Hello. I know for certain that the Japanese were conducting espionage activities in Europe during WW2, but I know very little of the details. According to my sources, the Manchukuo diplomatic legation in Berlin employed some Polish spies cooperating with Japan, and Sweden was also host to some Polish-Japanese intelligence cooperation (between Michał Rybikowski and Makoto Onodera, respectively). I believe the nature of this espionage was mostly directed at the common enemy of Poland and Japan: the Soviet Union, but I know very little of the details.
Can anyone help?
Looking for information on Japanese espionage in Europe
Re: Looking for information on Japanese espionage in Europe
In the MI 5 "name files" available at UK National Archives at Kew/UK there are any number of people spying, or suspected of spying, for the Japanese. There were at least ten British individuals supplying the Japanese with material between the 1920s to 1940s. A look through the names shows MI 5 files for Makoto Onodera (Japanese Mil Attache in Stockholm), Fernando Kobbe y Chichilla (the Spanish Consul in Vancouver/Canada who was spying for the Japanese, 1942), Morio Aoki (Japanese Embassy, Ankara), Gyula de Kovacs (a Hungarian, who operated a post box for the Japanese in Bagdad), double agent "Joseph"/also "Rhubarb") operating against the Japanese in Lisbon, 1942-1944.
These names come from the KV 2 files at UKNA; there is probably additional information in other MI 5 files series (subject etc) at UKNA.
The British were also intercepting Japanese radio traffic, including the Military Attache in Berlin, I do not recall the details as not my area of interest, but these are in HW 12 at UKNA. As far as I know, this was not the MAGIC material the Americans were intercepting.
These names come from the KV 2 files at UKNA; there is probably additional information in other MI 5 files series (subject etc) at UKNA.
The British were also intercepting Japanese radio traffic, including the Military Attache in Berlin, I do not recall the details as not my area of interest, but these are in HW 12 at UKNA. As far as I know, this was not the MAGIC material the Americans were intercepting.
Re: Looking for information on Japanese espionage in Europe
I think this is the only Japanese decoded message (at Bletchley Park) I copied to give you a flavour. Note the date of the conversation and subsequent happening, later:
Re: Looking for information on Japanese espionage in Europe
Thank you very much steve248, it gives me something to go investigate.
Re: Looking for information on Japanese espionage in Europe
Hello,
If you are interested in Japanese- Polish intelligence co-operation please check these posts in forum.axis:
viewtopic.php?t=81050
You will find original brief of the lecture,cited in above posts, given by Professor Palasz-Rutkowska (who specializes in Polish-Japanese relations) published in "The Asiatic Society of Japan Bulletin No. 4", April 1995 at :
https://web.archive.org/web/20110716023 ... mmary.html
There is a lot of books and films about Chiune Sugihara, Japanese consul in Kaunas, Lithuania in 1940 but most of them only touch his intelligence activities.
Some detailed information on this co-operation ( especially on the liquidation of the Polish Intelligence outpost in Berlin by the German counter-intelligence in July 1941) can be found in Walter Schellenberg's memoirs ("Walter Schellenberg: The Memoirs of Hitler's Spymaster") but for obvious reasons it is not 100% reliable source of information.
Besides Chiune Sugihara, intelligence focused on Nazi Germany was run by General Akikusa Shun, also expert on Russia and co-founder of Nakano School (his bio - see Wiki : https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%90%D0 ... 1%8E%D0%BD)
Since March 1940 he worked officially as embassy counselor in Manchukuo Embassy in Berlin ( as " Colonel Hoshino Ichiro") , being also consul general of Manchukuo in Nazi's occupied Warsaw. He travelled extensively through occupied Europe, officially gathering information on German occupation administration. In 1942 he returned to Tokyo.
Japanese intelligence against USSR ( also against Allies) was run by General Onodera Makoto, military attache in Stockholm. His co-operation with major Rybikowski (and others) is broadly described in declassified US War Department, Strategic Services Unit's document "Japanese Wartime Intelligence activities in Northern Europe", based on interrogation of Onodera (and others) in Sugamo Prison in Tokyo (1946).
Check: https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom ... te/onodera
PS
There of other sources on this subject, but in Polish and Japanese.
If you are interested in Japanese- Polish intelligence co-operation please check these posts in forum.axis:
viewtopic.php?t=81050
You will find original brief of the lecture,cited in above posts, given by Professor Palasz-Rutkowska (who specializes in Polish-Japanese relations) published in "The Asiatic Society of Japan Bulletin No. 4", April 1995 at :
https://web.archive.org/web/20110716023 ... mmary.html
There is a lot of books and films about Chiune Sugihara, Japanese consul in Kaunas, Lithuania in 1940 but most of them only touch his intelligence activities.
Some detailed information on this co-operation ( especially on the liquidation of the Polish Intelligence outpost in Berlin by the German counter-intelligence in July 1941) can be found in Walter Schellenberg's memoirs ("Walter Schellenberg: The Memoirs of Hitler's Spymaster") but for obvious reasons it is not 100% reliable source of information.
Besides Chiune Sugihara, intelligence focused on Nazi Germany was run by General Akikusa Shun, also expert on Russia and co-founder of Nakano School (his bio - see Wiki : https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%90%D0 ... 1%8E%D0%BD)
Since March 1940 he worked officially as embassy counselor in Manchukuo Embassy in Berlin ( as " Colonel Hoshino Ichiro") , being also consul general of Manchukuo in Nazi's occupied Warsaw. He travelled extensively through occupied Europe, officially gathering information on German occupation administration. In 1942 he returned to Tokyo.
Japanese intelligence against USSR ( also against Allies) was run by General Onodera Makoto, military attache in Stockholm. His co-operation with major Rybikowski (and others) is broadly described in declassified US War Department, Strategic Services Unit's document "Japanese Wartime Intelligence activities in Northern Europe", based on interrogation of Onodera (and others) in Sugamo Prison in Tokyo (1946).
Check: https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom ... te/onodera
PS
There of other sources on this subject, but in Polish and Japanese.
Re: Looking for information on Japanese espionage in Europe
Thank you very much Von Tichy, it's a great starting point.