The Emperor's Codes: The Breaking of Japan's Secret Ciphers: Smith, Michael: 9780142002339: Amazon.com: Books

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The Emperor's Codes: The Breaking of Japan's Secret Ciphers Paperback – November 5, 2002

by Michael Smith (Author)

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In this gripping, previously untold story from World War II, Michael Smith examines how a group of eccentric codebreakers cracked Japan's secret codes and turned the tide of the war in the Pacific. Drawing upon recently declassified British files, privileged access to Australian secret official histories, and interviews with many of the men involved, The Emperor's Codes takes the reader step-by-step through the codebreaking process, explaining exactly how the codebreakers went about their daunting task-made even more difficult by the vast linguistic differences between Japanese and English. It details the grueling work and almost unfathomable dedication demonstrated by these relatively unsung heroes, without whose extraordinary exploits the outcome of World War II might have been very different.

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Print length

352 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Books
Publication date

November 5, 2002
Dimensions

5.25 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

014200233X
ISBN-13

978-0142002339
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Editorial Reviews

Review

An engrossing and exciting recounting of an...important facet of World War II -- Booklist

An enthralling tale...the stuff of John le Carré...yet true. -- Daily Telegraph

About the Author

Michael Smith served for nine years in the British Army's Intelligence Corps as a latter-day codebreaker before going to work for the BBC Monitoring Service. He has written for a number of newspapers, including the Financial Times, the Sunday Times, and most recently the Daily Telegraph, where he is Defense Correspondent.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books (November 5, 2002)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 014200233X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0142002339
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #9,701,049 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #10,155 in Japanese History (Books)
- #57,882 in World War II History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
106

About the author

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Michael Smith

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Michael Smith is the number-one bestselling author of Station X. He served in the British Army's Intelligence Corps and was an award-winning journalist for the BBC, the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Times. He is now a full-time novelist and intelligence historian.

Smith is the author of a number of books, including The Secrets of Station X; SIX: The Real James Bonds and Foley: The Spy Who Saved 10,000 Jews. He is the editor of The Secret Agent's Bedside Reader, a compilation of writing on spies by spies, which includes the work of John le Carre, Somerset Maugham, Graham Greene and Kim Philby.

Smith's latest book is The Real Special Relationship, a widely acclaimed account of the exceptionally close intelligence relationship between British and American spies and codebreakers from Bletchley Park to the war in Ukraine. He lives near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

106 global ratings

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A guided tour by the people who were there

Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2018

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I have several books about WWII codebreaking and this book is a welcome addition to my collection. I think I got hooked on the subject after reading "The Broken Seal" by Ladislas Farago. While serving in the USN I was stationed for a time at the Nebraska Avenue facility in Washington which during the war was the Navy's main codebreaking center in concert with the Army's facility known as Arlington Hall. I was there long after that business was all transferred over to the National Security Agency. There are two things about the book that jumped out at me. One, it documents just how widespread the whole operation was. We tend to think that Bletchley Park, Nebraska Avenue and Arlington Hall was where all the action was, but in fact there were facilities such as intercept stations all over place. Moreover, while Enigma and JN-25 were the main concern we forget that there were numerous lesser codes to be struggled with which this book does a good job bringing to light. Two, I was amused that the argument over who was the most stingy with sharing breakthroughs, the Brits or the Yanks, continues. Most books by US authors fault the Brits for not being as forthcoming as they should have been, while the Brits have the same opinion toward the Yanks. But in the end they got the job done.

At the very end of the book I was shocked to learn about the controversy regarding the book "Betrayal at Pearl Harbor." Mr. Smith reveals that Eric Nave's co-author, James Rusbridger distorted the original text to make it conform with his own interpretation of events. I wish he had expanded on this.

29 people found this helpful

John W Snelling

The amazing success of code breaking without computers

Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2015

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As a young schoolboy during WWII growing up in Sydney, Australia I lived not far from a huge army barracks set up by the US Army. I was aware of the possibility of invasion by the Japanese, happy to see so many American GIs nearby and of course totally unaware of all those amazing people at Bletchley Park in the UK and the US equivalent the one in Melbourne and also in Colombo not to mention India. All of whom were at that time working so hard to bring the war to an end. Just amazing stuff to learn what they achieved and the undoubted affect their hard work achieved just with the big US naval battles in the Pacific.
These days of course there is NSA in Maryland, USA. I have read a good deal about the NSA and am pleased there is such an agency helping to keep us as safe as possible. Trying to equate the capacity the NSA has now with what the cryptographers had to do in WWII the mind boggles. If only they could have seen what was to follow them. The Emperor's Codes is a good book and certainly one I will return to for a second read.

26 people found this helpful

diana lauder sacks

"The Emperor's Codes: The Breaking of Japan's Secret Ciphers"

Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2013

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I thoroughly enjoyed reading this account particularly as I have just watched "The Bletchley Circle" on television.
I was a young child living in Colombo from 1940-1942. My father was attached to the Royal Navy. My mother mentioned at one time that whilst living in Colombo she had worked with the group that was monitoring Japanese activity in Southeast Asia. She may have been one of the Temporary Women Assistants. My parents passed away a few years' ago in England both at the age of 96 years. I really enjoy reading about WW2 since I was, in a small way, part of it. My mother and I had to be evacuated from Colombo in 1942 to Durban, then Cape Town, then back to England in a convoy of ships travelling through the Atlantic. After some years in Scotland my father was posted to Singapore in 1947-1954 for two tours of duty. I remember the Cathay Cinema(and it is still there) although hardly recognized Singapore when I returned in 2012 for a visit after some 60 years! Thank you. Diana Lauder Sacks

5 people found this helpful

Karun Mukherjee

Mediocre : Dragging book

Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2003

I was not happy reading this book.Book breaks no new ground.Author's attempt has been to show the British never lagged behind Americans in penetrating Japanese ciphers.Smith goes to extraordinary lengths to show how understanding was forged among Allies to share special intelligence.However Americans were intially unwilling to share intelligence with their British counterparts.Perhaps the former wanted to corner all military glory.I believe the principal credit for breaking Japanese codes must go cryptanalysts of US Navy.
Following the intricacies of Japanese codes have been a daunting task for me.I feel author ought to have explained this with diagrams or sketches which would have simplified the subject for a lay man like me.Precisely this is what Simon Singh has done in his path breaking work 'Code Book'.Book contains character profiles of leading British code breakers who served in the Far Eastern theatre of war.Author sidetracks a lot giving florid accounts of their personal lives.I found this very dragging.
However there is some interesting information .Nazi leader had a hunch that Normandy would be the site for D day landings although evidence pointed to Pas de Calais.This was known because Anglo-Amercans were reading messages sent Japanese ambassador in Berlin to Foreign office in Tokyo.This fore knowledge helped Allies to fine tune their deception.Other pertains to atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.Potsdam declaration by the big Three told Japan to surrender unconditionally.Japan was willing provided Anglo-Americans were willing to respect Emperor's status.Latter accepted this demand Still nuclear bombs were dropped .Why? Author justifiably expresses shock and surprise at this Allied decision.The incident has continued to baffle me to this day.Is Truman and Churchill guilty of perpetrating mass murder?

8 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2019

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Because of the code breaking work in England, they also helped us, I wonder if the government wanted a war with Japan, in the end.

Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2019

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Great book, insite into how the US listened to the Japanese during WWII

Complete history

Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2021

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Very interesting- history from 1920’s through 1945.

Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2019

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As advertised

Top reviews from other countries

Tom

Great present

Reviewed in Canada on March 30, 2024

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Good book I bought again for a friend

MJF

Excellent! The accounts of U-boat captures etc

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 10, 2018

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Excellent! The accounts of U-boat captures etc. are particularly good and often left out of accounts of Enigma. It wasn't all about Turing.

2 people found this helpful

Porsena

Very interesting reveal.

Reviewed in Australia on October 5, 2022

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Appendix demonstrates examples of how decoding was done. They say that nothing is more impossible than something that can be done with a great deal of difficulty - disproved here.

Joan Murray

Five Stars

Reviewed in Canada on June 10, 2018

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great book

Fred

Just what I wanted.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 19, 2017

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Arrived in time and exactly as described. Not read it yet but it looks exactly what I wanted.

One person found this helpful

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