Were five OSS agents hanged in Japan in 1944?

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Checkist
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Were five OSS agents hanged in Japan in 1944?

#1

Post by Checkist » 01 Oct 2009, 18:39

In the book "Sugamo Prison, Tokyo" by John L. Ginn, he recalls being an American MP guarding Japanese prisoners like Hideki Tojo after the war. On page 4 he narrates that Japanese authorities had hanged Soviet spy Richard Sorge in 1944 at Sugamo. He then states:

"Other spies executed at Sugamo included five America agents. In July 1943 William J. Donovan, director of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), sent a six-man team into Japan as part of a B-29 bombing mission. They parachuted from the plane at night over Honshu, equipped with transmitters, Japanese currency, rations and wepons. The Japanese soon realized that spies were reporting their convoy and troop movements to the Allies. Japan lost five ships in one convoy and four troop transports in another. Military units searched the countryside and eventually caught five of the OSS agents. They were taken to Sugamo, interrogated, and executed by hanging in November 1944 - the same month as Sorge and Ozaki. (The sixth agent was never caught and continued to transmit ship movements to the U.S. military. After the war he came in from the cold and served as a colonel with the occupation forces.)"

If accurate, this story is dynamite! I have never read any account of the OSS successfully infiltrating agents into Japan during the war. I infer from this account that the agents were Asian, either Nisei or Korean-American, in order to blend in. I know that the OSS was working on a program (Operation Napko) at the end of WWII, headquartered at Santa Catalina Island, California. The goal was to infiltrate Korean-Americans into Japan to commit sabotage. Published accounts state that the war ended before any American agents made it to Japan.

I believe that Mr. Ginn is deceased. I contacted the OSS Society and the Sugamo Prison Association (of former U.S. military serving there during the occupation) with no additional information forthcoming. One former American MP emailed me to say that he had heard similar rumors when he served at Sugamo in the late 1940's, but had nothing else to add. I am not sure Mr. Ginn was recalling of all details accurately many years after the events. Were B-29's operational over Japan in 1943?

Is there anyone who might have more information on the OSS mission into Japan?


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Peter H
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Re: Were five OSS agents hanged in Japan in 1944?

#2

Post by Peter H » 01 Oct 2009, 22:40

In July 1943 William J. Donovan, director of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), sent a six-man team into Japan as part of a B-29 bombing mission.
The first B-29 raid on Japan was on the 15th June 1944 from China.This was the first bombing attack on Japan since the Doolittle Raid of 1942.

Hard to reconcile this claim with the facts if the starting point is wrong. :)


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cortodanzigese
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Re: Were five OSS agents hanged in Japan in 1944?

#3

Post by cortodanzigese » 01 Oct 2009, 23:48

That could be a classical desinformation every spy agency produces from time to time.

OSS had a few nice successes in Nazi Europe ( rather modest, if compared with soviet intelligence achievements at a time ) but in the Fabled Orient Doihara & Co had upper hand - all the time I refer to human espionage, not codebreakers of course.

Checkist
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Re: Were five OSS agents hanged in Japan in 1944?

#4

Post by Checkist » 02 Oct 2009, 08:20

Mr. Ginn could be wrong about the specific type of aircraft used. The agents would have to have been infiltrated by some other type of long range airplane or by submarine. So far there is no confirmation of this account and it could have been a barracks rumor. I have heard that even today the Japanese government is secretive about war details.

I wrote a FOIA request to the CIA and they replied that they had no records. They are suppose to have all OSS records as well as their own. Could be that:

a) The alleged event never happened.
b) The records have been lost or sent to another archive.
c) A decision was made to keep this operation confidential because Japanese, ethnic Koreans, or others in Japan cooperated with the US during the war and their families don't want this revealed, even today.

Anyone have a suggestion as to another path of inquiry?

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hisashi
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Re: Were five OSS agents hanged in Japan in 1944?

#5

Post by hisashi » 03 Oct 2009, 02:06

According to 'A History of Wartime Vessel Loss' by Ikegawa Shinjiro, from July to December 1943 Japan lost 290 merchant ships. I don't know somebody in Japan hit on an idea that 9 of them were because of espionage. The first numbered 'Hi' series conboy in roughly Japan - Singapole route began in July 1943 and OSS must have a spy to detect it. The air raid to Japan homeland was a serious political matter so unrecorded reach of enemy aircraft to Honshu do not sound real. Above all, Japan rationed almost all foods in that period so the agents must steal all foods after they ate up their handy rations, which seemed very outstanding and the seek for criminal could not completely seal from citizens. I don't think this story was real.

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Peter H
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Re: Were five OSS agents hanged in Japan in 1944?

#6

Post by Peter H » 03 Oct 2009, 02:45

I remember seeing a Verona now unclassified transcript from October 1944 indicating that a OSS proposal at that time was to send some Korean and "turned Japanese" in as agents.It appears the Chinese held some POWs that meet this criteria at that time.Using Korean-Americans or Japanese-Americans was not considered.Nothing came of it.Neither do turncoat types suggest some reliability.They could also filter home and just disappear.

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Re: Were five OSS agents hanged in Japan in 1944?

#7

Post by Chuckx » 17 Apr 2021, 01:25

My great uncle recently passed but in his deathbed he told me how he was OSS and was sent to Tokyo October 1941 to work with Soviet agents. He was arrested and went to prison but was repatriated maybe a few months later during a secret prisoner exchange.

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