Chapter 14 2.3 The person who stole the password book

Needless to say, if you get the other party's code book, you can get the most important information most accurately and quickly.Therefore, any country, in any era, has firmly grasped this work and made extraordinary efforts. European countries with contiguous territories and mixed spies have a long history in this regard.Here is an example: During the First World War, Maria Sorel, a Polish girl who acted as a German spy in 1915, spied on the Russian army in Warsaw.One day, the beautiful blonde successfully stole an important document, the code book of the Russian Army, from the pocket of a sleeping Russian officer.

The next day she appeared in front of a goldfish store in the city.There are labels on the glass tanks containing the goldfish, each with a price, and below the price is the scientific name.People who don't know the inside story may think it is the name of a goldfish.The beautiful Maria read the terms written under the price in order, beginning with the most expensive label: BSLE IKNM EVAE LIML From top to bottom, read from right to left, it becomes: BIELSK, VILNA, MEMEL This is an accomplice disguised as a goldfish merchant telling her that the spy liaison from the headquarters passed through Bielsko (Poland), Vilna (now the Republic of Lithuania) and reached Memer (located in the Republic of Lithuania, now called Klepida) , ordered her to hand over to this person if she got any information.So Maria hastily handed over her stolen Russian army code book to the liaison officer.

Soviet espionage has a long history.It is said that when Napoleon made an expedition to Russia, Russia knew of his plan in advance.During the Russo-Japanese War, Russia deciphered the Japanese code before the war started. On February 4, 1905, Shinichiro Kurino, my country's Minister in Russia, received a coded telegram notification from the Japanese government regarding the policy of severing diplomatic relations between Japan and Russia, and was ordered to notify the Russian government on the 6th.The day before (the 5th), in the evening, when the minister was watching a play at the Royal National Theater, the Tsar had already known about the ultimatum, so he uncharacteristically talked with the minister cordially and said goodbye to him casually.

Why did the Russian side know so much about the Japanese embassy's encrypted telegram?It turned out that the codebook of the Japanese legation in the Netherlands was photographed by Russian spies.The spy asked a beautiful Russian woman to pass herself off as a Dutch woman to work as a servant at the legation.She bought the servants of the legation, stole the cipher book, took a picture of it and put it back.How did you know this?Later, the spy went to the Japanese Legation in Paris to sell the used password photos and talked about the theft. There are roughly two ways to get the other party's code book; one is stealing secretly, that is, taking pictures; the other is forcibly snatching.Once the password book is found to be stolen, the other party will immediately take countermeasures such as changing the password. Therefore, of course, it is better not to let the other party notice the stealing.

Here, let me introduce a few episodes where Japan and the United States engaged in crooked ways in order to obtain the code book. Thief Since 1933, our Army and Navy have cooperated with the Gendarmerie and carried out special work in Japan in order to obtain the cipherbooks and cipher tables of the following countries' embassies and consulates: the British Consulate in Sapporo, the British Consulate in Osaka, the United States Consulate General in Kobe, British Embassy For the special work of the British embassy, ​​although I got in touch with the staff of the embassy in charge of passwords, and also learned about the types and usage of machine passwords, it was still unsuccessful.

In the summer of 1936, they successfully photographed several cipher books of the British Consulate and the extremely secret cipher books used for communication between various ministries of the British Consulate and the cipher books used for ships.These codebooks are extremely secret codebooks used for communication between various ministries of the British government. We have obtained extremely important information by using these codebooks. From the U.S. Consulate in Kobe, I obtained: the government's gray code, the conversion table that stipulates the use of rules, brown code, and the bar code used by foreign agencies and the navy, etc.Apparently, this played a big role in breaking the American code.However, it took more than half a year of hard work and hard work to get these things.

At that time (1937), the office and residence of the American Consulate in Kobe were separate, and there was a Japanese couple guarding the office.Therefore, the first step of this special work was to bribe the Japanese guards, investigate the internal conditions of the office, and find out which safe the code book was in and what kind of key was used. This work took about half a year.During this period, in order to clarify the actions of consulate personnel, careful statistics were carried out, and first-class key experts were found. The second problem to be solved was to find out the dial symbol of the safe where the code book was stored.

Of course, key experts could solve this problem computationally, but that would take a long time.So, with the assistance of key experts, all the drawers of the consulate and consular residence were secretly opened and searched for the dial pad symbols while the consulate personnel and the consul were away.Of course, at this time, the Japanese maid in the consulate's residence had already been bribed.However, no matter how hard I searched, I couldn't find it, and my work encountered a big obstacle. Soon, the consul happened to change jobs, and the vice-consul temporarily acted as consul.Through careful observation of the vice-consul's actions, he found that every time he opened the safe, he looked at a piece of paper, which was kept in his purse.An idea flashed through the secret agents: it must be this piece of paper.

One day, I heard that the vice-consul was going to board an American ship that sailed into Kobe Port late at night.When he goes, he may leave the purse at home.This opportunity cannot be missed.All necessities such as photocopying devices are in place.Moreover, in order to complete the task, it is necessary to have as long as possible and experienced go-getters.At this time, a bar proprietress familiar to the vice-consul appeared. Good evening!I want to treat you well, please be sure to come, definitely come!waiting for you The proprietress called the vice-consul and spoke very sweetly, charmingly, and touchingly.The ploy worked perfectly.

The vice-consul left the purse at home and came to the boat.As soon as the work on the ship was over, he left the pier and went to the bar for a drink.He was fascinated by the special hospitality of the proprietress, how could he have thought that a special job was going on!He sat down to drink and was finally so drunk that he was put into a car and driven home.There are two plainclothes gendarmes closely watching the house. During this time, work proceeded rapidly.The key specialist opened the bag and photographed everything inside.Among the many documents, the thing that was looking for was found.So on to the next step.

In the middle of the night, secret agents sneaked into the consulate and turned the dial according to the symbols on the paper. Finally the safe opened gently.In order not to leave fingerprints, I put on rubber gloves and checked whether there is a device that shows signs of opening the cabinet, because some safes have a device that records the number of times the door is opened.Even if there is no such device, there is a way to detect whether someone has opened the door by a thread or hair.There is another door inside this safe, and the key shape is extremely complicated, not a combined dial.It took another ten days to prepare this key. In this way, I finally got the things in the cabinet.The cipher book was secretly taken out and photographed, and it was put back in place before dawn. America hasn't slept well either.In 1920, U.S. Naval Intelligence also stole codebooks from the Japanese consulate in the United States.In his book "The Stolen Codebook," Farage states: By the end of the summer of 1920, all arrangements for implementing the master plan were completed.They completely surrounded the building of the Japanese Consulate General, and found out that there were no guards on duty or special guards in the consulate, only a gatekeeper of the building.He is an American loyal to America.One night, when five strangers came to the consulate, he didn't say a word, just pretending to be dazed. Among the five people, there is the head of the domestic division (counterintelligence force) of the U.S. Naval Intelligence Service. Two of them wear rubber shoes because they are afraid of making noise, one sneaks into the office on tiptoe, and the other is a locksmith.The locksmith opened the safe. robber With regard to the passage of the special service ship Asaka through the Panama Canal, we hope to obtain the understanding of the US government. After spending the 1941 New Year in Washington, which was full of disasters and disasters, on the 4th of the first lunar month, the military attaché of the US Navy received this instruction telegram from Tokyo. The Asaka was specially requisitioned from the private sector and incorporated into the fleet in order to ship the working machines provided to Japan by the president of the allied country (Germany) Hitler in good faith.As a special service ship, the ship hoisted the military flag and was about to return to Spain. We immediately started negotiations with the US Navy Department.The author's negotiating opponent is Lieutenant Colonel McCuller, the chief of the Far East Section of the US Intelligence Service.It was clear from the outset that the prospects for this negotiation were difficult.This is because the United States does not want our naval ships to pass through the Panama Canal.The U.S. proposed a regulation saying that if we insist on passing it, in order to ensure the safety of the canal, U.S. armed soldiers must be allowed to board warships. However, foreign armed soldiers boarding warships violate the privileges of warships and damage the prestige of the country. Of course, the conditions of the United States cannot be accepted.The author repeatedly explained this truth, and also said that the Asaka was only passing through the canal, and had no other intentions, and asked the US not to send armed soldiers aboard the warship.However, the US claimed that this was a measure of last resort in order to protect the security of the Panama Canal, a strategic point in an emergency, and insisted on refusing to make concessions. In this way, the negotiations were deadlocked until January 20, when a major event occurred that was never dreamed of. The winter in Washington is colder than that in Tokyo, and the snow is also heavy. This is probably because Washington is closer to the North Pole.Tokyo lies at 35° 45' north latitude, while Washington, like Ichinoseki in Iwate Prefecture, lies at 38° 55' north latitude. This morning, Washington was gloomy. After noon, light snow fell and it was dark. After finally finishing the day's work and packing up the documents on the table, Terai Shaozuo suddenly looked out the window and said in surprise: What a big snow!Walking at night in such weather, if the car skids, it will be hell! Indeed, this is also a rare heavy snow in Washington. It is also troublesome to install snow chains on the tires. I think I might as well stay in the office tonight and play bridge. Well, we are taking a break from our busy schedule! We played so hard that we forgot that time was passing.Around eleven o'clock, the phone rang hastily. I am Matsudaira.If there is an emergency to discuss, I will go to your place right away. Matsudaira is the first secretary of the embassy. What is it urgent? at this time There must have been a major event related to the Japanese Navy. So we put down the bridge and waited for Matsudaira while imagining various possible situations.From the embassy to the military attache, it usually takes less than five minutes.Maybe because of the heavy snow, Songping still hadn't come after ten minutes. Maybe it's trapped by snow? After a while, Songping hurried over.He hurriedly talked about the main points, and took out the urgent telegram from Muto, the Consul General in San Francisco, from his pocket.The gist of the telegram is: On the afternoon of January 20, the Japanese ship Nisshin Maru sailed into the mouth of the Sacramento River in San Francisco Bay to load oil.As usual, U.S. officials conducted a quarantine.At this time, the United States carefully checked whether there were any contraband such as cocaine hidden in the ship.Of course there is no such thing.Finally, they asked to open the safe in the captain's cabin.The captain had no doubts, so he agreed to the other party's request.However, this is a trick played by the United States.When they found confidential documents such as the "Ship Code Book" properly stored in the safe, they forcibly snatched them away regardless of the captain's efforts to stop them.The captain with a livid face hurriedly reported to the Japanese Consulate General in San Francisco.A few hours after our protest, the codebook and others returned to the ship unharmed Merchant ships are an important part of naval forces. The "Ship Code Book" is compiled and distributed by the Navy for use in secret communications between the Navy and merchant ships in times of war or in emergencies.Even if it falls into the hands of the United States for a few hours, it means that the contents of the codebook are all stolen.This kind of code book not only lost its life, but also enabled the United States to obtain an important information needed to understand the characteristics of our navy's code and to decipher the code with a higher degree of secrecy. The Nisshin Maru incident was a premeditated action by the US, especially the US Navy.It was only after the war that the murderer who snatched the Nisshin Maru code book was a member of the US Naval Intelligence Service disguised as a customs officer.The robbers immediately took the cipher film back to Washington. This is an extremely useful information for the U.S. Naval Communications Intelligence Office to decipher the Japanese Navy's codes. Farage made the above description in his book "The Stolen Code Book". When the Nisshin Maru incident happened, the author naturally recalled that the Japanese military police sneaked into the traitorous Consulate in Kobe, took out the cipher book from the safe, took a photo, put it back where it was, and pretended to know nothing about it.Both of these are acts of thieves, but this time the United States' approach is an out-and-out robbery. The author couldn't help clenching his fists, feeling angry at the unscrupulous behavior of the United States to achieve its goals: Damn, Yankees are so vicious!