Hitler's Japanese Confidant: General Oshima Hiroshi and MAGIC Intelligence, 1941-1945 - Hardcover

Boyd, Carl

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 070060569X ISBN 13: 9780700605699

Publisher: Univ Pr of Kansas, 1993

Synopsis

In 1940 the U.S. Army Signal Intelligence Service broke the Japanese diplomatic code. In 1975 Oshima Hiroshi, Japan's ambassador to Berlin during World War II, died, never knowing that the hundreds of messages he transmitted to Tokyo had been fully decoded by the Americans and whisked off to Washington, providing a major source of information for the Allies on Nazi activities.

Resurrecting Oshima's decoded communications, which had remained classified for several decades, Carl Boyd provides a unique look at the Nazis from the perspective of a close foreign observer and ally. He uses Oshima's own words to reveal the thought and strategies of Adolf Hitler and other high-ranking Nazis, with whom Oshima associated.

In addition to providing illuminating insight into Nazi activities and attitudes--military buildup in North Africa, the unwillingness to accept a separate peace with the Soviets--Boyd illustrates the functions of MAGIC. He demonstrates how that intelligence, gathered by teams of American cryptographers, influenced Allied strategy and helped bring about the downfall of Hitler and his Japanese confidant.

This book is part of the Modern War Studies series.

About this title

About the Author

Carl Boyd is professor and graduate program director of history at Old Dominion University. He is the author of The Extraordinary Envoy: General Hiroshi Oshima and Diplomacy in the Third Reich, 1934-1939 and numerous journal articles on communications intelligence in World War II.

From the Back Cover

"A fascinating study. To read it is comparable to having been "inside the loop" during the critical years when MAGIC was unraveling the secrets of Japan's diplomatic communications."--R. J. C. Butow, author of Japan's Decision to Surrender

"In 1944, U.S. Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall declared that 'our main basis of information regarding Hitler's intentions in Europe is obtained from Baron Oshima's messages from Berlin.' Carl Boyd reveals how the Allies got that intelligence and used it to help win World War II."--David Kahn, author of The Codebreakers

"Every student of the history of the present century, in which the war of 1939-45 formed so crucial a part, must read this-and one uses the word advisedly-definitive account."--Robert H. Ferrell, author of American Diplomacy: The Twentieth Century

"Offers new insight into the otherwise obscure story of how American ability to penetrate Japanese codes provided unique valuable knowledge of German military plans and capabilities."--Stanley L. Falk, author of Seventy Days to Singapore

"An extremely valuable work. It clears up many puzzles, and it helps to make understandable how high-level communications intelligence was used in Washington during World War II."--Ernest R. May, author of Imperial Democracy: The Emergence of America as a Great Power

"This book will have a special place in the story of the war in Europe and also in that of the wartime relations of Germany and Japan, which has been much neglected."--Harold C. Deutsch, author of The Conspiracy Against Hitler in the Twilight War

Reviews

Allied cryptographers broke the Japanese diplomatic code in 1941, after which Ambassador Oshima Hiroshi's messages from Berlin to Tokyo were intercepted, deciphered, translated and passed along to U.S. and British intelligence operatives. Gen. George Marshall, the U.S. Army chief of staff, called the Oshima intercepts the "main basis of information regarding Hitler's intentions in Europe." Oshima inadvertently provided the Allies with advance information about Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union, the Axis buildup in North Africa and the Wehrmacht's defensive system along the Normandy coast (which proved vital to the success of the Allied invasion of June 1944). In this valuable study, Boyd carefully analyzes Oshima's messages and reports, places them in political and military contexts, and sheds new light on Germany's strategies during the war as well as on German-Japanese relations. Oshima died in 1975, never having learned that the enemy had read his mail throughout WW II. Boyd is a history professor at Old Dominion University in Virginia. Photos.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

One of Washington's key sources of information on Hitler's designs during WW II was Japan's ambassador to Germany, General Hiroshi Oshima. Shortly before the emperor's emissary began his second Berlin posting (early in 1941), the US military had broken the sophisticated Japanese diplomatic code, enabling it to supply FDR and senior aides deciphered translations of Oshima's frequent communications with superiors in Tokyo. Drawing on access to recently declassified archival files, Boyd (History/Old Dominion University) offers an analytic appreciation of this high-grade intelligence (known as ``Magic'') and of how the Allies employed it in their ETO campaigns. An ardent nationalist, Oshima had personal rapport with Hitler and other top Nazis. As one result, intercepts of his message traffic provided detailed data on Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union, albeit not of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. Unwittingly, Oshima also reassured Anglo-American strategists that cooperation among Axis powers was minimal. In addition, following an inspection tour of the Wehrmacht's coastal defenses in France, Oshima sent a full report to his foreign minister, which proved of great assistance to D-day planners. He even furnished advance warning of the Battle of the Bulge, which, Boyd concludes, Allied cryptanalysts failed to evaluate accurately. On the eve of destruction, Oshima afforded his monitors authoritative estimates of Germany's intentions, as well as eyewitness accounts of siege conditions inside the Third Reich. Throughout the conflict, moreover, he kept Tokyo apprised on the slim chances of Germany's negotiating a separate peace with the USSR, a cause for continuing concern in the UK/US camp. An illuminative briefing on a little-known but invaluable source of intelligence during WW II. (Maps, photos, and tabular material--some seen.) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

General Oshima, Japan's ambassador to Berlin throughout World War II, sent detailed reports to Tokyo on his Axis partner. Oshima was an intelligent observer, and from his notes we are able to obtain a new view of Germany. Unbeknownst to Oshima, the Japanese diplomatic code had been broken by the United States, and the ambassador's comments proved to be of great value to the Allies. Indeed, the information gathered from deciphered Japanese codes was called Magic. Author Boyd (history, Old Dominion Univ.) here presents two works: one deals with observations on Germany and the other with the uses of military intelligence. Because there is little available on Magic during the conflict, this book fills a definite need. Combined with Ronald Lewin's The American Magic: Codes, Ciphers, and the Defeat of Japan (Farrar, 1982), this will give readers a good understanding of Magic. Recommended for academic libraries and large public libraries. Smaller libraries may also want to purchase in order to give their users a background on intelligence work in World War II.
- Dennis L. Noble, Lewistown P.L. , Mont.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Univ Pr of Kansas
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 070060569X
• ISBN 13: 9780700605699
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 294