Codebreaker in the Far East [Paperback]

Alan Stripp (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 7, 1995

This unique work, written by the editor of the bestselling Codebreakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park, is the first to chronicle the British wartime successes in breaking Japanese codes during World War II. Other veterans of Bletchley Park have described how they broke the German Enigma machine to produce Ultra intelligence which helped to hasten victory in the war. There have also been been accounts of how the United States broke the Purple cipher and a navel code, even before Pearl Harbor. Here, Alan Stripp details the monumental British achievement at Bletchley Park and the Far East as these remarkable people broke codes of dazzling variety and complexity, powerfully contributing to the victory in Burma three months before Hiroshima. This firsthand account shows the magnitude of the task: grappling with one of the world's most daunting languages, learning the skills of cyptanalysis, turning out decrypts against the clock, and weaving together all the strands of intelligence to help vanquish a dogged and resourceful enemy who had never known defeat. It is a success story that conveys the sheer excitement of reading the enemy's mind, offering many surprises along the way: who would have expected Japanese signals to reveal not only what they were up to in Asia but also details of German aircraft, the latest U-boats, even the Normandy beach defences. With fascinating explanations of how codes were sent, intercepted, and broken, this personal and readable narrative makes perfectly clear vital importance of codebreakers to the outcome of the war.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Alan Stripp is Director of the Cambridge University Summer Schools on British Secret Services. Until the end of the Second World War he worked at Bletchley Park and in Delhi, breaking Japanese codes, before switching to Persian and Afghan codes. He is the editor of Codebreakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley (OPB, 1994),

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (September 7, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192853163
• ISBN-13: 978-0192853165
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,182,587 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Boring yet Interesting!, November 1, 2008

By 

Arthur Kimes (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Codebreaker in the Far East (Paperback)

After taking half the book for what might be the most boring WW2 autobiography in print, we get an excellent look at Japanese cryptosystems and how they were attacked. If you're interested in crypto-stuff you'll love this book. If not, keep looking.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fine Narrative, September 18, 2001

By 

El Cutachero (MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Codebreaker in the Far East (Paperback)

The author was a cryptographer working out of Australia during WWW II. This is his personal narrative and an operational history combined. Not definitive because at the time of writing much documentation remained to be declassified. A worthwhile addition to a SIGINT collection.