Takeo Yoshikawa

was a Japanese spy in Hawaii before the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Early career A 1933 graduate of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy at Etajima (graduating at the top of his class), Yoshikawa served briefly at sea aboard the armored cruiser Asama as well as submarines. He had begun training as a naval pilot near the end of 1934 when a severe stomach ailment prevented his completing his training. He was subsequently discharged from the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1936. As a result, he briefly contemplated suicide. A year later he began a career in Naval intelligence, being assigned to Navy Headquarters in Tokyo. He became an expert regarding the U.S. Navy, perusing every source he could possibly get his hands on. While on intelligence duty he intercepted a shortwave radio message in plain English that 17 troop transports were en route to England, having cleared the port of Freetown, Sierra Leone. He passed this information to the German Embassy, and many of the ships were destroyed as a result. Yoshikawa subsequently received a personal letter of thanks from Adolf Hitler. In 1940 he became a junior diplomat after passing the Foreign Ministry English examinations. A spy in Hawaii Because of his expertise on the U.S. Navy, Yoshikawa was sent to Hawaii posing as a vice-consul named Tadashi Morimura (森村 正 Morimura Tadashi), arriving on March 27, 1941, with Nagao Kita (喜多 長雄 Kita Nagao), the new Japanese Consul-General, aboard the liner Nitta Maru. He rented a second-story apartment that overlooked Pearl Harbor and would often wander around the island of Oahu, taking notes on fleet movements and security measures. He rented small airplanes at John Rodgers Airport and flew around, observing U.S. installations; he also dove under the harbor using a hollow reed as a breathing device. He gathered information by taking the Navy's own harbor tugboat and listening to local gossip. He worked closely with German Abwehr agent Bernard Kuehn, as well as another former Etajima graduate, Kokichi Seki (関 興吉 Seki Kō'kichi), an untrained spy who served as the consulate's treasurer.