Two very
interesting reports detailing the main Japanese diplomatic and naval
cryptosystems of WWII are available online via the Australian National Archives
website.
To view the
reports go to the National
Archives site, click on ‘RecordSearch’,
then click Advanced search for items and
next to ITEM BARCODE enter 12127133
for the diplomatic report or 859305 for the Naval report.
1). The first
report is titled ‘Special Intelligence
Section report - Japanese Diplomatic ciphers’ and covers the codes and
ciphers used by Japan’s Foreign Ministry, their characteristics and the success
that the Anglo-American codebreakers had with each one.
2). The
second report covers the codes and ciphers of the Imperial Japanese Navy and it
is titled ‘Volume of technical records
containing details of codes and cyphers’. The unofficial title is ‘The Jamieson report’.
Note that one
of the systems mentioned is the JN-87 strip cipher. The Japanese thought so
highly of the US M-138-A strip cipher that they copied it and used it with
certain modifications!
Acknowledgements: I have to thank Professor Peter Donovan for
informing me of the ‘Jamieson report’.
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