Does anyone have some details on Japanese intelligence operations being carried out in the Alaska/Aleutians region prior to the Aleutian Islands Campaign?
In the book 'Attu Boy: A Young Alaskan's WW2 Memoir' there is mention of pre-war activity by Japanese individuals in the vicinity of the Aleutian islands being noticed or suspected by locals. A few accounts mention Japanese fishermen and fur trappers being observed acting suspiciously in the area, as well as rumors of "tuginagus" (boogeymen) leaving tracks in the locality. Additionally there are claims that "Attu [had been] completely surveyed by the Japs under the pretext of collecting flowers and butterflies..."
A local village chief, Mike Hodikoff, reported that Japanese navy personnel had been seen in the area taking measurements around the harbours, and that stakes with Japanese writing had been left on land in certain areas prior to the invasion. I've also seen a claim online about a certain Japanese man in Dutch Harbor being arrested in the mid 1930s on charges of espionage, though I can't find many details on this...
I'm really curious to learn if there are more concrete details on this subject. For example is there surviving evidence from Japanese records concerning operatives being dispatched to survey the region or any description of what exactly they were doing there prior to the invasion?
Info on Japanese intelligence operations in Alaska and Aleutians?
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ketoujin23
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Re: Info on Japanese intelligence operations in Alaska and Aleutians?
Hama,
I had the same query some time ago. See my old post on this same forum here: https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic ... 6#p1999656
As I said in that (so far un-answered) thread, there WAS Japanese surveillance of US Navy maneuvers near the island in 1935 carried out by the Hokuyo Maru - a Japanese fishing/sealer vessel that was later sunk during the aerial operations against the IJN base on Truk in 1944. I HAVE found mention of the Hokuyo Maru in a Japanese North Pacific fishing industry yearbook from that same year that I found on the Japanese Diet Library page where many public-domain and copyright-expired books from the war-period are viewable free of charge. No mention, as you might imagine though, of the vessel's precise role in shadowing the Pacific Fleet's 1930's Aleutian maneuvers however and the only mention I have found of the vessel monitoring the Fleet's exercise comes from "Stepping Stones to Nowhere" a monograph on, primarily, the US/Canadian view of the islands pre-war from a strategic policy perspective.
I have read of Hodikoff and his role in not only giving the American defense authorities (ultimately unheeded) warnings of the Japanese attack on the islands but also of his role in providing intelligence preparatory to the re-taking of Attu and Kiska however there seems to be little more in most American historical treatments of the campaign than the fact that both he and the pre-war Chichagoff villagers (as noted in the entries and letters home of Etta Jones, the white school-teacher on Attu before the Japanese occupation) had their suspicions that Japanese were in the islands with nefarious intent toward surveying the islands' beaches and topography prior to an invasion.
The story of the spy in Dutch Harbor was real and involved a US Navy intelligence official and Japanese linguist Edwin Layton and can be read about in Layton's career retrospective "And I Was There" (weirdly, my own copy was signed by Layton himself and presented to the former CO of the USS Saratoga.....yes really). Layton said that the spy as well as a Japanese prostitute in town were deported from the country for trying to wrangle naval secrets from occasional US Naval vessels that called at, what was then, a relatively sleepy port and the only base of any US significance in the entire archipelago prior to 6/42. Layton was sent to Dutch Harbor to interrogate the two spies and even though a better re-telling of the incident would be interesting, Layton's account is short on any real in-depth specifics and runs to fewer than a couple paragraphs!
Layton would later become sort of famous after the war given his work with "Station 'Hypo'" at Pearl Harbor which under the leadership the Linguists' Chief Joseph Rochefort, helped break the JN-25 Naval Code prior to Midway AND "AL."
I can read enough Japanese to be dangerous and am currently researching a book about the experiences of the men of the "Northern Area Detachment," as well as the other Japanese sailors, airmen, involved in the campaign from their perspective.
Like you, I would love to know more about pre-war or at least pre-invasion Japanese intelligence efforts in the Aleutians but have found precious little. There is a document from June of 1942 titled "Information on the Aleutians" I've found on JACAR - the Japanese Archives - that has some topographical information and hand-drafted maps of the Aleutian Islands but no, as far as I can read at least, written provenance as to how it was collected. I can find and send you the link if you can give me some time to do so.
I hope you, too, are able to find something on this topic in the course of your own searching.
Best,
Gunnar
I had the same query some time ago. See my old post on this same forum here: https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic ... 6#p1999656
As I said in that (so far un-answered) thread, there WAS Japanese surveillance of US Navy maneuvers near the island in 1935 carried out by the Hokuyo Maru - a Japanese fishing/sealer vessel that was later sunk during the aerial operations against the IJN base on Truk in 1944. I HAVE found mention of the Hokuyo Maru in a Japanese North Pacific fishing industry yearbook from that same year that I found on the Japanese Diet Library page where many public-domain and copyright-expired books from the war-period are viewable free of charge. No mention, as you might imagine though, of the vessel's precise role in shadowing the Pacific Fleet's 1930's Aleutian maneuvers however and the only mention I have found of the vessel monitoring the Fleet's exercise comes from "Stepping Stones to Nowhere" a monograph on, primarily, the US/Canadian view of the islands pre-war from a strategic policy perspective.
I have read of Hodikoff and his role in not only giving the American defense authorities (ultimately unheeded) warnings of the Japanese attack on the islands but also of his role in providing intelligence preparatory to the re-taking of Attu and Kiska however there seems to be little more in most American historical treatments of the campaign than the fact that both he and the pre-war Chichagoff villagers (as noted in the entries and letters home of Etta Jones, the white school-teacher on Attu before the Japanese occupation) had their suspicions that Japanese were in the islands with nefarious intent toward surveying the islands' beaches and topography prior to an invasion.
The story of the spy in Dutch Harbor was real and involved a US Navy intelligence official and Japanese linguist Edwin Layton and can be read about in Layton's career retrospective "And I Was There" (weirdly, my own copy was signed by Layton himself and presented to the former CO of the USS Saratoga.....yes really). Layton said that the spy as well as a Japanese prostitute in town were deported from the country for trying to wrangle naval secrets from occasional US Naval vessels that called at, what was then, a relatively sleepy port and the only base of any US significance in the entire archipelago prior to 6/42. Layton was sent to Dutch Harbor to interrogate the two spies and even though a better re-telling of the incident would be interesting, Layton's account is short on any real in-depth specifics and runs to fewer than a couple paragraphs!
Layton would later become sort of famous after the war given his work with "Station 'Hypo'" at Pearl Harbor which under the leadership the Linguists' Chief Joseph Rochefort, helped break the JN-25 Naval Code prior to Midway AND "AL."
I can read enough Japanese to be dangerous and am currently researching a book about the experiences of the men of the "Northern Area Detachment," as well as the other Japanese sailors, airmen, involved in the campaign from their perspective.
Like you, I would love to know more about pre-war or at least pre-invasion Japanese intelligence efforts in the Aleutians but have found precious little. There is a document from June of 1942 titled "Information on the Aleutians" I've found on JACAR - the Japanese Archives - that has some topographical information and hand-drafted maps of the Aleutian Islands but no, as far as I can read at least, written provenance as to how it was collected. I can find and send you the link if you can give me some time to do so.
I hope you, too, are able to find something on this topic in the course of your own searching.
Best,
Gunnar
Re: Info on Japanese intelligence operations in Alaska and Aleutians?
Thanks very much for your reply and that interesting info, Gunnar. Unlike you I unfortunately can't read any Japanese so I'm severely limited in what sources I can access, my research so far has been confined to local histories among the Aleuts and the occasional western-perspective book on the Aleutians campaign (which often barely touch on the pre-war situation as compared to the actual campaign). I would very much appreciate any material you could find on this subject, if you do come across something could I ask you to please post it here for the benefit of myself and anyone else interested?
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ketoujin23
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- Joined: 26 Oct 2006, 05:26
- Location: Oregon, US
Re: Info on Japanese intelligence operations in Alaska and Aleutians?
Hama,
I should be able to post that document from the archives of the Diet Library in the next few days. I am a college teacher so am getting ready for the Winter term now but do have some time to try and find it again though too in-between getting ready for class.
There is little on pre-war Japanese reconnaissance of the Aleutians although Japanese fishermen/sealers were in the area a long time so once again it stands to reason that they would also have been used to reconnoiter the area prior to both the war itself and before the attack on the base at Dutch Harbor and the landings on Attu and Kiska.
There is actually quite a bit of information on the reconnaissance carried out by submarines and submarine-launched aircraft in late May and early June 1942 after the start of the war but still prior to the start of "Operation AL." Several of the "TRM's" or "tabular records of moment," basically compressed after-action reports, of the submarines as part of Admiral Hosogaya's Northern Strike Force are at http://www.combinedfleet.com, the action reports are specifically found here:http://www.combinedfleet.com/sensuikan.htm. Look, specifically, at those of submarine I-15 and several of her sister ships of the B1 class that participated in the Northern operation. One even went so far as to do reconnaissance periscope observations of the (then, at the start of the campaign) small US base at Kodiak on Kodiak Island, the eastern-most island in the Aleutian Chain. I-15 was the submarine that, in addition, was doing air-crew life-guard picket duty off the small island of Akutan after the raid on Dutch Harbor and, had the latter survived, would have likely picked up downed Ryuho A6M pilot PO1C Tadayoshi Koga - he of the famous "Akutan Zero." The eventful if short-lived career of both PO1C Koga AND (if reality had been different) his would-be rescuer the I-15 and its commander Nobuo Ishikawa make interesting reading.
The island names are doubly familiar to me as I lived for thirteen summers living with my parents commercial fishing for salmon on the south end of Kodiak which I guess is one reason (the other is the fact that I've always been interested in Japan and did an MA in Japanese studies later) that I have always found the Aleutian theater so engrossing and fascinating and why I am wanting to do a book on the Japanese perspective.
To add further to my knowledge of the Japanese submarine and ground activities in the Aleutians I have ordered two books by Lieutenant Commander Mitsuma Itakura who, among other tasks, commanded a submarine out of Kiska for several months in 1942/1943 as well as a book called "Attu Gyokusaisen" by Hidehiko Ushijima which I hope will give more perspective on the battle of Attu from the few - twenty-seven - Japanese survivors.
Many more books on the evacuated force on Kiska in Japanese are available but so far as I can see none are available for purchase where I am.
Gunnar
I should be able to post that document from the archives of the Diet Library in the next few days. I am a college teacher so am getting ready for the Winter term now but do have some time to try and find it again though too in-between getting ready for class.
There is little on pre-war Japanese reconnaissance of the Aleutians although Japanese fishermen/sealers were in the area a long time so once again it stands to reason that they would also have been used to reconnoiter the area prior to both the war itself and before the attack on the base at Dutch Harbor and the landings on Attu and Kiska.
There is actually quite a bit of information on the reconnaissance carried out by submarines and submarine-launched aircraft in late May and early June 1942 after the start of the war but still prior to the start of "Operation AL." Several of the "TRM's" or "tabular records of moment," basically compressed after-action reports, of the submarines as part of Admiral Hosogaya's Northern Strike Force are at http://www.combinedfleet.com, the action reports are specifically found here:http://www.combinedfleet.com/sensuikan.htm. Look, specifically, at those of submarine I-15 and several of her sister ships of the B1 class that participated in the Northern operation. One even went so far as to do reconnaissance periscope observations of the (then, at the start of the campaign) small US base at Kodiak on Kodiak Island, the eastern-most island in the Aleutian Chain. I-15 was the submarine that, in addition, was doing air-crew life-guard picket duty off the small island of Akutan after the raid on Dutch Harbor and, had the latter survived, would have likely picked up downed Ryuho A6M pilot PO1C Tadayoshi Koga - he of the famous "Akutan Zero." The eventful if short-lived career of both PO1C Koga AND (if reality had been different) his would-be rescuer the I-15 and its commander Nobuo Ishikawa make interesting reading.
The island names are doubly familiar to me as I lived for thirteen summers living with my parents commercial fishing for salmon on the south end of Kodiak which I guess is one reason (the other is the fact that I've always been interested in Japan and did an MA in Japanese studies later) that I have always found the Aleutian theater so engrossing and fascinating and why I am wanting to do a book on the Japanese perspective.
To add further to my knowledge of the Japanese submarine and ground activities in the Aleutians I have ordered two books by Lieutenant Commander Mitsuma Itakura who, among other tasks, commanded a submarine out of Kiska for several months in 1942/1943 as well as a book called "Attu Gyokusaisen" by Hidehiko Ushijima which I hope will give more perspective on the battle of Attu from the few - twenty-seven - Japanese survivors.
Many more books on the evacuated force on Kiska in Japanese are available but so far as I can see none are available for purchase where I am.
Gunnar
Re: Info on Japanese intelligence operations in Alaska and Aleutians?
Thanks for the pointers, I'll have a look. I was doing a bit of reading on the B1 subs in connection to some of the operations around the US west coast (e.g. Fort Stevens bombardment) so I'll go back and see what connections with the Aleutians I can find in my sources. I'm not an academic myself so I don't always have the access to extensive resources on these kinds of subjects, but if you ever decide to go through with that book idea give me a heads up, you'll definitely have a sale 
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ketoujin23
- Member
- Posts: 39
- Joined: 26 Oct 2006, 05:26
- Location: Oregon, US
Re: Info on Japanese intelligence operations in Alaska and Aleutians?
Hama,
As far as books on the shelling from Japanese submarines in the Northwest there are three great books by a Portland-based researcher and author named Burt Webber - he started his career as a war correspondent in Kodiak, Alaska actually. One is "Panic at Fort Stevens," the others are "Silent Siege I" and Silent Siege III" (somehow "II" never made it in or he did another book of which I'm not aware that dispensed with the number sequence). Lots of good information coming from Commander Tagami's crew on the I-25 that did the shelling there too. Evidently there is also a book entitled "Aleutian Head-ache" about the campaign that interests us both but I do not have it however I now want to purchase a copy. His last book - came out about fifteen/twenty years ago - was "The Bulldog of the Navy," a biography-of-sorts of the Spanish-American war-era battleship U.S.S. Oregon which, after helping sink Spanish warships during the Cuban campaign in 1898, was made into a floating museum in Portland but was sent to Tinian as an explosives-carrying hulk during WWII (the explosives it carried helped level the areas of Tinian for the B-29 airfields that provided a spring-board for the strategic bombing of Japan). Anyway, good information in his work all-around.
Much data on the "Fugo" "balloon bomb" campaign directed against North America is included in volumes "I" and "III" to boot.
I visited Ft. Stevens and the smaller Battery Russell twice, the most recent time when I was twelve as part of a Boy Scouts field trip. A great time playing "army" in the derelict buildings even though some of them were - even then and this is around 1992 we're talking about - concreted up in certain entrances and stairwells in order to inhibit the public from vandalizing the shell of the building one supposes. Though it was fun to explore Fort Stevens at that time I do remember skinning the front of my knee and lower leg when I didn't look where I was moving and put my leg down a ventilation shaft.
Best,
Gunnar
As far as books on the shelling from Japanese submarines in the Northwest there are three great books by a Portland-based researcher and author named Burt Webber - he started his career as a war correspondent in Kodiak, Alaska actually. One is "Panic at Fort Stevens," the others are "Silent Siege I" and Silent Siege III" (somehow "II" never made it in or he did another book of which I'm not aware that dispensed with the number sequence). Lots of good information coming from Commander Tagami's crew on the I-25 that did the shelling there too. Evidently there is also a book entitled "Aleutian Head-ache" about the campaign that interests us both but I do not have it however I now want to purchase a copy. His last book - came out about fifteen/twenty years ago - was "The Bulldog of the Navy," a biography-of-sorts of the Spanish-American war-era battleship U.S.S. Oregon which, after helping sink Spanish warships during the Cuban campaign in 1898, was made into a floating museum in Portland but was sent to Tinian as an explosives-carrying hulk during WWII (the explosives it carried helped level the areas of Tinian for the B-29 airfields that provided a spring-board for the strategic bombing of Japan). Anyway, good information in his work all-around.
Much data on the "Fugo" "balloon bomb" campaign directed against North America is included in volumes "I" and "III" to boot.
I visited Ft. Stevens and the smaller Battery Russell twice, the most recent time when I was twelve as part of a Boy Scouts field trip. A great time playing "army" in the derelict buildings even though some of them were - even then and this is around 1992 we're talking about - concreted up in certain entrances and stairwells in order to inhibit the public from vandalizing the shell of the building one supposes. Though it was fun to explore Fort Stevens at that time I do remember skinning the front of my knee and lower leg when I didn't look where I was moving and put my leg down a ventilation shaft.
Best,
Gunnar