True Spies Episode 62: The Mouse at Pearl Harbor
Interrogation at Triangle T in Dragoon!
In the months before Pearl Harbor, a man calling himself ‘Morimura’ slipped quietly into Hawaii pretending to be a secretary at the Japanese Consulate-General in Honolulu. Morimura was actually an undercover operative filing intelligence reports that cleared the way for an attack that claimed more than 2,400 lives and officially brought the US into WWII. The man’s real name was Takeo Yoshikawa and, like most spies, he was fiercely loyal to his country.
Below is an excerpt from the podcast "True Spies". Find the podcast in its entirety here: https://spyscape.com/podcast/the-mouse-at-pearl-harbor
NARRATOR: Welcome to True Spies. Week by week, mission by mission, you’ll hear the true stories behind the world’s greatest espionage operations. You’ll meet the people who navigate this secret world. What do they know? What are their skills? And what would you do in their position? This is True Spies.
TAKEO YOSHIKAWA: I reached out and shook his hand. Tears were streaming from my eyes. And then we went to work, shredding the codebooks and then throwing them into a bonfire. What we didn’t realize was that the smoke from the fire was attracting the attention of our neighbors...
NARRATOR: This is True Spies Episode 62: The Mouse at Pearl Harbor. This week’s True Spy worked on a paradise island in the Pacific Ocean as a Japanese undercover agent in 1941. But, for the moment, let’s drift away from those shores and turn our attention to a ranch in the middle of the Arizona desert. Specifically, the Triangle T Ranch, in Dragoon, Arizona - rattlesnakes, tumbleweeds, the whole enchilada. Picture an office-turned-interrogation room, windows drawn, the air hazy with smoke. The interrogator, a tall, white-skinned man, sits at a table in the room, rolling tobacco with his left hand, then lighting a match with a flick of his thumb. In walks a second man, younger, Japanese. His face cinched with anxiety. The interrogator rises. “Hello,” he says: “Mister... ”
TAKEO YOSHIKAWA: Morimura.
NARRATOR: The interrogator invites him to sit. There’s a bit of pleasantry about life on the ranch - all fine, good, thanks. The interrogator says he has a few questions if you don’t mind. And Morimura answers...
TAKEO YOSHIKAWA: “Of course, whatever you want to know, just ask.”
NARRATOR: He’s distracted. Finally, he blurts out:
TAKEO YOSHIKAWA: “Are you with the FBI?”
NARRATOR: The interrogator shifts in his seat, a bit flustered.
TAKEO YOSHIKAWA: And he answered: “No, I am from the State Department.” Of course, that was a bit of a bluff. The FBI belonged to the State Department. But I had just wanted to make a point. If you want to know about me, I want to know about you first.
NARRATOR: There were some routine questions: “What was the nature of your work in Honolulu? When did it begin?” Then the interrogator offered Morimura a cigarette.
TAKEO YOSHIKAWA: He said: “This is the tobacco that the ranchers around here smoke when they’re riding their horses.”
NARRATOR: The interrogator showed him how ranchers rolled their tobacco with one hand so they could grip the reins with the other. Then he went back to questioning Morimura. “Tell me about Hawaii,” he said. “You spent a lot of time at Pearl Harbor, didn’t you? Why was it so appealing to you?”
TAKEO YOSHIKAWA: I said I enjoyed doing some sightseeing. And I was interested in the region from an economic perspective. I’m a naturally curious person. By the way, have you been to Hawaii?
NARRATOR: Not exactly what the interrogator was going for. As time passed, it became clear that Morimura could go on dodging his questions for hours or years. In fact, as far as Morimura was concerned, he could carry on for an entire lifetime no matter how long or how short.
TAKEO YOSHIKAWA: I had defeated the US Navy and I was about to defeat the FBI too.
NARRATOR: As you might be suspecting, the man who called himself ‘Morimura’ wasn’t exactly who he said he was. His real name was Takeo Yoshikawa and, in 1941, he was Japan’s undercover operative at Pearl Harbor. His intelligence reports cleared the way for the attack that claimed over 2,400 American lives and officially brought the United States into the Second World War. Yoshikawa himself survived until 1993, and he recorded his experiences in a memoir published in the 1960s. We’ve drawn from his account of those fateful events to tell this story with the help of an actor. And a bit of warning: If you’re expecting an apology from the Japanese spy at Pearl Harbor, you’ve come to the wrong place. Like most spies, this one was fiercely loyal to his country.
But let’s back up a bit. Who was the man who posed as Morimura? How much did he know? And how did he feel about lighting the match that would ignite Japan’s devastating defeat in the war with the Allied powers? Takeo Yoshikawa was born in March 1912 in Matsuyama, a small city near the sea on the Island of Shikoku. He was a sickly, colicky infant. He refused breastfeeding and suffered from malnutrition. In short, beginning in his earliest days, he was something of an underdog.
TAKEO YOSHIKAWA: Apparently I was so unhealthy that the family doctor sometimes didn’t even want to treat me. Eventually, my parents just resigned themselves to the idea that I would die young. But one day, as the family lore goes, my father looked at me and said: “If you aren’t going to live much longer, you may as well get some exercise.” So he began to put me through intense physical training.
NARRATOR: Yoshikawa's father was just 30 at the time and a military man, strong and brash, not exactly the cuddly type. Yoshikawa would either survive his paternal boot camp or die trying.
TAKEO YOSHIKAWA: When I was 10 he started teaching me swordsmanship. I remember we used to practice for an hour every morning before I went off to school. He’d knock me down and I would get up, with tears streaming down my face, and then he would knock me down again.
NARRATOR: It was under his father’s watch that Yoshikawa learned to swim. Trauma, it turns out, can be a powerful teacher.
TAKEO YOSHIKAWA: We waded into the river together until the water was up to my waist, but then I became frightened and hurried back to shallow water. Well, my father told me that I had no guts, and grabbed hold of me, and dragged me to a place where the water was higher than my head. From there, he pushed me into even deeper water. Now that I think about it, his decision to put me through military-style training exercises does seem a bit cruel but those were different times. Anyway, it worked. I became quite a robust young boy and a decent swimmer.
NARRATOR: Yoshikawa had dreams of becoming a scientist, but instead he did what pleased his father and attended the Imperial Naval Academy. But by the mid-1930s, only a few years later, he was forced to return to his village to recover from a protracted illness. He spent that time studying military history and learning English, immersing himself in the victories of Lord Nelson and the mysteries of Arthur Conan Doyle. One day, a naval officer paid a visit to his village to deliver a speech about the political situation in Japan. When the officer saw Yoshikawa dressed in his uniform he was dismayed.
TAKEO YOSHIKAWA: He said: “We don’t have the manpower for all that needs to be done. Yet here you are, a young naval officer, relaxing and having a lovely time in this small village. It’s truly shocking, isn’t it?” Well, that straightened me out. So I told him about my physical condition and asked him if he could find a position for me in the Navy and he did. And that’s how I came to work in intelligence.
NARRATOR: In 1940, Yoshikawa was summoned to a meeting with his section head, where he learned he was being sent to Japan’s Consulate-General in Hawaii. Details were scant. He didn’t know what he’d be doing abroad, and he certainly didn’t know how to feel about it. He was told he’d need to adopt a new identity as an official at the Foreign Ministry and that he’d be given specific instructions once he arrived. Above all, he had to remain vigilant. Relations between Japan and the United States were strained, to say the least.
TAKEO YOSHIKAWA: My section head said something I will never forget. He said: “If you want to deceive your enemy, you must first dupe yourself.” Of course, that’s one of my strengths. My whole life I’ve been a mouse playing the role of a lion.
NARRATOR: Such contradictions would become the hallmark of his life. The mouse Yoshikawa - the sickly boy, the retired serviceman - was to become the lionhearted Morimura. A fierce asset to the Japanese Navy. A secret agent who would single-handedly tip the scales in the Second World War, in a display of strength that would ultimately hasten Japan’s defeat.
TAKEO YOSHIKAWA: Yes, Morimura. I thought the name would be hard for foreigners to pronounce and remember.
NARRATOR: Japan’s Navy had neither the scope nor the strength of its American counterpart but what it lacked in size, it sought to make up for in commitment and acumen. By the time our undercover operative stepped off the steamship and onto Hawaiian soil, the Japanese had mapped out a landscape of the US Navy - its structure, its personnel, and its fleet. They knew what defenses were in place at Pearl Harbor and how many troops were garrisoned there. They had the big picture. What they were missing were all the little details.
TAKEO YOSHIKAWA: How many American naval vessels entered and exited Pearl Harbor? How many military aircraft were moving through the airfields there? What were their missions? Those are the sorts of questions that could not be answered without my help.