In this gripping, previously untold story from World War II, Michael Smith examines how code breakers cracked Japan’s secret codes and won the war in the Pacific. He also takes the reader step by step through the process, explaining exactly how the code breakers went about their daunting taskmade even more difficult by the vast linguistic differences between Japanese and English.The Emperor’s … English.
The Emperor’s Codes moves across the world from Bletchley Park to Pearl Harbor, from Singapore to Colombo, and from Mombasa to Melbourne. It tells the stories of John Tiltman, the British soldier turned code breaker who made many of the early breaks in Japanese diplomatic and military codes; Commander Joe Rochedort, the leading expert on Japanese in U.S. naval intelligence; Eric Nave, the Australian sailor who pioneered breakthroughs in deciphering Japanese naval codes; and Oshima Hiroshi, the hard-drinking Japanese ambassador to Berlin whose candid, often verbose reports to Tokyo of his conversations with Hitler and other high-ranking Nazis were a major source of intelligence in the war against Germany. Without the dedication demonstrated by these relatively unsung heroes, the outcome of World War II might have been very different.
more
A facinating story which was far more complicated than I had imagined. Truly a tribute to the men and women who worked to break the multiple codes used by the enimy.
Great characters lots of twist. Very quick read
This book was interesting because it looked at breaking the Japanese codes from the British perspective. Nearly everything I have read has attributed the success to American code breakers, but it’s clear there were also significant contributions from the British side. It also references operations other than the usual Midway, Philippines, etc.
This book drags in places and gets nerdy on codebreaking sometimes, but it’s worthwhile if you have an interest in the subject.
A bit tedious in it’s detail.
Got much too repetitive and technically so as well. My eyes and brain glazed over, and I ditched it about 2/3 way through. NOT recommended!
(And, I was in the Army Security Agency (a branch of NSA) during the Korean War, so I know what the author is talking about. I loved the work, and his writing is a bore.)
Great book for history buffs. Good detail of an untold story.
If you like military history this book (and a few others on the subject of cryptology during wartime) will give you a side of the war that you won’t find anywhere else, least of all in documentary movies. It explains how a lot of things happened and why they turned out like they did.
Now I want a book that tells how the Axis countries worked on Allied codes. For some reason that’s a subject that hasn’t been covered.
We had always been taught that only the Americans solved the key Japanese code JN-25 only to find out how much of a collaboration with our WW2 allies was needed, and how much our later solution of the code built upon over 15 years of effort by the British.
Lots of interesting history on the Pacific War side of code-breaking, well-researched and readable.
Well written and interesting.
A history of the code breaking efforts, mostly by the British in the Pacific theater. The book’s focus is one the listening stations in the far East and the people who worked there. I was hoping for more about how the code breaking worked and how the results helped with the Allied efforts. There was only a short discussion of the Japanese encryption methods. Also would have liked to have read more about the Enigma machine and the efforts at Blechly Park. Overall, informative but a bit tedious.
I found the book to be very slow reading – so slow, i haven’t finished it. Having read Michael Kerrigan’s book about the Enigma code breakers, I was hoping this would be similar. However, it is very dry reading.
I was involved in this work much later. It was an interesting read with an insight into the British participation in the Pacific war, which most people don’t really know about.
A lot of detail of how the codes were broken. Painstaking, monumental, global efforts to collect the radio messages, catalog them, strip off overlaying deceptions and grind through the codes before even being able to translate them. Many brilliant people and many eccentric ones. Personal accounts included. Great read.
Fascinating story and it reveals one of the greatest advantages the U.S. had versus Japan in World War II other than manufacturing capability. Intriguing and eye opening, this book is not dull!
A very interesting read for history buffs. As important as the breaking of the German Enigma ciphers were to the European war, the Japanese diplomats were telling the Allies everything the Germans were telling them. And that was almost everything. Who knew!
Tedious read that is occasionally interesting.
Very interesting and well written. I think that it would be better read in hard bound format but still very informative. It’s amazing how much information the code breakers could get from a variety of data analyses. It’s unfortunate that the allies did not work more closely, with less concern about who would get credit.
Far more detail than I expected or needed.
Great background in WW II spying