U.S. KNEW OF JAPANESE-AMERICAN SPIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000202030026-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 18, 2010
• Sequence Number: 26
• Publication Date: May 31, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
V
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/18: CIA-RDP90-00552R000202030026-8
.. 31.-MAY 1983
U.S. knew of
Japanese-American spies
By Gene Goltz
WASHINGTON TIMES STAFF
A substantial number of Japanese
Americans living on the West Coast dur-
ing World War II were spies for the Jap-
anese government, according to secret
Japanese diplomatic codes of the
period.
The Japanese Foreign Ministry's own
cables appear to contradict findings of
a federal, commission which reported
Feb. 24 that there was "no military rea-
son" for confining some .117,000
Japanese-Americans in isolated camps
from 1942 to 1945. {.
The secret coded messages were de-
classified by the United States in 1978
but have attracted little attention in the {
news media. They are availablein eight
bound volumes titled, "The 'Magic'
Background of Pearl Harbor,".and were
published by the `U.S Department of
Defense. "Magic" was the code name
used. by the U.S. Navyin its; project to
crack the Japanese diplomatic code,
which -was..accomplished in 1939 or
early 1940-`
The Japanese, unaware that the
Allies were reading their. messages,
sent numerous cables to and from Tokyo
to Japanese offices in U.S. cities as .well
as to the Nazi government in Berlin.
The cables show that the Japanese
had espionage agents planted in the U.S.
Army, in defense industries on the West!
Coast and in a variety of sensitive indus-'
tries vital to the war effort.
"We shall maintain connection with
our second generations who are at
ARTICLE D. WASHINGTON TIMES
A 21
present in the (U.S.) Army, to keep us
informed of various developments in
anese Foreign Minister in Tbkyo to the
Japanese consulate in Los Angeles.
The cable, dated May 9, 1941, added:
"We also have connections with our sec-
ond generations working in airplane
plants for intelligence purposes.
"With regard to airplane man-
ufacturing plants and military estab-
lishments in other parts, we plan to - United States -a list of all first- and
- ous. organizations ?and in strict secrecy I .cans as well as.Japanese citizens resid-
iavethem keep these military establish- i ing in American :cities including New
ments under close-surveillance:-., ;z York, Washington, San Francisco, Los
able to obtain accurate and detailed Vancouver (Wash.) and New Orleans, as
intelligence reports. We have. already well as in Canada and Mexico.
established contacts with absolutely Tokyo also warned its Japanese offi-
reliable Japanese in the San Pedro and . cials in the United States that if this
.San Diego area, who will keep a close country learned of the espionage activi
watch on all shipments of airplanes and.;
other war materials, and report the
,amounts and destinations of such'ship-
ments
A cable from Tbkyo to Washington,_
sent on June-'9, 1'941, - six months
i before Pearl Harbor - states:
"We are securing intelligences con-'
cerning the concentration of warships
-within the Bremerton Naval Yard, infor-
mation with regard to mercantile ship-
.,ping ,and airplane manufacture, move-
ments of military forces, as well as that
.which concerns troop maneuvers.
For the future we have made arrange
___ments to collect intelligences from sec
and generation Japanese draftees. on
matters dealing with- the troops, as well
as-troop speechand-behavior.. .
"The 'Magic' Background" report
states:
?'As early as'75ec. 10, 1940, the
cooperation of Japanese bank officials
in America was sought by Tokyo, and
American authorities knew that a wide-
spread Japanese espionage organiza-
tion was operating in the United States
for at least a year before the war."
The Japanese spy network was so
thorough that the foreign ministry in
Tbkyo asked for and received from its
diplomatic representatives in the
ties "our people in the United States will
be subjected to considerable persecu-
;tion, and the -utmost ,caution must be
,exercised..
The report apparently was ignored
by. The Commission on Wartime Relo-
cation and Internment of Civilians,
which after a three-year study of the
relocation of Japanese-Americans from
the West Coast during World War II
-stated that the internment was carried
out because of racial injustice,'war hys-
teria and the failure of political leader-
ship under President Franklin D. Roose
velt.
Roosevelt signed. an executive order
,in February.1942 directing that resident
1 Japanese aliensand American citizens
of Japanese descent be interned in 13
detention camps scattered among West-
-ern states. The action has precipitated a
great deal of criticism.
"All this was done," the commission
report stated, "despite the fact that not
a single documented act of espionage,
sabotage or fifth-column activity was
committed by an American citizen of
Japanese ancestry or by a resident Jap-
anese alien on the West Coast."
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/18: CIA-RDP90-00552R000202030026-8