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The oldest precedents of the '''Japanese secret services''' are the ] and some ] in ]. They acted covertly and made themselves invisible, the classic role of a secret agent. In the ], the central government of the kingdom had used some agents who disguised themselves as ordinary folk and relayed internal security information direct to the Emperor. The oldest precedents of the '''Japanese secret services''' are the ] and some ] in ]. They acted covertly and made themselves invisible, the classic role of a secret agent. In the ], the central government of the kingdom had used some agents who disguised themselves as ordinary folk and relayed internal security information direct to the Emperor.

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The oldest precedents of the Japanese secret services are the ninja and some ronin in Shogunate Period. They acted covertly and made themselves invisible, the classic role of a secret agent. In the Yamato Period, the central government of the kingdom had used some agents who disguised themselves as ordinary folk and relayed internal security information direct to the Emperor.

The Japanese Navy Intelligence Center was located in Taiwan and the Japanese Army Intelligence Headquarters was in Manchukuo.

Secret Societies

Japanese secret societies played an important part in Japan's intelligence networks, from the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95 war and the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. The armed forces, nationalist groups and Yakuza gangs are linked, dating back to these periods of war. During World War II, such groups worked along side the Japanese forces. The Japanese Intelligence Service also used Japanese citizens (Nikkei), such as sea merchants, in secret missions.

The link between Japanese Secret services, Nationalist Secret Societies, Yakuza groups, Black Dragon Society and others is well known. They all provided some training for spies, realizing the intelligence advantages of certain secret operations and underground subversive actions.

With training camps in Hokkaido, the Black Dragons spread out to prepare for the inevitable conflict arising with the Russians. The Black Dragons followed in the footsteps of the Black Ocean Society and began to seriously penetrate the region with its agents, placing a large number in Manchuria and Siberia before war broke out. The Black Dragons even acquired a Black Ocean front, a jiu-jitsu school in Vladivostock, from which they could observe much of the Russian military and naval movements. Back in Japan, the group established a special espionage school dedicated to studying Russia and the Russian language.

They had gathered intelligence before the Russo-Japanese War that showed detailed troop strengths and locations, as well as logistical networks. Japan essentially went to war on February 8, 1904 knowing more of the Russian strengths and weaknesses than the Russians did. Once the war erupted, the Black Dragons intensified their efforts in support of the Japanese Empire. They organized Manchurian guerrillas against the Russians from the Chinese warlords and bandit chieftains in the region, the most important being Marshal Chang Tso-lin. Black Dragons managed to infiltrate a small party of Japanese officers and NCOs for a meeting with Tso-lin and other guerrillas, allowing the alliance to be formed. The Black Dragons waged a very successful psychological warfare campaign in conjunction with the Japanese military, spreading disinformation and propaganda throughout the region. They also acted as interpreters for the advancing Japanese Army.

Their missions were so well planned and their training so thorough that not one Black Dragon agent was reported killed or captured during the war.

Such undercover operations among Japanese Armed forces continued through the 1930s into World War II.

Research

The Japanese undertook research in counter-intelligence, propaganda, indoctrination, infiltration, and sabotage.

The Japanese Central Government also aided in these studies with organizations such as the Bureau of Economic Research. This organization's activities included an Intelligence Training School, conducting propaganda campaigns in Southeast Asia, and aiding in general conquest plans in that region. Another Government institution that had intelligence offices was the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Origins of Kempeitai

The old samurai police force of the Shogun was dismantled with the coming of the Meiji Restoration and a new system was to be put into place. Toshiyoshi Kawaji went on a tour of Europe in 1872 and returned with the influences of France's Third Republic and Prussia's police forces as his models. In 1874, he became the commander of the Keishicho (Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department) and began his reorganization program.

The Naimusho (Ministry of Home Affairs) came into existence in 1873 and with the restructuring going on, they began to implement the new system. Formerly, Japan had been divided into regions controlled by the ruling Daimyo. This system was abolished in 1871 and a new division into ken (prefectures) went into effect.

The Home Ministry oversaw the nation's police activities with the Keihokyoku (Police Bureau) and its Gyosei Keisatsu Kisoku (Administrative Police Regulations), which established the duties and powers of the police. The police in Japan took on a wide range of responsibilities that extended far beyond normal criminal duties and into controlling most facets of Japanese society.

The Kempei Tai came into being as the result of an order by the Meiji Council of State on January 4th, 1881. It consisted of 349 men who were not only to police the military but had civilian duties as well, especially in regards to the new conscription laws. The Kempei Tai was divided into two sections, one for dealing with Teikoku Kaigun (the Imperial Japanese Navy) and the Teikoku Rikugun (the Imperial Japanese Army). The naval branch was known as the General Affairs Section and concerned itself with police work within the navy, policy, personnel, discipline and records. The army branch was called the Service Section and concerned itself with the creation of military police units, security and counter-intelligence.

They answered to the Rikugunsho (Ministry of War) for military matters, Naimusho (Home Ministry) for civil police duties and Shihisho (Ministry of Justice) for the administration of law. In addition, the Kempei Tai assisted local law enforcement officers throughout Japan.

The Kempei Tai was to fan out across the empire, fomenting unrest as far away as the Middle East (Afghanistan), conducting espionage in America and rooting out such famous spies as the Sorge Ring.

They would also put one of their own in the top leadership of Japan. Hideki Tojo, who would rise to become Prime Minister and virtual dictator of Japan, had previously been commander of the Kwantung Army Kempei Tai in Manchukuo from 1935-37 and fully supported the powers the Kempei Tai wielded.

During the Pacific War Period, the Japanese Intelligence services extend their influences in East Asian and Pacific areas until August 1945.

Political Department

The Political Department refers to the political and ideological section of the Kempei Tai military police of pre-Pacific War Japan. It was meant to counter hostile ideological or political influences, and to reinforce the ideology of military units.

It worked through political propaganda and as an ideological representative of the Imperial Japanese Army's Kodoha (Imperial way faction, or war party). In the first phase this section drove against communist propaganda, but extended its responsibilities in other directions, at home and overseas.

It acted in Manchukuo and other areas on the Asian mainland. It was a rough equivalent to the NKVD political sections and or politruk (political commissar) units of the Soviets; or the German Nazi SS propaganda departments. They promoted racial superiority, racialist theories, counterespionage, intelligence, political sabotage and infiltration of enemy lines. They liaised with the Manchukuo military police, the Manchu intelligence service, regular Manchu police, Manchu 'Residents' committees, local Nationalist Manchu Parties and the Japanese Secret Service detachment in Manchukuo. The section in Manchukuo used some agents from White Russian, Chinese, Manchu, Mongol and other foreign backgrounds for special services or covert actions at home and abroad.

Origins of Tokko

In 1901, the Tokubetsu Koto Keisatsu (the Tokko or Special Higher Police) was established. Their main function was as a civilian counterpart to the military's Kempei Tai, targeting any dissenters to Imperial rule and Japanese expansionism. They also had civil and criminal investigations tasks, supplementing the regular security services.

Tokei-Tai, The Naval Secret Police

The Imperial Japanese Navy also formed a smaller and more low key police and intelligence group, the Tokei-Tai (Naval Secret Police), to keep the Kempei Tei and the Army from meddling in Navy affairs. They were no less brutal than their Kempeitei counterparts. The Tokei-Tai was especially active in the areas of the South Pacific, the Naval Control Area.

Special equipment

In line with their particular functions, Japanese secret agents utilized specialized equipment:

Radios

  • Long-range wave radio
  • Short-range wave radio

Electronic devices

  • Certain Asdic or Sonar equipment
  • special radar equipment
  • other types of electronic devices

Special Code Handbooks

  • Japanese Navy Code Handbook
  • Japanese Army Code Handbook
  • Diplomatic Services Code Handbook

Cypher Machines

  • Japanese Navy
    • "JADE" Cypher Machine
    • "Coral" Cypher Machine
    • "Type 91" or "Red" cypher Machine
  • Diplomatic service
    • "PURPLE" or "J" cypher Machine
  • Special Codes:
    • Purple Code
    • Red Code
    • J Code

Weapons

Uniforms

Depending upon the secret mission, the Japanese Secret Services wore regular uniforms, special forces uniforms, police uniforms, captured enemy military or police uniforms, or simply civilian clothing.

Transport

During special operations, the Japanese Secret Services used various local or captured types of transport:

Aircraft

Vessels and Submarines

Japanese Secret Services also used merchant vessels, transport cruisers, coastal or modern high sea fishing vessels, sea or river patrols, Surface Navy War Vessels, regular or modified light boats, and modified or regular Midget or larger Submarines between another vessels types.

Land Transports

During land operations, the Japanese Secret Services used cars, trucks, jeeps, Motorcycles/Sidecars, bicycles, armed or unarmed armored troops transports, light or medium tanks or railway services.

Structure of Japanese Secret Services

Japanese Secret Services Supreme Commander and associated Operative Chiefs


Beneath the Supreme Commander was:

National Defense

Japanese national defense organization

Both perform similar work to German Military Intelligence units Abwehr im Oberkommando der Wehrmacht ("Abwehr"), the Brandenburg Unit and the German Naval Intelligence section.

The Japanese Intelligence Services also organized a spy network code named "TO" and others. The system collected any relevant intelligence data for future objetives or anything related to national defense and the Japanese Army or Navy military plans.


Other Complimentary Military Intelligence units:

  • In Chisima Archipielago:


Naval Intelligence Section

  • Imperial Navy General Staff (General Staff's Intelligence Division)
  • Navy Third Department (Intelligence unit)
  • Tokei-Tai (Naval Military Police)
  • Intelligence Office (previously known as the General Affairs Section)
  • Japanese Naval Intelligence Staff
  • 8th unit "Yashika"
  • Tokyo Gimusho ("The Australian Research Section")

Kempeitai Intelligence Section

  • Decoding & Codebreaking Department
  • Political Department (linked with Kodoha party)
  • Counterespionage/Counterintelligence Department
  • Propaganda and Indoctrination Department
  • Subversion and Sabotage Department
  • Kempei Tai (Army Secret Security) (previously known as the Service Section)

Security Doctrine

  • Kempeitai and Tokei-Tai used Kikosaku as a method of punishment.
  • In Manchukuo, one "native" Manchu Military and police intelligence section worked alongside the Tonari Gumi (the native equivalent organization).

Intelligence Departments by Region

Special Services

Such sections were under the command of Joho-Kikan (Japanese Army intelligence), Tokumu Kikan (Japanese Army Espionage service) and Kempei Tai Intelligence unit. The Japanese Navy has some similar intelligence units.

For tactics operations of Special Forces commandos look at the actions of the Giretsu special forces operations during the last stages of conflict in 1944-45 against the American bases in Marianas.

Central Government

Private Empress

  • Zaibatsus organizations with overseas businesses around the world.
  • Certain private cultural societies

Metropolitan Security

  • Tokubetsu Koto Keisatsu (Tokko or special Higher police) (Civil & Criminal Security) (German Geheime Staatspolizei ("Gestapo") (internal security) /Kriminalpolizei ("Kripo") (criminal police) Japanese equivalent) divided into the following units:
    • Special Police Work
    • Peace preservation
    • Foreign Surveillance
    • Koreans in Japan
    • Labor Relations
    • Censorship
    • Arbitration
  • The Tokko unit has responsibilities similar to Forgschumgsamt ("FA") (German communications watching services) between their watching of telephone and Radio communications inside or outside Japan and nearest areas.
  • Another section added in 1927, The "Thought Section of the Criminal Affairs Bureau" to deal with "dangerous thoughts" and subversive actions.
  • The security unit has offices in:
  • Tonarigumi(Neighborhood Associations) in japanese empire, Manchukuo, Chinese occupied lands and Mengchiang.

Their mission was to keep any internal enemy between residents inside their respective lands and known to security units.

  • Keishicho(ww2) (Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department) with responsabilities in Tokyo and nearest areas.
  • Kempei Tai Metropolitan section, with responsabilities in Tokyo and nearest areas in metropolitan islands. This section worked along with the Tokko intelligence service in internal security in Japan.
  • Tokei Tai Metropolitan unit (in service in Navy Hq and local naval bases) with orders of watching nearest areas.
  • Additionally the Tonari Gumi, certain himitsu kessha (secret societies) groups and Tokko Secret Service, also had similar functions (more frequent in 1930s to early 40s, later in certain periods) equivalent to "Storm Troops", similarly to the German Sturm Abteilung ("SA"), for the control and prosecution of any internal opposition to Japanese ideals inside the country and exterior provinces.

Annex Intellligence units outside Japan

Chosen

  • Kempeitai Training school in Keijo (Seoul)
  • Kempei Tai Chosen unit (Japanese/Korean units)
  • Japanese Army Chosen Army Intelligence Branch
  • Japanese Navy Chosen detachment Intelligence unit
  • Tokko Chosen Intelligence section
  • Chosen Criminal Police services
  • Tonarigumi Chosen organization

Manchukuo & Kwantung

Mengchiang

Reformed Chinese state

Formosa

  • Imperial University of Taihoku
  • Superior Commerce Institute of Taihoku
  • Kempeitai Formosa unit
  • Japanese Army Taiwan Army Intelligence Branch
  • Japanese Navy Taiwan detachment Intelligence unit
  • Tokko Formosa Intelligence section
  • Taiwan Criminal Police services
  • Tonarigumi Formosa organization

South Pacific Mandate

  • Kempeitai South Pacific Mandate unit
  • Japanese Army South Seas Army Intelligence Branch
  • Japanese Navy South Pacific Mandate Intelligence unit
  • Tokeitai Japanese Navy Secret Services
  • South Pacific Mandate local Police services
  • Tonarigumi South Pacific Mandate organization

Southeast Asia

  • Kempeitai branches in area (Japanese/native units)
  • Kempeitai Training Singapore School branch
  • Kempeitai Training Manila School branch
  • Possibly local equivalent of Tonarigumi

organized by Japanese in occupied lands with native collaboration

Other Intelligence sections

  • Kempeitai (Japanese Army Military police)

and Tokei Tai (Japanese navy Military police) had responsibilities similar to German

("SD") (German Security Division) or Soviet Russian NKVD, and Politruk unit, for watching exterior enemies or suspicious persons and watching inside of own unit for possible defectors or traitors; and used the security doctrine of "Kikosaku".

During the Pacific War period Kempeitai had units in:

Japanese Secret Services and Axis Powers Alliance

Previously at cominzed of Fascist political activities in Europe, from 1920s to 30s Japan, poses one very intelligence activities in such area, and established some connections with previous European intelligence services. Later when Japan signed the Axis Powers Alliance, Japanese Secret Services, advanced links with these intelligence units, now under Germany and Italian fascist government how the Abwehr or Italian intelligence Bureau. Along these links, Japanese Army and Navy, contacted at proper Wehrmacht intelligence units, Schutzstaffeln (SS) or Kriegsmarine for ampled your intelligence alliance in European areas. Such agencies realizing informative interchange (for example, the Japanese sent data about Soviet forces in the Far East or in Operation Barbarossa, from the Japanese Embassy) or inclusive aided between theirs (Admiral Canaris offered aid in Portuguese neutrality question in Timor)

One important contact point was in Penang Submarine base, in Malaysia. This base served the Axis submarine force (Italian Reggia Marina, German Kriegsmarine and Japanese Teikoku Kaigun). Here at regular services, some tecnological and informative interchange occurred. Until the end of conflict Axis forces used the bases in Italian occupied Ethiopia, the Vichi France territory of Madagascar and some neutral places like Portuguese Colonies like Goa in British India.

This intelligence collaboration was maintained until 1945, in reduced form until August 1945.

Officer ranks and strengths

  • Area Army: This would be the relevant army to which the Kempei Tai unit was attached and technically subordinate to.
  • Kempei Tai Headquarters: The headquarters staff of the Kempei Tai for each army or area. Commanded by a Shosho (Major General) with a Taisa (Colonel) as Executive Officer.
  • Field Kempei Tai: These were the largest organizations of Kempei Tai in the field and there were 2-3 assigned to each army. Each consists of a Chusa (Lieutenant Colonel) as commander, 22 Field Officers and 352 other troops.
  • Buntai (Sections): These are the next smaller units of the Kempei Tai that make up the Field Kempei Tai groups. Each is commanded by a Tai-i (Captain) with a Chu-i (1st Lieutenant) as his Executive Officer and has 65 other troops.
  • Bunkentai (Detachments): The smallest unit of Kempei Tai, these were commanded by a Sho-i (2nd Lieutenant) with a Junshikan (Warrant Officer) as Executive Officer and 20 other troops.
  • Kempeitai Auxiliary units: consisting of regional ethnic forces in occupied areas. Troops supplemented the Kempei Tai and were considered part of the organization but were forbidden by law to rise above the rank of Shocho (Sergeant Major).
  • Strengths: The Kempei Tai had grown to 315 officers and 6000 enlisted men by 1937. These were the members of the known, public forces. Allies estimated that by the end of World War Two, there were at least 75,000 members of the Kempei Tai, figuring in undercover personnel and so on. This number might be even higher.

Japanese Secret Services and Conquest Planning

Japanese Secret Services provided intelligence info to the Imperial General Headquarters, War Ministry, Marine Ministry and Imperial House Affairs Ministry about Imperial Conquest strategies.

For the Japanese Army Staff such information was principally from China and the Soviet Union, linked with the Japanese strategic planning for mainland Asia (1905-1940). Army thinkers saw detailed data in their Intelligence headquarters in Manchukuo and Kwantung.

For the Japanese Navy Staff, the information came from western colonies in Southeast Asia, and the Pacific area. Navy experts analyzed all aspects of these countries in their Intelligence HQ at Taihoku, Formosa.

At the same time, another important point in planning was in relation to future confrontation with the United States linked to these conquest strategies. These details were studied at Imperial House and Central Government Intelligence organizations in Tokyo.

When all intelligence organizations analyzed the Japanese Army defeats in their strategy in the Russian-Japanese Incidents during 1929-39, the situation stayed in favour of the Japanese Navy ideologists in their proposed South Seas conquest strategy. This changed the political balance in favour of the Navy in 1941, using their proposals in the Southern Area.

The Japanese Secret Services provided important economic, industrial, and social data to help in the organization of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere economic conquest doctrine, with Japanese conquest planning. This recovery of information continued during the Japanese occupation period until August 1945.

After World War I, Japan sided with the Allies, and Japanese Intelligence then monitored the German colonies in the Pacific. Japan occupied Palau Island, the Marshall Islands, and the Caroline Islands. They used the islands as sea and air bases for their intelligence operations, spying on shipping lanes. Dutch New Guinea was a hotbed of Japanese espionage.

The Japanese Army Intelligence and Japanese Navy Intelligence units were independent and did not share intelligence information, even at Imperial Headquarters.

The Japanese used their fishing fleets extensively before World War II, starting to carry out intelligence gathering in and around Australia, and to store caches of food, equipment, fuel and ordnance at strategic locations along the Southeast Asian and Australian coastline.

A number of Japanese Diplomatic, Naval and Military codes were being broken by the early 1930's. The Japanese became aware that their codes were vulnerable, and they attempted to improve their enciphering systems. They abandoned their ordinary codes for military and diplomatic messages and changed to an Enigma machine-encoding system which they thought was more secure. The Enigma system had been used by the Germans in the 1920s. In 1931 the Japanese Navy introduced a cypher machine known as the Type 91. It was later known as "The Red Machine".

A few years later a more complex encoder was introduced which was known as "The J Machine", but which was labelled by the Americans as the "Purple Machine". By 1939, the Americans had also started to break Japan's Diplomatic code which was known as PURPLE. They had fully mastered it by 1941.

The Japanese Naval Code, known as JN-25, was being monitored by the British and Americans for a number of years before the war in the SWPA area started. By 1939, the British had the capability to read parts of the JN-25 Naval Code. The Americans were also able to read parts of JN-25 by 1941. The U.S. Codebreaking effort was led from the Munitions Building in Washington by Colonel William F. Friedman. He had earlier broken another Japanese Code known as "Red". The Japanese Army established a number of Espionage units, known as Kikans. (Pine) They assumed the name of their commanding officer Tokumu Kikan.

The Japanese Bureau of Economic Research as a civil government institution carried out widespread propaganda campaigns in the Dutch East Indies. The Bureau was a training school for spies.

Overseas services and collaborators

  • Japanese undecover actions in United States and Mexico

Japanese Secret Services used some "covers" to protect their activities. For example The Molino Rojo (Red Mill) in Tijuana, Mexico as a brothel used by Japanese intelligence agents for conferences and as a meeting place. The Molino Rojo is located in Tijuana's notorious Zona Norte, with its many bars and brothels. The interesting thing about Tijuana is that it is less than 15 miles from the U.S. Navy's San Diego Destroyer Base (now Naval Station San Diego) and the North Island Naval Air Station. An Imperial Navy Lieutenant Commander and subervsive agent, a former exchange student at California's Stanford University, had recruited an American spy, former Navy yeoman. Starting with a $500 lure and $200 monthly payment, Japanese agents persuaded the American to board U.S. Navy ships dressed in a yeoman's uniform, to obtain intelligence from the crews. The Japanese recruited an American in San Pedro, two hours drive up the California coast, and also the location of U.S. shipping and naval units. This American was detected by the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) and was later sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Japanese spies had assumed the cover of diplomats, businessmen, fisherman and other mundane occupations and frequently relied on the cooperation of, or the blind eyes of top officials of supposedly neutral governments. The Japanese attempted to subvert U.S. politics and foment unrest among minorities with overtures to the National Association for Colored People. This practice was repeated in Mexico and in South America and was patterned after Japan's subversive activities throughout Asia.

  • Japanese intellingence and Secret societies underground actions

The Japanese, like their counterparts in China, developed espionage programs by linking secret societies with ultranationalist aims such as Genyosha (Dark Ocean Society), Kokuryu-ku (Amur River Society, the Black Dragons link) and organized criminal enterprises such as Yakuza crime syndicates. Indeed, Dark Ocean and the Black Dragons supplied espionage and subversion services to the Empire in Korea in 1895 and perhaps earlier. Dark Ocean founder and Black Dragon mentor Mitsuru Toyama, as well secret society links to the Japanese Kempei Tai, a functional equivalent to Hitler's Gestapo that relied upon the secret societies for manpower and support.

The Black Dragons were the Amur River Society (Kokuryu-kai) in 1930s and 1940s Japan. The Black Dragons were ultra-nationalists heavily involved in the conquest of China, and as spies and fifth columnists subverting nations targeted for conquest. The Black Dragons were active up and down the Pacific Coast of North and South America.

Black Dragons were a concern to Lieutenant Commander K. D. Ringle of U.S. Navy Intelligence and other security officials. They were a secret society with political aims. Many of its members served in industry and government including diplomatic posts and bureaucratic and military roles such as the Kempei Tai secret political police. The veiled relationship of secret societies such as Black Dragon to government and business exemplifies a Japanese social phenomena.

Secret Japanese documents titled "The Three Power Alliance and the American/Japanese War" were alleged to have been stolen from an intelligence officer of the Black Dragon Society by an anti-Japanese Korean patriot. The documents were purported to detail Japanese war plans for the simultaneous invasion of the Panama Canal Zone, Alaska, California and Washington State. He was said to have obtained the documents by clandestine means in a Los Angeles hotel room in 1940.

In the Dutch East Indies and the Philippines, as in the U.S. and Mexican west coasts, throngs of Japanese fishermen pulled nets and took notes and pictures for the Empire. Japan's fishing fleets were augmented by farmers, mining engineers, industrialists and merchants, barbers, house-boys, maids and prostitutes, especially in those areas designated as part of Japan's Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. In this sea of ordinary Japanese was submerged a potent fifth column of spies, subversives and saboteurs. There is a story of a French writer travelling worldwide, observing Japanese spy rings operating in Malaya, India, Burma, Ceylon, Thailand and as far away as Middle East, Morocco, Port Said, Egypt and Italian-occupied Ethiopia.

  • Japanese secret services operations in Europe

In neutral Spain, spy masters operating under the aegis of Japan's Ambassador controlled TO spy rings worldwide and coordinated exchanges of intelligence with the other Axis powers through Germany's Abwehr general staff intelligence agency and Italy's Military Secret service. In neutral Portugal, the Japanese Ambassador provided a vital link and source of intelligence for the Axis. In Germany, the Japanese Ambassador outranked both the Japanese diplomat in Madrid and in Lisbon, and much of the TO intelligence was funneled through Japan's Embassy.

In Berlin, where the Japanese Ambassador enjoyed a close friendship with the chief of Germany's secret services, a diplomat relayed TO information to Tokyo along with messages coordinating policies and operations between the three Axis powers. Japan's diplomats in Afghanistan spied on Russia, Iran and India and fed information into the Japanese Madrid center. This pattern of diplomatic cover and use of neutral third countries and Japanese people of ordinary backgrounds was repeated around the world.

The TO network even operated in Great Britain, where an eyewitness said that he had run TO operations from England and stated that the "Spanish leader knew every detail of our activities with the Axis". Early on, the Japanese Ambassador in Spain established a successful spy ring in the U.S. aided by a Spanish operative introduced by Spain's Foreign Minister Suñer. In this net were some Japanese spies operating in a U.S. City in Pacific area.

  • Japanese intellingence services and Japanese comunities in overseas

In the period from about 1895 to 1941, Japan encouraged emigration of its citizens to nations bordering the Pacific Ocean, including the United States. These Japanese were often referred to as doho, or "compatriots". The position taken by Tokyo was that the doho held dual citizenship, with loyalty to Japan, and loyalty to the Emperor first and foremost. While unknown numbers of Japanese citizens rejected the demands of being doho, many did not. The doho created security problems for Asian nations, the Pacific islands and for the United States and Canada. Routinely denied by Japanese-Americans, doho performed espionage and subversive duties for Japan on U.S. soil. Japanese men returned to Japan to serve the Tenno. Thousands of Japanese-American men renounced their loyalty to the U.S. and demanded repatriation to Japan during World War II. Black Dragons disrupted U.S. internment camps. Declassification of U.S. security files including top secret intercepts of Japanese Code Machine and other ciphers has confirmed and added to the body of information on doho.

There were among the Japanese both alien and United States citizens certain individuals, either deliberately placed by the Japanese government or actuated by a fanatical loyalty to that country, who acted as saboteurs or agents. This number is estimated to be less than three percent of the total, or about 3500 in the entire United States.

The most dangerous of these people were either in custodial detention or members of such organizations as the Black Dragon Society, the Kaigun Kyokai (Navy League), or the Hoirusha Kai (Military Service Man's League), or affiliated groups. The membership of these groups was already fairly well known to the Naval Intelligence Service or the FBI and could be immediately placed in custodial detention, irrespective of whether they were alien or citizen. Another example, in the Southeast Asia area, were Japanese living in Malaya before World War II carrying out subversion and providing intelligence information, troops and war materiel. These Japanese immigrants, or first generation descendants of Japanese born in Malaya, were considered doho, or compatriots by Japanese traditions and law. Their allegiance to the Emperor and Japan was assumed by Japan's leaders. The doho in Malaya included the Japanese Editor of a local journal, a Japanese diplomat (arrested for espionage), thousands of Japanese prostitutes, businessmen, dentists, photographers and barbers.

The policy of this editor was to oppose the pro-England, pro-Southeast Asia policies of local newspapers and soften public opinion in Japan's favor. The prostitutes, passed on pillow talk, and the businessmen, dentists, photographers and barbers were all well-placed to collect intelligence, take photos and glean intelligence while hearing the chatter of their customers and social contacts.

Major Sources

"Japanese and other Axis Power Intelligence Units and Other Secret Units During WW2"

See also

Category: