Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy - Ludwig von Mises ...

208 Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy
Intercepted Japanese Message
Announces System of Codewords
to be Used in Certain Emergencies
Among the Japanese messages our code people intercepted
during this period was a long cable from Tokyo on November 27
addressed to its embassy in Washington and several of the more
important Japanese embassies and consuls around the world. We
decoded and translated it on December 2. In view of the fact that
“international relations [were] becoming more strained,” it read,
an “emergency system of despatches” was to be put into eff ect.
Th e cable contained a long list of codewords, each with a hidden
meaning, which would be substituted for other words in case of
certain emergencies, which were then enumerated. To distinguish
one of these special messages from other messages, it would not
use the usual Japanese close, “OWARI.” Rather it would end with
the English word, “STOP.” 15
Th is cable was one more indication that the Japanese government
anticipated a serious “emergency” before long. It also gave
our hard-worked cryptographers one more thing to keep in mind.
Th ey must watch for Japanese cables ending with “STOP” and
then not only decode and translate them, but determine the hidden
meanings in the special code words.
Government Prepares for War
On September 8, 1939, a few days after the start of the war in
Europe, Roosevelt had announced a limited “national emergency.”
As international tension mounted, especially after FDR’s third
term reelection in November 1940, various emergency interventionist
measures were enacted aimed at placing this country on a
wartime footing. A throng of government agencies were created;
15 Ibid., part 12, pp. 186–88, Tokyo Circular #2409.