulates were closed and their intelligence net broken. Intelligence activities in the Americas and suitable liaison are now essential, so we wish Secretary TERAZAKI also to go to Mexico to confer with our Minister there, in order to realize our plans in a concrete fashion based on the policy described in previous messages. We want Secretary TERAZAKI, and him only, to stop off at Quito, Los Angeles, San Francisco, etc. In this connection the points which we would like to bring to your attention are as follows:
1. We will have three routes to Mexico from the United States, consisting of Laredo, Ciudad Juares and Mexicali. Mexicali in particular is a convenient point for us on the west coast. In case we need more personnel, we can get them from our Ministry in Mexico.
2. We will establish a Chile route from Mexico by way of Manszanillo and a Brazil route by way of Vera Cruz.
3. Various officials in the United States and Mexico will work out all the details of their own espionage nets, correlate them, and develop a concrete plan for making contacts and exchange on the border.
4. In order to succeed in this objective, ways and means for keeping in contact through telegraphy, telephones, memoranda, and word of mouth will be decided upon and put into effect.
5. These routes are to be established against the day of evil and, while all is calm, nothing must be done which would jeopardize their security; therefore, at present investigate only the feasibility of circulating over them.
6. The expenses are to be paid by the several offices.
Because of its geographical position, Mexico is the main point for intelligence work in Brazil, Argentina and Chile, as well as in the United States. Therefore, before we think of relying too much upon Brazil, Argentina and Chile, let us concentrate on Mexico. However, the other three bases are different. In case the United States joins the war, they would inevitably come under her control, but so long as Mexico does not officially join the war, we can continue our intelligence schemes there. Paralleling these plans of course, if you can also work out a plan for establishing a net with Brazil, Argentina and Chile, it would be excellent groundwork for the establishment presently of an intelligence net. Please transmit this to Mexico City and take with you to New Orleans.
Arrest of Japanese in Possession of Illegal Passports
Tokyo learned on September 6, 1941 from Consul Nakauchi in Hollywood that local immigration officers had arrested Japanese who were in possession of illegal passports. Approximately 100 persons had been taken into custody in California. Since it appeared that “this sort of round-up” would be carried on in the future as well, Mr. Nakauchi declared that when boats became available approximately half of these persons would be given the opportunity to return home.
No. 412
From: Hollywood (Nakauchi)
6 September 1941
To: Tokyo #169.
The local immigration office has gradually undertaken the arrest of Japanese who are in possession of illegal passports. In Los Angeles approximately 50 and in the entire state of California, rough 100 persons are understood to have been taken into custody. All of them have borrowed money to cover bond.
When boats become available approximately half of them will be given the opportunity to return him should they so desire. It seems that this sort of round-up will be carried on in the future as well.
Relayed to Washington and San Francisco.
Freezing Order Curtails Japanese
Intelligence Activities in America
Readjustments in the Japanese civilian intelligence organizations continued to be the subject of dispatches from Consul Morishima in New York to Tokyo. On September 22, 1941, he said that the following of a more aggressive policy in connection with the Cultural Institute had been impossible because of the freezing of funds. Activities of the Institute had even been curtailed. The Library on Wheels, which had maintained a route hardly worth mentioning would be transferred to the Cultural Institute, and its driver would be dismissed from employment.
No. 424
From: New York (Morishima)
22 September 1941
To: Tokyo #453.
(Part 1 of 2.)
For some time we have been conferring on and considering, in connection with the questions of adjustments to be effected among civilian intelligence organs, the various pending questions relative to the activities of the Cultural Institute. However, with the coming of a new crisis, following the freezing of funds, the execution of a more aggressive policy became, even from the economic standpoint alone, impossible and we have had to curtail the activities of the Institute. We have therefore planned the following:
1. To carry on future activities of the Institute on the basis of a revised plan which will be within the scope of the funds on hand.
2. With this in mind, to hold a conference with civilians once a month for study and discussion.
3. To continue to _ _ _ _for the purpose of _ _ _ _and collection of intelligence by civilians.
We are now directing its activities along these lines. However, because of the fact that our propaganda work in this country is now placed under great handicap, we do not believe that it would matter very much if a man of _ _ _ _.
_ _ _ _was employed as a secret agent.
No. 425
From: New York (Morishima)
22 September 1941
To: Tokyo #453.
(Part 2 of 2.)
Though matters are as I have outlined above, we in this office are complying with your instructions but in my opinion in view of the fact that the employees are evidencing a critical attitude, I think that the question of a complete shake-up within the office should be postponed for a while.
Accompanying the worsening of the attitude toward Japan, the “library on wheels,” since the latter half of last year, has maintained a route hardly worth mentioning. I believe, however, that the distribution of pamphlets for enlightenment purposes will supplement this activity. Though the “library on wheels” will be taken over by the Cultural Institute as long as there are no great changes in the situation I do not believe that much effectiveness can be expected of its work. Therefore, in line with the effects of the freezing legislation we do not plan upon the continued engagement of _ _ _ _, who drives the “library on wheels” and who had been showing a none too pleasant attitude in the Cultural Institute. We have arranged to cancel all his unfinished business arrangements. (Please refer to my #446). This truck and the books which go with it as well as other things, we plan to place in the custody and under the name of Cultural Institute.
Maj. Yano Arranges Anti-American Espionage
The Japanese officials stationed in the United States were planning an increase in anti-American espionage activities. After receiving instructions from the General Staff Headquarters in Tokyo, Maj. Yano, on October 10, 1941 was preparing to leave Washington with Japanese codes books for an official trip to Mexico.
No. 471
From: Washington (UAWRK)
10 October 1941
To: Tokyo #201.
In line with instructions from General Staff Headquarters, Major YANO is making an official trip to your place, in order to make preliminary arrangements concerning anti-American espionage. He leaves Washington by plane tomorrow, the 11th, at 9:00 p.m. and is scheduled to arrive at your place at 12:30 p.m. (Mexico time) on the 12th. He is bringing code books with him. I leave everything to your discretion.
(Note: This appears to be an information copy to Tokyo, since the context apparently refers to the Japanese espionage ring being established in Mexico.)
Minister Akiyama Estimates His Espionage and Propaganda Expenditures
After having made a special study of the attitude of the United States, of the nature of the Panamanian people, and of the topography of Panama, Mr. Akiyama, in a dispatch to Tokyo on September 20, 1941 made an estimate of the money needed for enlightenment, propaganda, and intelligence purposes. With a forewarning that the expenditure summary would be “hard to take,” he begged that these per month expenses by considered carefully.
The estimate included bonuses for officials or spies assigned to observe the movements of warships or give warning about other matters; running expenses for the Japanese broadcasting office; money for special spies; funds to pay those who tried to obtain information as well as those who achieved results; and a separate fund to maintain contact with newspaper reporters and other agents. In addition, he listed a special fund for spying in the other countries to which he was accredited. The total estimate amounted to an expenditure of $730.00 per month.
No. 499
From: Panama (Akiyama)
30 September 1941
To: Tokyo #169
(Part 1 of 2.)
Since taking office, I have made a special study of the attitude of the United States and also of the nature of the people and topography of this section; and as a result have made the following estimate of the amount of money needed for enlightenment and propaganda purposes. This amount is necessary in making contacts for intelligence purposes, and already some expenditures have been made. I know that this will be “hard to take,” but beg of you that you will consider the matter carefully and wire me the result (all per month expenses):
1. (a) Bonuses for officials or spies residing at some distance from the Canal who go at night to observe the movement of warships $70.00
(b) For those who from time to time give warning $150.00
2. Money to supplement the activities of the Kyowa Company in this country $100.00
(Part 2 of 2.)
3. Running expenses of our broadcasting office $50.00
4. Money for special spies $50.00
5. To follow the principle of paying well those who try as well as those who accomplish results $100.00
6. For maintaining contacts with newspaper reporters and other agents $130.00
7. Costs of making arrangements $30.00
8. Money for spying in other countries to which I am accredited $50.00
The above are for the current fiscal year.
Japanese Military Attaché Requests Expansion of Intelligence Facilities in the United States
Since it seemed evident to Japanese representatives in Mexico that war between Japan and the United States would break out at any time, they advised the establishment of additional facilities to acquire military intelligence in the United States. In the future it would probably be extremely difficult for Japanese agents, either in the United States or in South America to carry on espionage as formerly planned. In view of the fact that after and even before the outbreak of war Japanese agents would be unable to get intelligence concerning the details of military operations, the Japanese Military Attaché in Mexico advised that additional advisors, particularly with air and technical backgrounds, be sent immediately to the attaché’s office in the United States to increase facilities for gathering intelligence.
(Comment: This message was not translated until May 3, 1945)
No. 626
From: Mexico City (MXMRK)
15 October 1941
To: Tokyo (SUMMER)(Vice-Chief, General Staff) #179.
(2 parts _ _ complete.)
According to the impression I received as the result of the conference of attaches and advisers in America, it is expected that war will break out between Japan and the United States. In order to gather operational intelligence in preparation for that, it is thought necessary that the attaché’s office in the United States (because of the withdrawal from New York) be now given at least two more advisers (particularly air and technical specialists).
Part 2
If you consider the limitations to the espionage which can be carried out against the United States by the attaches in South America, you will see that they will be able, after the outbreak of war between Japan and the United States (and before that too, of course), to do no more than learn of general, easily discovered activities. It will be particularly difficult to get intelligence concerning the details of military operations. Also, we in Mexico will be able to get only a small amount of intelligence. Consequently, we must work, before the withdrawal of our attaché in the United States, to increase our facilities for gathering intelligence. Thus, the general situation is like that in the United States, in regard to an insufficiency in attaché’s office personnel.
Secretary Terasaki Established Net in South America
As a result of the conference of Mr. Terasaki with the Japanese Ministers of Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, Tokyo was informed on August 22, 1941 that the establishment of an intelligence network in Latin America had been proposed to secure information in the United States. Spies would be placed within the United States, American propaganda as revealed in printed matter and radio broadcasts would be analyzed, and intelligence secured from sources in Latin America would be collected and evaluated.
No. 643
From: Santiago
21 August 1941
To: Buenos Aires #62.
(Part 1 of 3) (Message to Tokyo #230)
From TERASAKI.
The results of my conference with the Ministers to Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and_ _ _ _are as follows:
1. We propose an (intelligence) set-up in Latin America in order that we might secure intelligence on the public opinion of the United States, her situation militarily and diplomatically. The method by which this is to be accomplished is roughly as follows:
a. We propose the establishment of spies within the United States. From these we shall obtain secret intelligence.
(1) This set-up shall perform the duties of collecting and evaluating information obtained from the offices and personnel of American ministries in Latin America.
(2) It shall study the effectiveness of the propaganda contained in American and Latin American printed matter and radio broadcasts.
(3) It shall collect and evaluate intelligence secured from persons with whom they are in close contact, as well as the offices of third-powers in Latin America.
(4) It shall collect and evaluate intelligence secured from individuals and government offices in Latin American countries.
2. Though we plan for the organization of an intelligence net and the distribution of agents necessary for the operation of these proposed steps, in light of current affairs when anything of great importance arises, we, of course, will put every detail into operation with the effectiveness with which it is carried out in spy stories.
Japanese Espionage Network Begins Operations
In line with the establishment of an efficient Japanese spy organization in South America on 22 August 1941 by Mr. Terasaki, the Japanese intelligence coordinator for the Americas, all Japanese offices in North America were ordered to give their immediate attention to the selection of qualified espionage agents. Among the spies was a seaman who was to be placed with some prominent steamship company servicing North American ports.
Foreseeing difficulties in selecting reliable individuals and in checking information derived from foreign countries, Mr. Terasaki emphasized the necessity of Japan’s spending vast sums to procure men and administer the whole intelligence network. Combating American counterespionage activities presented a problem since FBI agents were known to be attempting to gain the confidence of those employed in the office of the Axis nations. He urged, therefore, that all Japanese agents be selected with care.
Each Japanese office in South America was to be equipped with radio sets capable of receiving US domestic broadcasts. Moreover, a central listening post would be located possibly in Brazil, where a secretary proficient in English shorthand would be on duty at all times. It was learned later that American broadcasts would not reach beyond 1,000 miles. This made it impossible to establish a post either at Buenos Aires or Rio de Janeiro to listen to broadcasts made in the United States.
Subscriptions to American papers and magazines were to be procured in the name of a South American for analysis by trained Japanese agents. Important spy centers were to be located in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Colombia, the latter country was of importance because of the nearness to the Panama Canal. It would be necessary, therefore, to enlarge the telegraphic sections of all Japanese offices and to use the intelligence sources supplied by the local Domei news agency, special correspondents, and Spanish and Portuguese language correspondents. Japanese merchants would be employed to keep the organization informed of economic conditions in the United States. If the Axis diplomatic staffs were ordered out of the country before the Japanese, their German and Italian informants would be hired. Not only were Latin American spies to be used, but also those who lived in Spain and Portugal, since it would be possible, should Mexico enter the war, to relay information from Mexico to Spain where it could be retransmitted to Japan.
No. 652
From: Santiago
17 September 1941
To: Washington #65.
(Circular.) (In 3 parts _ _complete.)
Santiago to Tokyo #261.
(Separate wire.)
Regarding paragraphs 1 to 3-a of my message #231.
All of our offices in North America should give their immediate attention to the selection of spies. They should choose only those who are best qualified for the job and have them go to work on collection of information and, if possible, liaison. The offices in Latin America shall accept those reports from them in which they can place credence. If it is possible to obtain the services of an informant who has been a seaman, it might be a good plan to try and get him a job in a steamship company. (There is one who falls in this category in New York. It would be very much to our interest if a job could be found for him in some steamship company which as a North American service.)
It must be borne in mind, of course, that it is exceedingly difficult to select individuals who can be reliably utilized. Moreover, it is very difficult to check any information from a foreign country. Therefore, it is of primary importance that we make up our minds to spend vast sums of money.
It is a known fact that the F.I.B. (F.B.I.?) is making a practice of trying to get its men into the confidence of those in the offices of the Axis nations. Please note this point carefully and exercise the utmost caution in making the selections.
The matter contained in (b) of the above referred section, would be next to impossible to put into effect. However, if there is one with whom very close relations have been maintained in the past, it may be that he could be utilized.
With regard to (c) of the same section, each office should be equipped with good radio sets of the middle wave band. They shall be used to listen to domestic broadcasts in the United States. The central listening post shall be located, let us say, in Brazil, where one who is proficient in shorthand of English shall be on-duty at all times.
The leading U.S. newspapers and magazines shall be subscribed to now in the name of some foreigner. These shall be thoroughly perused (even to the society columns) and carefully analyzed.
The intelligence officers referred to in section 4 of the same message shall be stationed in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, (the last mentioned is looked upon as a very important post by our Army and Navy, with a view to obtaining information about Panama, as you are already aware), and Mexico.
To fulfill all of these duties, the telegraphic section of all of those offices concerned will have to be considerably enlarged. This is at present the most important actual step to be taken.
As sources of supplies for the above mentioned intelligence personnel, the present sources of Domei news agencies and others of our special correspondents shall be utilized. We shall also make indirect use of the Spanish and Portuguese language correspondents.
Since it will be of interest to keep abreast of the economic conditions in the United States, we shall maintain close contact with our merchants who in turn will keep themselves advised through local native merchants who have access to the information in the United States.
Should the German and Italian diplomatic officers be ordered out of a country before the Japanese, we shall make arrangements to take over their informants.
The informants referred to above shall not be limited to Latin Americans but shall also include those who reside in Spain and Portugal. (Should, for example, Mexico get into the war, our informants in Mexico shall relay their information to those in Spain and Portugal who in turn shall pass it on to Japan.)
Relayed to Washington. Mailed to Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires.
No. 653
From: Buenos Aires (Tomii)
26 September 1941
To: Washington #15
Re #261 sent from Chile to the Foreign Minister.
According to what the specialists say _ _ _ _broadcasts do not reach any point beyond 1000 (miles?). I understand that even with a good receiving set it is impossible to listen in here or in Rio to broadcasts made in the United States.
Japanese Naval Officials in Mexico Disapprove of Furnishing General Intelligence
To Foreign Minister Togo’s inquiry whether the office in Mexico had begun the work of furnishing general information, Ambassador Miura replied that he had discussed this matter with his Naval Attaché and had subsequently wired the Chief of Special Service Section of the Naval General Staff. Although at present they were waiting a reply, he pointed out that because of the necessity of maintaining the security of the “L” organ, the naval authorities disapproved of furnishing general information. He asked that the Japanese Foreign Office discuss this matter with Navy and subsequently wire its decision.
Eight days later Foreign Minister Togo declared that general intelligence was to be distinguished from naval intelligence in that it was used for reference purposes by the Foreign Office. He was instructed to reorganize his office immediately for the collection of general intelligence.
No. 260
From: Tokyo
28 October 1941
To: Mexico #218.
(Strictly Secret.)
Have you begun the work of furnishing general information? Please wire me the results.
No. 261
From: Mexico (Miura)
28 October 1941
To: Tokyo #427.
(Secret.)
Re your #218.
After talking the matter over with the Naval Attaché here, we wired #57 to the Chief of the Special Service Section of the Naval General Staff, and we are present waiting for a reply. Since, for reason of the necessity of maintaining the security of the “L” organ, the naval authorities are not in favor of furnishing general information, will you please take the matter up again with the Navy and wire me the reply.
No. 262
From: Tokyo
5 November 1941
To: Mexico City #225
Re your #427.
General intelligence in contradistinction to Naval intelligence is used for reference purposes by the Foreign Office. Therefore please reorganize your office immediately along the line of my communication No. 953.
No. 263
From: Mexico City (Miura)
5 November 1941
To: Tokyo #432.
Re your # 225.
Your communication No. 953 has not arrived. Please wire the gist of it immediately.
Ambassador Nomura Sends Representatives to “America First” Meeting
Ambassador Nomura informed Tokyo that he had rushed Secretary Terasaki to New York on October 30 for the meeting of the America First Committee. There the intelligence agent has met_____(Comment: DoD withheld name). Secretary Terasaki asked _____ (Comment: DoD withheld name) to tell Colonel Lindbergh, who was for “America First,” that the United States was about to fight with Germany concerning its policy of “Britain First” in the Atlantic, and with Japan under its policy of “China First” in the Pacific. He commented on the fact that a crisis was at hand between Japan and the United States and that the American people did not understand the reason for such a war, although, fundamentally, it would be due to the China problem. Secretary Tarasaki had further stated on this occasion that it was a mistake to think that Japan would give in if it were driven into a tight corner by the United States. It was necessary to view realistically the situation in the Orient, since it was most inconsistent to fear a southward push by Japan and at the same time to cut off her petroleum supplies.
No. 374
From: Washington (Nomura)
1 November 1941
To: Tokyo #1027.
Secret outside the Department.
As the American First Committee was meeting in New York on the night of 30 October, I rushed Terasaki up to New York on that date. He met with (an associate of officials of the Committee). (As the American First Committee is being watched by the F.B.I. this must be kept strictly secret.) After commenting on the fact that a crisis is right at hand between Japan and the United States he told _ _ _ _that he would like to have him tell Colonel Lindbergh, who is for America first, that, while the American people do not understand the reason for such a war, it has to do with the China problem, that the United States is about to fight with Germany over her policy of Britain first in the Atlantic, and with Japan over her policy of China first in the pacific. _ _ _ _consented and later the same evening he said that he had told him.
On this same occasion Terasaki also strongly asserted that it is a mistake, based on a misunderstanding of the Japanese psychology, to think that Japan will give in if she is driven into a tight corner by the United States, and that even as the United States is adopting a realistic policy in regard to Central and South America, it is also necessary to take a realistic view of the situation in the Orient, and that it is most inconsistent to express fear of a southward push by Japan, while at the same time cutting off petroleum supplies.
Relayed to New York.
No. 387
From: San Francisco (Muto)
9 November 1941
To: Washington Circular #282.
San Francisco to Tokyo #285.
The F.B.I. investigation of _ _ _ _(who was president of the committee concerned last year, at the time when the organization was dissolved) and others connected with the organization is being continued.
The F.B.I. has seven able investigators on this job, so that it would seem as though they considered the case an important one.
Although judging from the type of investigation, it would seem as though they were most interested in gathering evidence to be used against _ _ _ _and
_ _ _ _, it also is apparent that the Department of Justice feels the necessity of looking into this case, due to the numerous statements being made by the Dies Committee regarding Japanese propaganda in the United States. It also may be that they hope to make this the excuse for demanding recall from the United States of all Japanese Consuls-Generals and Consuls to Japan.
2. A rigid investigation of _ _ _ _ is being carried on. As he is officially registered as a foreign correspondent for the _ _ _ _, there is little danger of his being indicated (prosecuted). During the examination he will no doubt have to prove that he was hired by the _ _ _ _at $350 per month. Therefore, please arrange matters there so that if _ _ _ _should wire to “GO” of the _ _ _ _for a confirmation of the above, “GO” is to wire back to _ _ _ _this effect.
Frequency of Ship Movement is Left to Discretion of Consul
Since intelligence reports of battleship movements were made once a week, and the vessels could have traveled far from the vicinity of the Hawaiian Islands in that interval, Consul Kita was instructed by Tokyo to use his own judgment in reporting such movements. In addition, the Consul was asked to note the entrance or departure of capital ships and the length of time they remained at anchor. This dispatch of November 28 was translated on December 8, 1941.
According to a dispatch transmitted on November 29 and read by United States translators on
December 5, Tokyo requested that, in addition to giving reports on ship movements, Japanese officials in Honolulu report even when there were no ship movements.
No. 287
From: Tokyo (Togo)
28 November 1941
To: Honolulu #119.
Secret outside the Department.
Intelligence of this kind which are of major importance, please transmit to us in the following manner:
1. When battleships move out of the harbor if we report such movement but once a week the vessels, in that interval, could not only be in the vicinity of the Hawaiian Islands, but could also have traveled far. Use your own judgment in deciding on reports covering such movements.
2. Report upon the entrance or departure of capital ships and the length of time they remain at anchor, from the time of entry into the port until departure.
No. 288
From: Tokyo
29 November 1941
To: Honolulu #122.
We have been receiving reports from you on ship movements, but in future will you also report even when there are no movements.
Japanese Continue To Watch Navy Maneuvers
From December 1 to December 6, 1941, Japanese intelligence dispatches were transmitted regularly to Tokyo. On December 1 a significant dispatch reported that ship maneuvers were held approximately 500 nautical miles southeast of Honolulu, with the battleships leaving Tuesday and returning Friday or leaving Friday and returning Saturday of the following week. It was noted that the fleet had never sailed westward or headed for the “kaiui” straits northward; the sea west of the Hawaiian Islands was not suitable for ocean maneuvers. The estimate of distance was based on the fact that fuel was plentiful, long-distance high speed possible, and the guns could not be heard at Honolulu.
No. 290
From: Honolulu (Kita)
1 December 1941
To: Tokyo #241.
(In 2 parts complete.)
Re your #119.
Report on the ship maneuvers in Pearl Harbor:
1. The place where practice maneuvers are held is about 500 nautical miles southeast of here.
Direction based on:
(1) The direction taken when the ships start out is usually southeast by south and ships disappear beyond the horizon in that direction.
(2) Have never seen the fleet to westward or head for the “KAIUI” straits northwards.
(3) The west sea of the Hawaiian Islands has many reefs and islands and is not suitable as an ocean maneuver practice sea.
(4) Direction of practice will avoid all merchant ship routes and official travel routes.
Distance based on:
(1) Fuel is plentiful and long distance high speed is possible.
(2) Guns cannot be heard here.
(3) In one week’s time, (actually the maneuvers mentioned in my message #231 were for the duration of four full days of 144 hours), a round trip to a distance of 864 nautical miles could be reached (if speed is 12 knots), or 1152 miles (if speed is 16 knots), or 1440 nautical miles (if speed is 20 knots) is possible, however, figuring on 50% of the time being used for maneuver technicalities, a guess that the point at which the maneuvers are held would be a point of about 500 miles from Pearl Harbor.
2. The usual schedule for departure and return of the battleship is: leaving on Tuesday and returning on Friday, or leaving on Friday and returning on Saturday the following week. All ships stay in port about a period of one week.
No. 291
From: Tokyo (Togo)
2 December 1942
To: Honolulu #123.
(Secret outside the department.)
In view of the present situation, the presence in port of warships, airplane carriers, and cruisers is of utmost importance. Hereafter, to the utmost of your ability, let me know day by day. Wire me in each case whether or not there are any observation balloons above Pearl Harbor or if there are any indications that they will be sent up. Also advise me whether or not the warships are provided with anti-mine sets.
Mr. Fuji Changes American Ship Maneuver Signals
On December 3, 1941, Ichiro Fuji informed the chief of the #3 section of Military Staff headquarters that he wished to change his communication signals for American ship maneuvers. Signal one would mean that the battleship divisions included some scouts and screen units and were preparing to sortie; signal two that a number of carriers were preparing to sortie; signal three that all battleship divisions had departed Hawaii between December 1 and 3; signal four that several carriers had departed between December 1 and 3; signal five that all carriers had departed between December 1 and 3; signal six that all battleship divisions had departed between December 4 and 6; signal seven that several carriers had departed between December 4 and 6; and signal eight that all carriers had departed between December 4 and 6.
A house on Lanikai Beach would be used as a signal station and would show lights during the night. One light in the window between 8 and 9 P.M. would denoted signal one, one light between 9 and 10 P.M. would mean signal two, and so on; two lights between midnight and 1 A.M. would signify signal five, and so on. It was further explained that if there was a star on the head of the sail of the Star Boat it would indicate signal one, two, three, or four; if there was a star and the Roman numeral III, it would indicate signal five, six, seven, or eight.
Also used at night would be the attic window of the Kalama House, located on the east coast of Oahu, northwest of Lanikai. A similar system was to be used; for example, if the window was lighted between 1900 and 2000, it would indicate signal three, between 2000 and 2100 signal four, and so on.
In addition, signals would be transmitted through the regular broadcast station in Honolulu. For example, if a radio advertisement read, “Chinese rug for sale, apply P.O. Box 1476,” it would indicate signal three or six, whereas the advertisement, “Beauty operator wanted, apply P.O. Box 1476,” it would indicate signal five or eight.
In case the light or broadcast signals could not be sent from Oahu, the signals would be given by bonfire daily on Maui Island until the Japanese “EXEX” signal was received. The signal bonfire would be located at a point halfway between lower Kula Road and Haleakala Road and would be visible from seaward to the southeast and southwest of Maui Island. If the fire was seen between 7 and 8 P.M., it would indicate signal three or six; between 8 and 9 P.M., signal five or eight.
No. 292
From: Honolulu (Kita)
3 December 1941
To: Tokyo #245.
From Ichiro Fuji to the Chief of #3 Section of Military Staff Headquarters.
1. I wish to change my method of communicating by signals to the following:
a. Arrange the eight signals in three columns as follows:
Meaning and Signal
Battleship divisions preparing to sortie:
1, including scouts and screen units
– A number of carriers preparing to sortie: 2
– Battleship divisions all departed between 1st and 3rd: 3
– Carriers, several departed between 1st and 3rd : 4
– Carriers, all departed between 1st and 3rd: 5
– Battleship divisions, all departed between 4th and 6th: 6
– Carriers, several departed between 4th and 6th: 7
– Carriers, all departed between 4th and 6th: 8
2. Signals
a. Lanikai Beach. House will show lights during the night as follows:
Signal
– One light between 8 and 9 p.m.: 1
– One light between 9 and 10 p.m.: 2
– One light between 10 and 11 p.m.: 3
– One light between 11 and 12 p.m.: 4
b.
– Two lights between 12 and 1 a.m.: 5
– Two lights between 1 and 2 a.m.: 6
– Two lights between 2 and 3 a.m.: 7
– Two lights between 3 and 4 a.m.: 8
Part 2.
c. Lanikai Bay, during daylight.
– If there is a “star” on the head of the sail of the Star Boat it indicates signals 1, 2, 3, or 4.
– If there is a “star” and a Roman numeral III it indicates signals 5, 6, 7, or 8.
d. Lights in the attic window of Qualm House will indicate the following:
Times Signal
– 1900-2000: 3 – 2200-23__:6
– 2000-2100: 4 – 2300-2400:7
– 2100-2200: 5 – 0000-0001:8
e. K.G.M.B. Want Ads.
A. Chinese rug etc. for sale, apply P.O. box 1476 indicates signal 3 or 6.
B. CHICH..GO farm etc. apply P.O. box 1476 indicates signal 4 or 7.
C. Beauty operator wanted etc. apply P.O. box 1476 indicates signal 5 or 8.
3. If the above listed signals and wireless messages cannot be made from Oahu, then on Maui Island, 6 miles to the northward of Kula Sanatorium at a point halfway between Lower Kula Road and Haleakala Road (latitude 20-40N, longitude 156-19W), visible from seaward to the southeast and southwest of Maui Island) the following signal bonfire will be made daily until your EXEX signal is received:
Time and Signal
– From 7-8: 3 or 6
– From 8-9: 4 or 7
– From 9-10: 5 or 8
USS Lexington Departs Hawaii
Noting that three battleships had been at sea for eight days, Consul Kita said that the vessels returned to port on Friday morning, December 5. On the same day, the Lexington and five heavy cruisers left port. In port on the afternoon of December 5 were eight battleships, three light cruisers, and sixteen destroyers, while four ships of the Honolulu class were in dock.
No. 296
From: Honolulu (Kita)
5 December 1941
To: Tokyo #252.
(1) During Friday morning, the 5th, the three battleships mentioned in my message #239 arrived here. They had been at sea for eight days.
(2) The Lexington and five heavy cruisers left port on the same day.
(3) The following ships were in port on the afternoon of the 5th:
8 battleships
3 light cruisers
16 destroyers
Four ships of the Honolulu class and _ _ _ _were in dock.
(Comment: At sea near the end of the first week in December was the carrier USS Lexington accompanied by three cruisers and five destroyers on a combined search, which took them to the south and westward. – Battle Report, p.8.)
Consul Kita Notifies Tokyo of Balloon Barrage Defenses
On December 2, 1941, Tokyo directed the Japanese Consul at Honolulu to wire day-by-day reports concerning observation balloons above Pearl Harbor, or any indication that they would be sent up. In view of the present situation, the presence of battleships, carriers, and cruisers was of utmost importance, Foreign Minister Togo declared. He asked also that he be advised whether or not the warships were provided with antimine (torpedo) nets. This dispatch was not translated until December 30, 1941.
In accordance with these orders, the Consul informed Tokyo on December 6 that 400 or 500 balloons had been ordered in America and that their use was being considered in the defense of Hawaii and Panama. He reported, however, that, as far as Hawaii was concerned, no mooring equipment had been set up at Pearl Harbor nor had the troops been selected to man them. Furthermore, there were no indications that any training for the maintenance of balloons was being undertaken.
In addition, it was difficult for him to imagine that the Hawaiian defenses actually possessed any balloons. Moreover, there were limits to the balloon defense of Pearl Harbor. He imagined that in all probability there was considerable opportunity left for a surprise attack against Pearl Harbor, Hickham, and Ford. He added that he thought the battleships did not have any torpedo nets, but he would investigate the details further.
No. 297
From: Honolulu
6 December 1941
To: Tokyo #253.
Re the last part of your #123.
1. On the American continent in October the Army began training barrage balloons, but it is understood that they are considering the use of these balloons in the defense of Hawaii and Panama. Insofar as Hawaii is concerned, though investigations have been made in the neighborhood of Pearl Harbor, they have not set up mooring equipment, nor have they selected the troops to man them. Furthermore, there is no indication that any training for the maintenance of balloons is being undertaken. At the present time there are no signs of barrage balloon equipment. In addition, it is difficult to imagine that they have actually any. However, even though they have actually made preparations, because they must control the air over the water and land runways of the airports in the vicinity of Pearl Harbor, Hick, Ford and We, there are limits to the balloon defense of Pearl Harbor. I imagine that in all probability there is considerable opportunity left to take advantage for a surprise attack against these places.
2. In my opinion, the battleships do not have torpedo nets. The details are not known. I will report the results of my investigation.
Last Intercepted Intelligence Report Before Pearl Harbor Attack Lists Ships in Port
In an intercepted intelligence dispatch transmitted on December 6, 1941 from Hawaii, the last before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Consul reported that a number of battleships and one submarine tender had entered port on the evening of December 5. Nine battleships, three light cruisers, three submarine tenders, and 17 destroyers were at anchor, and four light cruisers and two destroyers were lying at the docks. The heavy cruisers and airplane carriers had left Honolulu. It appeared that no air reconnaissance was being conducted by the fleet air arm.
(Comment: Berthed in Pearl Harbor were eight of the nine battleships of the US Pacific fleet, nine cruisers, and a third of the Fleet’s destroyers. Battle Report, p 6.)
No. 298
From: Honolulu
6 December 1941
To: Tokyo $254
1. On the evening of the 5th, among the battleships which entered port were ——and one submarine tender. The following ships were observed at anchor on the 6th:
9 battleships, 3 light cruisers, 3 submarine tenders, 17 destroyers, and in addition, there were 4 light cruisers, 2 destroyers lying at docks (the heavy cruisers and airplane carriers have all left).
2. It appears that no air reconnaissance is being conducted by the fleet air arm.
Inaccuracy of Japanese Intelligence Reports
Since it was obvious at this time that Japan was attempting to obtain a total picture of military and naval strength in the Philippines, we well as last- minute information of ship movements and troop allocations, the accuracy of their spy reports may be gauged by comparing the information with an estimate of the strength of US air forces in the Philippines on November 27, 1941, as released by the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. Japanese agents estimated that 1,283 military and 26 naval planes were based in the Islands (the former was later very slightly raised). Since according to the American estimate, 43 Navy planes and 298 Army planes were based in the Philippine Islands, our air strength in the Islands was greatly overestimated: there were 17 more Navy planes then were reported but 985 fewer Army planes than were listed by Japanese agents.
No. 332
27 November 1941
U.S. AIR FORCES IN THE PHILIPPINES NAVY
Type and Strength
– PBY-4 (Patrol): 14
– PBY-4 (Patrol): 14
– SOC-3 (Scout Observation): 4
– SOC-1 (Scout Observation): 2
– J2F-4 (Utility): 3
– SOC-1 (Scout Observation): 2
– SOC-2 (Scout Observation): 2
– 052U-2 (Observation): 2
TOTAL: 43
Two squadrons of OS2U airplanes, 24 in all, are being sent to the Philippines as soon as practicable. It is expected that they will be shipped from San Pedro in January, 1942.
ARMY
– B-18 (Heavy Bomber): 18
– B-17 C&D (Heavy Bomber): 35
– P-35A (VF): 52
– P-40B (VF): 30
– P-40E (VF): 117
– O-46A (VO): 7
– O-49 (VO): 3
– O-52 (VO): 10
– A-27 (Dive Bomber): 9
– A-39 (Combat): 1
– C-49 (Combat): 1
– P-26A (VF): 15
TOTAL: 298
In addition to the above 57 type A-24 dive bombers have been shipped to the Philippines this month, and further extensive reinforcements have been approved for complete delivery by February, 1942.
No. 306
From: Manila (Nihro)
1 November 1941
To: Tokyo #722.
1. The TON, MADDO, HON, 7 destroyers, 8 submarines and 3 minesweepers entered port on the 31st. But the TON left again on the morning of the 1st, destination unknown.
2. On the morning of the 2st the President Cleveland and President Madison left port loaded with American soldiers whose time was up, (number uncertain).
3. According to reports received from what we believe are reliable sources the number of American military and naval plans in the Philippine Islands is as follows:
(a) Military Planes
– Large, bombers, 29.
– Scout planes, 324.
– The same, B type, 62.
– Fighters, 317.
– The same, B type, 62131
– Pursuit planes, 302.
– The same, D type, 69.
– Training planes, 49.
– Total, 1283.
(b) Naval planes
– Large flying boats, 26.
4. Ships in port on the 1st: MAD, BAKE, PIES, HON, BEER, 9 destroyers, 3 submarines, WOHOTOSU, 3 minelayers. In Cavite: REI,
PASU, 2Z.
5. According to a report from the De La Rama steamship company two of their ships, the Dona Estaban (1616 tons), and the MADBUKARU (191 tons), had been requisitioned by the local American Army.
No. 316
From: Manila (Nihro)
10 November 1941
To: Tokyo #746.
Re my #722, first part of part 3—the number of large attack planes, latest models, 4-motored B-19’s, is 32.
Re my #727, the black soldiers are American Negroes.
Japanese Official Analyzes Roosevelt’s
Domestic and Foreign Strategy
On November 12, 1941, a Japanese intelligence official in Washington sent Tokyo a report on the Roosevelt administration’s method of dealing with the Japanese-American situation. In an effort to aid in the defeat of Germany, President Roosevelt had inaugurated military, economic, and industrial measures, which would eventually lead America into complete war. By assisting Great Britain, it had already entered the conflict on the high seas. While the US Army was not yet equipped to fight a war with Germany on land, for the present at least, the US Navy could engage German warships on the high seas. Nevertheless, in spite of the fact that President Roosevelt had almost dictatorial powers in regard to Congress and the military officials, the American people were not in complete sympathy with his policies. For example, on 10 November 1941, the Times Herald had stated that Roosevelt was as much a dictator as Hitler or Stalin. Furthermore, the American First Committee was secretly working to impeach President Roosevelt. On 30 October 1941 at Madison Square Garden, 8,000 members of the America First Committee gathered as a demonstration against the foreign policies of the present American Government.
In Washington, a former American Ambassador demanded that President Roosevelt be forced to resign his position as President by means of a referendum. He even went so far as to state that President Roosevelt might easily die during this disastrous period in the nation’s history. This statement grew great applause from the audience. Apparently, the Japanese intelligence official went on to say, the move to impeach President Roosevelt was widespread and was initiated by many varying factions. An editorial in the Times Herald on November 4, 1941 warned that it would be impossible for Congress to impeach President Roosevelt because of the whip he held over the Army and Navy. Nevertheless, the editorial in this and other papers did mention the possibility of President Roosevelt’s being impeached at some time, and the Japanese intelligence official believed this to be extremely significant.
As an indication that the American people were not entirely behind President Roosevelt’s aid to Britain, the Japanese official cited the occurrence in Detroit when Ambassador Halifax was pelted with eggs. The American public as a whole had begun to view the prospect of war in its unprecedented aspects and after the sinking of the Reuben James, the country received a great shock. Although President Roosevelt took advantage of this sinking to declare an unlimited national emergency, in his speech on October 27, 1942, he did not stress foreign questions but placed his emphasis almost entirely upon America’s internal problems.
No. 86
From: Washington (Nomura)
12 November 1941
To: Tokyo #1077.
(Part 1 of 4.)
From the Intelligence Official.
1. The ROOSEVELT administration is dashing along the road of military, economic, and industrial reconstruction with the object of defeating the Nazis.
So far as war on the sea is concerned, the United States has already entered the conflict. Even if ROOSEVELT should now decide to leave the Nazis be, he is already in too deep. Even though he tried to do a 180 degree turn, his economic reconstructionists would not let him. Therefore, it can be said that the United States is following the one road to complete war.
2. It is true that the American army is not yet equipped, but even if war were declared against Germany, no more than the present ocean fighting would be necessary and, therefore, such a declaration is possible. The reason why things are not going so well for the administration in this connection, however, is because the people are not complete behind it.
ROOSEVELT has the full support of the government, the military, and the Congress and is tantamount to a dictator (on the 10th, the Times Herald said in an editorial that ROOSEVELT is a dictator in no way less than HITLER or STALIN). The people, however, most certainly do not support ROOSEVELT. During the last two or three weeks this has been particularly evident. Let us look into some concrete examples: According to reliable reports the leaders of the America First Committee are secretly endeavoring with all their ingenuity to impeach ROOSEVELT. The stronger government pressure against it becomes, the more belligerent does this committee grow, and it may well be that the time will come when they will resort to force. The pressure of the government against the America First Committee is also becoming fierce. On October 30 in New York, there was a meeting of this committee, but they could not make any radio broadcasts. ROOSEVELT’s own life is in grave danger. On that night in Madison Square Garden, the immense crowd totally 8,000 filled the building to overflowing.
No. 86
From: Washington (Nomura)
12 November 1941
To: Tokyo #1077
(Part 2 of 4.)
At a mass meeting in Washington, _ _ _ _, a former Ambassador, made a scathing attack on the ROOSEVELT regime and demanded a referendum against this deliberate drift toward war. On that occasion he said that at this so fateful moment in the nation’s history Roosevelt might die. These were words of profound meaning and drew great applause from the audience. The Times Herald in an editorial said that the President holds the whip over the Army and Navy and has the full support of the Government. Therefore, it will be impossible for the Congress to impeach him. The editorial said, however, that some believe that he will be impeached, in any case, later on. Now, for papers in their editorials to use the world “impeach” cannot be overlooked as something light. Furthermore, pickets in front of the White House recently carried placards on which were written the words “Impeach the President”. Another thing, some days ago in Detroit, Ambassador HALIFAX was pelted with eggs. Again the sinking of the Reuben James gave the popular spirit of this country a great shock and filled the people with a gloomy foreboding. In his speech on October 27th, ROOSEVELT did not stress foreign questions so much as he did internal matters. This is to be regarded as a declaration of internal warfare whereby ROOSEVELT whipped from its scabbard the sword of an unlimited national emergency.
No. 88
From: Washington (Nomura)
12 November, 1941
To: Tokyo #1077.
(Part 3 of 4.)
2. The congress, as I said, is supporting ROOSEVELT. True enough, the Senate approved the entrance of armed merchantmen into the war zones; however, the actual figures were 50 to 37, and this could not, by any means, be called a crushing defeat of the opponents. This also may be regarded as a reflection of public opinion.
Things being as they are in he country, in order to dispel the dilemma and to condition the people for a war against Germany, it may be now that a counter-hand will be played. I mean to say, many people in the United States fear the German war machine frightfully. However, they know how we have fought so hard in China for four years and figure that we are about worn out. They also figure that we are weak in materials. They do not think that we could resist them very much and optimize over how quick we could be to come to our knees.
If we scrutinize this psychology closely, we find that the ROOSEVELT administration, although it does not want a two-ocean war, would probably not do anything to prevent the outbreak of a war with Japan, depending on how we Japanese act. Perhaps a point-blank declaration of war might be made. Then the people’s thirst for blood could be stimulated, an unlimited emergency declared, the America First Committee dispersed, and all opposition crushed. Then they figure the popular mind might turn favorable for a war with Germany. In other words, we Japanese would be merely the tool with which the American administration prepares the way for coming to grips with the Reich.
4. What will happen if the United States and Japan come to blows? Well, Germany now has a vast occupied territory and is in the most favorable position to talk peace. England is already complaining that the United States is not sending her enough help. Germany, of course, does not want a long war, and she may suddenly, on unexpectedly generous terms, conclude peace with England. I mean to say that while the United States would be at grips with us, American aid to England would naturally slow down and give Germany a chance to make a separate peace with Great Britain. Germany will certainly do her best to achieve this feat.
No. 89
From: Washington (Nomura)
12 November, 1941
To: Tokyo #1077.
(Part 4 of 4.)
The New Deal failed, and the opposition to ROOSEVELT within the country became unmanageable. Just then the European war took a more lively turn through Germany’s invasion of the Netherlands. ROOSEVELT, who is well-versed in international questions, joined the war then and there. It might be said that HITLER’s attack on the Netherlands caused ROOSEVELT to enter the struggle immediately. Japanese-American relations are now at identically that same pass. I mean to say that a war with Japan would put the people squarely behind ROOSEVELT and make him a dictator. He knows fully that if he has to fight, there will be a suitable opportunity which would not admit delaying war. Furthermore, in view of Japan’s foreign policy, it can be seen that our relations with the United States have reached such a pass that a decision on war is about the only thing that could raise them from the dead. Judging from internal conditions in the United States, for the foregoing reasons there is no hope for a thorough-going pact at the present time. It would be better to devise some relatively easy small-scale makeshift of a temporary nature laying stress on economic matters. Germany will keep sinking American ships and the President’s position will become harder and harder, so as soon as a show-down with Germany is inevitable, then we can get a full-fledged pact. Again, if we do have to fight the United States, we could do this much better after she is at war with Germany.