I didn’t see anyone mention the ‘MAGIC’ intercepts.
We had broken both the Japanese Diplomatic and Naval codes and from this we knew that there were a number of effective spies working our military bases and defense plants along the Pacific coast.
If we had rounded up those spies Japan would have figured out how we did it and this would have prompted them to change their codes. Those codes were invaluable, we used them to set up Japan at the battle of Midway and we couldn’t risk losing them.
The internment of Japanese Americans was a cover that allowed the spies to be rounded up without alerting Japan. This was described in a book by David Lowman who was the NSA officer responsible for declassifying the Magic intercepts, “Magic: The Untold Story of U.S. Intelligence and the Evacuation of Japanese Residents from the West Coast During Ww II “.
I had not heard that before. Very very interesting. That sure puts a new light on it doesn’t it.
You’re hit at Pearl Harbor, you don’t know exactly what comes next, possibly more attacks, the West Coast.
Then you have the codes, to convince the enemy you don’t have.
I’ll have to check that out.
Very interesting. I’ll have to read that one. Thanks.