Peter Kornicki - Eavesdropping on the Emperor: Interrogators and Codebreakers in Britains War With Japan

Eavesdropping on the Emperor

Interrogators and Codebreakers in Britains War with Japan

First published in the United Kingdom in 2021 by

C. Hurst & Co. (Publishers) Ltd.,

83 Torbay Road, London NW6 7DT

Copyright Peter Kornicki, 2021

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United Kingdom

The right of Peter Kornicki to be identified as the author of this publication is asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

A Cataloguing-in-Publication data record for this book is available from the British Library.

This book is printed using paper from registered sustainable and managed sources.

ISBN: 9781787384729

www.hurstpublishers.com

This book is dedicated to the many men and women who struggled to learn Japanese during the war, especially in Britain, India and Mauritius. They succeeded against the odds. Their efforts as codebreakers, translators, interpreters, interrogators and intelligence officers made an indispensable contribution to the war effort, but their contributions were never recognized or rewarded.
Let them be remembered in this book.

India, Burma and Ceylon in 1940

IndiaBurma border in 1940

East Africa and the Indian Ocean in 1940

From Australia to Japan in 1940

I began the research for this book about ten years ago and have often thought, while doing the research for it, that I should have begun it much earlier. Twenty years ago, many more of those who learnt Japanese during the war were alive and still retained precious memories of their wartime and post-war experiences. Now there are very few survivors left. Also, the archives of the Far East Department at the School of Oriental and African Studies, where so many were trained, were still available to be consulted; alas, they seem now to be lost.

Without the unstinting help of many people, this book would not have come into existence. The first people to thank are without doubt those few survivors who have willingly, sometimes eagerly, entrusted me with their memories and occasionally their letters, papers and photograph albums: John Cook, Sir Hugh Cortazzi,* Guy de Moubray,* Patrick Field, Elizabeth Hely-Hutchinson,* David Jones, Dr Michael Loewe, Professor Ian Nish, David Pole, Professor Donald Russell,* Revd Professor Michael Screech,* Jim Sutherland* and Ian Willison. Those marked with an asterisk have, sad to say, since died.

Secondly, the relatives or descendants of many others have kindly responded to my queries and in some cases have let me see private memoirs written for the family. They include: Martin and Tim Andrews (and other relatives of Eric Andrews), Ann and David Barclay (sister and nephew of John McEwan), Adrian Barker (son of Eileen Barker), Richard Bawden (son of Professor Charles Bawden), Professor Julia Barrow (daughter of George Barrow), John Beasley (son of Professor William Beasley), Christopher Bell (son of Alfred Bell), Professor John Breen (son of Lawrence Breen), Martin, David and Graham Ceadel (sons of Eric Ceadel), Margaret Cribb, S. Gail Miller and Robert Naish (nieces and nephew of Mary Tate), Sir Edward Dashwood (son of Sir Francis Dashwood), Jim Eunson and the late David Partner (son and nephew of David Eunson), Nik Gowing (son of Donald Gowing), Charlotte Hall (daughter of Peter Hall), Alice Hunt (granddaughter of Elizabeth Anderson), Professor Mary Lefkowitz and Ralph Lloyd-Jones (widow and son of Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones), His Honour Frederick Marr-Johnson (relative of Patrick Marr-Johnson), Ken Maxwell (son of Eric Maxwell/Eiichi Matsuyama), Barbara Norris (daughter of Hugh Norris), David Pulleyblank (son of Edwin Pulleyblank), Professor Robin Sellar (son of Robert Sellar), Andrew Tank (son of Rowland Tank), Rosemary Thacker (daughter of Philip Taylor), Professor William Twining (son of Baron Twining), Christian van Nieuwerburgh (son of Arthur Newington), Diana Vennis (widow of Philip Vennis), Roger Vincent-Townend (grandson of Oswald Tuck), Dominic Vlasto (the son of Alexis Vlasto), Keith Wood (son of Stanley Wood) and Barbara Wyatt (daughter of Kitty Wyatt).