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ABSTRACT
Leading up to the Pacific War, Japanese legations around the world undertook significant espionage and propaganda activities to either collect intelligence on potential adversaries, or to shape local opinion favourably towards Japanese expansionist policies. Australia was no exception. Japanese diplomats based in Sydney worked closely with Japanese corporations and local enablers in coordinating covert and overt activities which assisted Japan in preparing for war in the Pacific, and ultimately for war against Australia. Although Japan failed to collect high value military intelligence against Australia, and its subtle and well-organised local propaganda campaign could not erase negative public perceptions of Japanese militarism in China, its vast economic intelligence collection activities likely proved highly useful in rebuilding post-war relations with Australia.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Australian War Museum (AWM), Japanese intelligence and its operation in Australia – Wartime (archives). Barcode 821330.
2 J.W.M. Chapman, “Japanese Intelligence 1919–1945: A suitable case for treatment,” in Intelligence and International Relations 1900–1945, ed. C. Andrew and J. Noakes (Exeter: Exeter University Publications, 1987), 148.
3 AWM, Barcode 821330.
4 National Archives of Australia (NAA), Japan – Activities in the Pacific Part III. Barcode 177433.
5 Chapman, “Japanese Intelligence 1919–1945,” 148.
6 P.A. Loureiro, “Japanese Espionage and American Countermeasures in Pre – Pearl Harbor California,” The Journal of American-East Asian Relations, 3, no. 3 (1994): 199.
7 K. Kotani, Japanese Intelligence in World War Two (Great Britain: Osprey Publishing, 2009), 9, 5–10.
8 “Excerpts from The United States Strategic Bombing Survey (Pacific), Japanese Military and Naval Intelligence Division, April 1946,” United States Government Printing Office, accessed 13 September 2017, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015030662921;view=1up;seq=3.
9 R. Seth, Secret Servants – A History of Japanese Espionage (New York: Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, 1957), 150.
10 Loureiro, “Japanese Espionage and American Countermeasures,” 200.
11 Ibid, 200.
12 Ibid, 202.
13 Ibid, 204–205.
14 R. J. Aldrich, Intelligence and the War Against Japan (United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 47–48.
15 Ibid, 55.
16 Royal Australian Navy (RAN) Support to US Navy through Australian Commonwealth Naval Board (ACNB), Summaries, Translations of Japanese Messages, February – December 1942, Series 8, Box 18, Special Intelligence Section at Army Headquarters, Melbourne, 1942–1946, Papers of David Sissons, National Library of Australia (NLA).
17 Ibid.
18 NAA, NSW Security Service file – Japanese organisations in Sydney. Barcode 3047929.
19 By the late 1930s there were over 3000 Japanese living in Australia, with almost 400 in Sydney.
20 NAA, Japanese Organisations in Sydney, Intelligence Memorandum, 1942. Barcode 3047929.
21 Submission by David Sissons to Senate Standing Committee for Foreign Affairs and Defence, ‘Australian Fears of Japan as a Defence Threat 1895–1971,’ 28 April 1972 (Hansard). Box 38, Papers of David Sissons, NLA.
22 To Prime Minister’s Department, Copy of Deciphers of Telegram received from External Affairs Officer, London, No. 863, Series 8, Box 18, Special Intelligence Section at Army Headquarters, Melbourne, 1942–1946, Papers of David Sissons, NLA.
23 NAA, Source of Fund for Intelligence and Enlightenment Purposes, Telegram from Kodama, Federation of Japanese Exporters’ Associations to Yokohama Specie Bank, Sydney, 2 December 1938. Barcode 313103.
24 Ibid.
25 NAA, Mr Craig of the ‘Daily Telegraph.’ Correspondence with the Japanese Consul General in Australia, Cable No. 19 Wakamatsu to Hirota, Box 6. Barcode 312920.
26 NAA, Japanese Chamber of Commerce, Sydney – Correspondence with the Japanese Consul General in Australia 1939 and 1940, Box 5. Barcode 312659.
27 Ibid.
28 NAA, Wool Grower’s Association – Correspondence of the Japanese Consul General in Australia, Cable from Kodama to Iwazaki, October 1939, Box 8. Barcode 313441.
29 NAA, Wool Grower’s Association – Correspondence of the Japanese Consul General in Australia, Box 8. Barcode 313441.
30 NAA, Japanese Consulate Material, Biography of Masatoshi Akiyama. Barcode 311535.
31 NAA, Cable from Akiyama to Arita, 20 January 1940, Box 2. Barcode 311535.
32 NAA, Japan – Southward Advancement, Part I. Barcode 177619.
33 NAA, Mr Yanase, Correspondence with the Japanese Consul General in Australia, Memorandum to LTCOL S.M. Jackson – Report on M. Yanase, Box 6. Barcode 312751.
34 NAA, Correspondence between Consul General and Department of the Interior’s Property and Survey Branch, 3 November 1939. Barcode 312950.
35 NAA, Ports & Harbours of Australia, request information re [Correspondence of the Japanese Consul General in Australia, Letter from Maritime Services Board of NSW, Sydney to Japan Consulate Sydney, 13 May 1938, Box 8. Barcode 313438.
36 NAA, Land Maps and Air Charts for Australia – the British and Pacific Islands, C443, 303/7/3. Barcode 313528.
37 Memorandum from Secretary Prime Minister’s Department to Secretary of Department of Defence Coordination, No. 661, 13 August 1940, Series 8, Box 18, Special Intelligence Section at Army Headquarters, Melbourne, 1942–1946, Papers of David Sissons, NLA.
38 Japan Center for Asian Historical Records (JACAR), Cable from Tamaki to Uchida, 3 November 1920. Barcode 03040752900, No. 1–0202, 0057.
39 NAA, Cable No, 19 Wakamatsu to Hirota Kōki, 18 January 1938. Barcode 312920.
40 NAA, letter from Murai to Hirota Kōki, 17 July 1936. Barcode 312618.
41 NAA, Wakamatsu to Hirota Kōki, 24 February 1938. Barcode, 313421.
42 NAA, Murai to Hirota Kōki, 22 October, 1935. Barcode 313534.
43 NAA, Examination of Japanese Consulate (Sydney) Material and Catalogue. Barcode 821344.
44 NAA Memorandum to LTCOL Jackson re LT Commander Donald Mackenzie. Barcode 312916.
45 NAA, The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, letter to Moore Comptroller General, Department of Trade and Customs from Consul General Akiyama, 10 August 1940, Box 8. Barcode 313495.
46 NAA, Hugh V Millington, British Oriental Association – General reports on Japanese views. Barcode 65352.
47 NAA, Japanese Consulate Material – Correspondence re individuals, Box 10. Barcode 313718.
48 NAA, Espionage (Japanese), Report of Japanese Associations and Activities. Barcode 821349.
49 NAA, Japanese Fifth Column. Barcode 279470.
50 “Hondo kessen nororito kenkyūsho-Nakano Gakkō, 11 January 2014,” Meiji University, https://www.meiji.ac.jp/noborito/event/6t5h7p00000gn1xj-att/6t5h7p00000gn2fn.pdf.
51 See note 48 above.
52 NAA, Japanese activities in Queensland. Barcode 777755.
53 NAA, Pre-War activities of Japanese and training of interpreters, Japanese Military Visitors, 16 March 1937. Barcode 3048037.
54 See note 52 above.
55 The Japanese Secret Intelligence Services Part II, 151.
56 NAA, Umino Denzo. Barcode 781903.
57 Ibid.
58 NAA, Major Sei Hashida, Correspondence with the Japanese Consul General in Australia, Spender to Akiyama, 4 March 1941. Barcode 312927.
59 See note 3 above.
60 Ryūichirō Nakamura, Jōmin no sensō to umi, (Osaka: Tōhō Shuppan, 1993). Also see by same author: “Kaihō Rokugo senbotsusen wo kiroku suru kai”, www.ric.hi.ne.jp/senbotsusen/siryo-deta/1208bakugeki.htm.
61 JACAR, cable from Wakamatsu to Hirota, 5 April 1938. Barcode B09042255600, E-2372, 0405.
62 NAA, Letter from Department of Defence, General Staff Military Intelligence Melbourne to Victoria Barracks NSW, 15 July 1937. Barcode 3048037.
63 The Japanese Secret Intelligence Services Part II, 147.
64 Ibid, 147.
65 Ibid, 157.
66 Y. Fujioka, “The Thought War: Public Diplomacy by Japan’s Immigrants in the United States”, in Tumultuous Decade: Empire, Sovereignty and Diplomacy in 1930s Japan, ed. T. Minohara and M. Kimura (Toronto: University of Toronto Press), 165.
67 NAA, Letter from Murakami to Wakamatsu, 22 September 1938. Barcode 313238.
68 The Japanese Secret Intelligence Services Part I, 50.
69 NAA, List of pre-war Japanese societies. Barcode, 3047387.
70 See note 3 above.
71 JACAR, Taigai bunka kōsaku ni kan suru kyōgikai yōroku, dai roku shū, Kokusai Bunka Shinko Kai, 9 February 1938. Barcode B04012413100, I-0437, 181.
72 E. Robertson, The Japanese File (Singapore: Heinemann Asia, 1986), 131.
73 Loureiro, “Japanese Espionage and American Countermeasures,” 199–203.
74 P. Oliver, Raids on Australia 1942 and Japan’s Plans for Australia (Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2010), 152.
75 JACAR, Mitsui cable from Sydney office to Kobe office, 6 May 1938. Barcode B09042255600, E-2372, 0413.
76 Oliver, Raids on Australia, 242.
77 Kotani, Japanese Intelligence, 30.
78 NAA, Umino Denzo. Barcode 781903. Also see NAA, Examination of Japanese Consulate (Sydney) Material (1946), Barcode 821344.
79 NAA, Japanese activities General – Japanese Consul, Japanese consular activities, 10 November 1941. Barcode 821342.
80 “Jo sama wo mamoru Ikkō chūtai,” Tokyo Nichi-nichi Shinbun, 9 March 1939.
81 The Japanese Secret Intelligence Services, Part I, 49.
82 Ibid, 49.
83 NAA, Japanese activities General – Japanese Consul. Barcode 821342.
84 JACAR, Hanpō Gaikōkan Ryojikan Shokisei Oyobi Kazuko Cho/2, B02032873200, 35.
85 NAA, The Japanese Secret Intelligence Services, Part II, 150.
86 Robertson, The Japanese File, 102.
87 See note 83 above.
88 NAA, NSW Security Service file – Pre-war activities of Japanese and training of interpreters, Box 15. Barcode 3048037.
89 Robertson, The Japanese File, 150.
90 NAA, The Japanese Secret Intelligence Services, Part I, 44.
91 Kokusai sendensen Dōmei tsūshinsha chōsabu-hen (Tōkyo: Takayama shoin, September 1940), 219.
92 K. Kotani, “Japanese Intelligence in WWII: Successes and Failures,” National Institute of Defence Studies, Japan (undated), 8.
93 JACAR, MOFA cables on Dōmei, February-March 1936. Barcode B02031140900/8, No. A-0442, 241–260.
94 See note 63 above.
95 Ibid.
96 NAA, Japanese societies and activities. Barcode 821349.
97 See note 30 above.
98 See note 49 above.
99 NAA, Japanese activities – General – Japanese Consulate, Aboriginal Calling at Offices of Japanese Consulate General, 5 May, 1942. Barcode 821342.
100 “Goshū no genjumin” Report No. 14 (Tokyo: Kanematsu, June 1942).
101 JACAR, Wakamatsu to Foreign Minister, 4 December 1941. Barcode B02033020800, No. A-1226, 0429.
102 Submission by David Sissons to Senate Standing Committee for Foreign Affairs and Defence, 28 April 1972.
103 Aldrich, Intelligence and the War Against Japan, 48.
104 AWM, Barcode 8729822.
Additional information
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James Llewelyn
James Llewelyn completed his doctoral and post-doctoral studies at the University of Kobe, Japan. His published work focuses on Japan’s diplomatic history and post-war relations with Southeast Asia. Following a short visiting scholar position at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge in 2013, he conducts strategic research on civil maritime security issues for the Australian Government.