HONOR FIRST - The Story of the United States Border Patrol
Border Patrol WWII Internment camp at Dragoon, Arizona
From the Dec. 7th, 2024 post of the Boarder Patrol history page on Facebook.
Found at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554786465966
One of the closely held secret missions of the U.S. Border Patrol during World War II was the guarding of Consul General Nagao Kita, his consular officers, and their families, who were confined by the FBI and held incommunicado at the Japanese Consulate in Honolulu, Hawaii on December 7, 1941, hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Included in this mission was Vice Consul General Tadashi Morimura, who was responsible for sending the coded all-clear message to Tokyo, detailing the specifics of the U.S. Naval vessels moored in the harbor and initiating the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Later investigations revealed that Morimura was actually a Japanese naval and intelligence (spy) officer whose real name was Takeo Yoshikawa, and he had been conducting espionage activities since his arrival at the Consulate on March 27, 1941. Fluent in English, Morimura acted more like a tourist than a diplomat, touring the island, snorkeling in the harbor, cruising in the glass bottom boats, walking the piers, and taking tourist flights to get an aerial view of Oahu and Pearl Harbor. These actions were all part of his cover to gain valuable intelligence, memorizing fleet movements and security measures. Morimura was the eyes and ears of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, architect of the forthcoming surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.
The man placed in charge of overseeing the transport, detention and repatriation of the Japanese Consuls’ diplomatic party was Chief Patrol Inspector Ivan Williams of the Tucson Sector. The assignment made Chief Williams not only responsible for protecting the enemy Japanese diplomats whose espionage helped the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor to succeed, but indirectly securing the lives of American diplomats repatriated in exchange for the Japanese diplomats. The following is compiled from a 1966 interview with Chief Williams and documents from the National Border Patrol Museum and National Archives.
Chief Williams was the right man at the right time for this mission and has a unique history of his own. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1914 and was assigned in Douglas, Arizona, when he participated in General Pershing’s 1916 pursuit of Pancho Villa 300 miles into Mexico. The following year, continuing his service under “Blackjack” Pershing’s command in the American Expeditionary Forces, and as a commissioned officer, First Lieutenant Williams fought in France in the key battles of Soissons, Cantigny, Meuse-Argonne, and Saint Mihiel. During the “War to End All Wars,” Williams was wounded by shrapnel and suffered under German gas attacks. After recovery from his wounds, he returned to Arizona and in 1922 joined the Mounted Guards, beginning his service in the predecessor of the U.S. Border Patrol in the El Paso District.
With the creation of the U.S. Border Patrol in 1924, he was one of the first Patrol Inspectors and worked his way up the ranks in El Paso, as a Senior Patrol Inspector in Nogales and Assistant Chief Patrol Inspector in Tucson, and then as Chief Patrol Inspector of the Marfa Sub-District. In 1937, Williams returned to Arizona as the Chief Patrol Inspector of the Tucson Sector. In early February 1942, while working a detail in Nogales, he received a telegram from Washington, DC, directing him to report to the Tucson train station where a State Department official would have further orders for him. The telegram advised him to “come prepared for an extended tour of duty.”
Chief Williams’ sealed secret orders were signed by President Roosevelt and directed him to proceed to San Diego, California, with his State Department partner, Special Agent Edward Bailey, and several Border Patrol Inspectors, where on February 15, 1942 they would take the Japanese Consul General and his entourage into protective custody from the U.S. Navy. The Japanese Consulate entourage had been transported from Hawaii aboard the USS President Hayes, departing on February 8, 1942. Chief Williams and Special Agent Bailey were to take charge of the train and its staff transporting the entourage to a secret destination in Arizona.
At the same time as the Honolulu Japanese Consulate entourage was being moved, other Axis diplomats were being transferred to and sequestered at isolated luxury hotels in the eastern United States awaiting repatriation. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover,
Protested that the Honolulu Japanese should be kept separate from other Japanese because of their involvement in subversive espionage activities and the Pearl Harbor bombing. He insisted that the place chosen for their detainment should be only where they could be watched and their activities closely monitored.
The State Department had designated that the security of the Honolulu Japanese diplomatic entourage would be the responsibility of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, because “a divided authority tends to create friction and publicity.” Secretary of State Cordell Hull did not want the FBI guarding the Japanese, much to the consternation of FBI Director Hoover, who wanted the Japanese under his authority and to be prosecuted (punished) for espionage and contributing to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Prosecution of diplomats would be contrary to international law and the concept of immunity, a cornerstone of international diplomacy. Hoover had already shown his disregard for international norms when his agents arrested the consular staff and entered the Japanese Consulate on December 7, 1941, cutting the phone lines and breaking into desks, cabinets, and safes, and carting away any files that had not been destroyed. The consulate staff would then be placed under heavy guard and house arrest for two months.
In San Diego, the 37 Japanese (15 men, 7 women, and 15 children) and their baggage were loaded onto a bus with blacked out windows and taken to the Santa Fe Railroad Terminal. At the Terminal they were loaded onto the Southern Pacific passenger train consisting of five Pullman coaches, a dining car, two baggage cars, and a contingent of porters, cooks, trainmen and conductors, as well as guards and interpreters. In Los Angeles the cars were switched to another Southern Pacific train for a journey east. Chief Williams was given orders to ensure not only the safety and security of the enemy diplomats, but also their comfort; within possible reason. The movements of the train and the identity of its occupants were shrouded in secrecy as “the island of internment on rails” made a circuitous route through the west. Blinds on all cars were drawn and telegrams were sent ahead for any supplies as the train made its way across the Rockies and into Arizona. Behind those blinds, Chief Williams mused to Special Agent Bailey,
“The enemy again, bandits, the German Army, smugglers, and bootleggers, and now the Japanese.” But this was different. Now he had direct orders from the President to protect the enemy!
Chief Williams was ultimately responsible for the secrecy of the mission and made every effort to prevent leaks, including swearing in the train staff. Had the occupants been identified, they would be in “grave danger’ due to the anti-Japanese sentiment spreading across the country.
During one of the stops, Chief Williams received orders for the “secret” train to travel to southern Arizona, where the enemy diplomats would be transferred to the Triangle T Ranch in Dragoon, Arizona, nestled in the jumbled boulders of Texas Canyon between Wilcox and Benson. Arriving on February 19, 1942, the Japanese contingent was transported in secrecy in thirty unmarked U.S. Border Patrol and INS vehicles and two buses to the “dude” ranch, which had been quickly transformed into a temporary internment camp for the Japanese by detailed Border Patrol Inspectors.
About three acres of the Triple T Ranch were surrounded by barbed wire fences, some which were alarmed with sensors. The placement of the fencing took advantage of surrounding natural rock formations, making it difficult to see into the area. Entry control points were set up limiting access in and out of the area by vehicle. Patrol Inspectors patrolled the perimeter on foot and horseback.
The property and diplomatic entourage were guarded by detailed Border Patrol Inspectors, including Dogie Wright, who described the Japanese Consul General “as the fellow who pulled the trigger at Pearl Harbor.” Tucson Sector Patrol Inspectors assigned to the Triple T Ranch included Roland Fleagle, Reed Robinson, and Gordon Pettengill, as well as Patrol Inspectors Jose Montoya, Thomas Kanjeme, and John Terak. The Patrol Inspectors worked 12-hour shifts, with two days on and one day off, providing security 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Rhea Robinson, wife of Patrol Inspector Reed Robinson, clearly recalled that morning in February 1942, when her husband’s supervisor showed up at their home in Benson.
He told my husband, Reed, to be ready to go on assignment in 30 minutes. Reed packed a dress suit, a uniform and work clothes. Weeks later, I received a letter from him, postmarked ‘El Paso.’ I did not know that he was actually on a special detail at the Triangle T Guest Ranch, just 20 minutes down the road.”
Chief Williams and Special Agent Bailey were assigned quarters in the “cottage” belonging to the owner, and some military tents were quickly erected on the property for the eight detailed Patrol Inspectors. Rhea Robinson would recall, "Occasionally the guards grumbled because they lived in tents while their enemies enjoyed comfortable cabins." An additional tent was used for communication and to sound the alarm in case of an emergency or attempted escape. The only telephone on the compound, which was in the manager’s office, was monitored to ensure security was maintained.
The Triple T Ranch was chosen for its isolation and the ability to control access to the site, with detailed Patrol Inspectors manning checkpoints at all points leading into the ranch and at various observation points along Texas Canyon to prevent the curious from having access to or visibility of the ranch. One of these “unwelcome” visitors was I.V. Pruitt, the Cochise County Sheriff, who came to see what unusual activities” were going on at the ranch. It was reported that Sheriff Pruitt had to be convinced at “shotgun point” by a uniformed Patrol Inspector to leave the area and “not to interfere in federal business.” He returned with a posse and was warned that they would all be arrested under federal charges if they did not leave and to contact Washington DC if he had a problem.
The isolation and separated cabins allowed for interrogation of the diplomats and staffers by the FBI led by Special Agent Fred Tillman and special agents assigned to the State Department. Continuing the bureaucratic rivalry between State Department (Cordell Hull) and FBI (Edgar Hoover), Special Agent Tillman was initially barred access to the Japanese until he was cleared by the State Department in Washington, DC. The FBI assumed that at least one of the diplomats was a spy based on MAGIC intercepts of diplomatic messages by the Department of War originating out of the Japanese Consulate in Honolulu. MAGIC was a highly classified Department of War cryptoanalysis program used to decrypt Japanese diplomatic and military messages. Records show that the interrogators were not successful in making any cases for espionage against the Japanese, and that Vice Consul General Morimura was never identified as a spy.
A story from the Triple T Ranch is related by Lettie Fleagle, wife of Border Patrol Inspector Roland Fleagle, who was assigned at the ranch with Dogie Wright and Ivan Williams. In her oral interview in 1987, Mrs. Fleagle relayed how her husband was detailed to transport enemy aliens to Fort Missoula, Montana, in 1941-1942 and then reassigned to a special mission:
I don’t remember whether Roland made two trips to Missoula Montana or just the one. I know he wasn’t home for Christmas and then it was in February I believe that he was assigned to guard those Japanese diplomats out at the Triangle T Ranch at Dragoon near Benson Arizona. That was a very secret thing because of the temper of the people at that time. It had to be kept very hush-hush.
Roland didn’t get home for Easter that time because he was coloring Easter Eggs for the Japanese children out there. The Negro cook they had out there at the time got after Roland because he was hiding the Easter Eggs in the cactus and she scolded him for that. And he said “Oh it’s good for them will give them something to do.” But then Roland stayed out there and I think it was June 1942 that the Japanese were taken by train to New York City to exchange for the Americans. The exchange was not made in New York. I think it was made at some port in North Africa or someplace. They made the exchange there and then the Americans came into New York City in August 1942. And by chance Roland had been transferred to New York at that time and he was there in New York and helped process the Americans coming back to the States.
Patrol Inspectors were also responsible for escorting and monitoring the Japanese during the limited times they had to leave the Triple T Ranch for urgent medical issues. A couple of examples are when a three-year-old child had to be hospitalized because of a spinal condition, and another where one of the Japanese spouses had to be rushed to a hospital for an emergency appendectomy. Patrol Inspectors not only provided the transport, but also hospital watch.
On May 21, 1942, the American and Axis governments had negotiated for the first repatriation exchange using the Swedish liner M.S. Gripsholm, and messages were sent to Chief Williams to prepare the Japanese contingent for another train trip, this time from Benson, Arizona, to New York City. Chief Williams and four detailed Border Patrol Inspectors, including Roland Fleagle, traveled with the Japanese diplomat entourage on a train similar to the one that transported them from San Diego to Benson, departing on May 31, 1942, and arriving in New York City on June 11, 1942. The train made several stops to pick up additional Japanese enemy aliens who had been moved from internment camps, the Greenbrier Hotel, and Grove Park Inn. The Consul General and his entourage were isolated in a separate train car during the trip. Secrecy and security were still applied to the group in order that information known by the Honolulu group about the Pearl Harbor attack could not be relayed to other Japanese until the very last minute. As reported by State Department Special Agent Finch,
On the train trip from Arizona to New York, the Hawaiian group of Japanese were restricted to their cars and were not allowed to mix with other Japanese on the train. Upon arrival at New York, the Hawaiian group was taken off the train separately and into the Pennsylvania Hotel and lodged in a wing of the hotel which was cut off from all communication with the other Japanese there.
In New York City, Chief Williams directed the detailed Patrol Inspectors guarding the top two floors of the Pennsylvania Hotel, where the Japanese and other Axis diplomats were held as final arrangements were made for their repatriation. Chief Williams then received orders to accompany the Japanese entourage, along with 1,046 other Japanese enemy aliens, aboard the M.S. Gripsholm as it departed from Jersey City, NJ, on June 18, 1942, for the voyage to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where 417 additional Japanese diplomats and officials from Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay were picked up.
In Rio de Janeiro, the Gripsholm was moored in the harbor, where Brazilian military patrols armed with machine guns guarded the piers and waters. Once the additional Japanese were ferried aboard, the Gripsholm departed for Lourenco Marques, Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique), arriving on July 22, 1942, where the Japanese were exchanged for 1,516 American diplomats, businessmen, journalists, missionaries, and family members held by Axis governments, and transported to Lourenco Marques aboard the Japanese liner Asama Maru and Italian liner Conte Verde.
During his 1966 interview, Chief Williams commented about his voyage on the M.S. Gripsholm and a conversation he had with the man he would later learn gave the coded “all clear” message for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Remembers the big white Swedish mercy ship. Floodlighted at night to alert all belligerent naval vessels to its neutrality, the Gripsholm made a fast trip from New York. It was almost a pleasure cruise compared to the preceding three months.
One conversation aboard the Gripsholm stuck in Chief Williams’ mind, when Vice Consul General Morimura told him,
You know Mr. Williams, Japan will win this war against your country. It is inevitable. I shall be returning to the United States soon and where I will take over a post of some responsibility. I will be quite important in the affairs of your country. You have been an extremely conscientious and efficient guardian of our safety throughout our journeys. I should like to reward you when I return. What position would you like in your country? What can I do for you?
Williams said he wanted to reply with “Let me push you over the rail, you smug S.O.B!” Instead, he politely answered, “I’m afraid I don’t agree with your general conclusion so there’s really no point in discussing it all, is there?” Morimura just smiled and continued looking back out to sea.
Having seen the fruits of his hard labor with the repatriation of the Americans being held by the Japanese, Chief Williams returned with the grateful Americans to the U.S., arriving in New York on August 25, 1942, but his interaction with enemy aliens was not done. He was quickly assigned as the Officer-in-Charge of the Santa Fe, NM Internment Camp, then internment camps at Fort Missoula, MT, and Kenedy TX, before being sent back to Santa Fe. He returned to regular Border Patrol duties in 1946 and retired in 1953 to become the Chief of Police of Chandler, Arizona.
Excerpt from the book at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CKTTRH7W?