portalId: 20973928, ", Samuel Eliot Morison, Breaking the Bismarcks Barrier, p. 38. }); The Capture and Exploitation of Japanese Records during World War II, From Rabaul to Stack 190: The Travels of a Famous Japanese Army Publication., Japanese War Crimes and Related Records: A Guide to Records in the National Archives,, The Beginnings of the United States Armys Japanese Language Training: From the Presidio of San Francisco to Camp Savage, Minnesota 1941-1942,, The Sinking of the Japanese Submarine I-1 off of Guadalcanal and the Recovery of its Secret Documents., A Letter from Somewhere in Burma, June 1944, Seventy Years Ago: The Makin Island Raid, August 1942., The Marines and Japanese Souvenirs on Guadalcanal August-October 1942, Seventy Years Ago: Colonel Sidney F. Mashbir and the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS), September-October 1942., The National Archives Arthur Evarts Kimberly and the Allied Translator and Interpreter Sections Document Restoration Sub-Section, 1944-1945., The Z Plan Story: Japans 1944 Naval Battle Strategy Drifts into U.S. Hands, Part I, Allied Translator and Interpreter Section. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress. Japanese forces began to land on the island of Luzon in the Philippines on December 10. . The terrain, however, proved more problematic. Hollandia was a port on the north coast of New Guinea, part of the Dutch East Indies, and was the only anchorage between Wewak to the east, and Geelvink Bay to the west. From there the documents were immediately sent to Brisbane for translation by ATIS personnel. Current Translations were publications containing complete translations of documents classified A, B, C, or D in ATIS Bulletins. [43], The remaining destroyers with about 2,700 surviving troops limped back to Rabaul. [15] The only Allied response was a bombing raid of Lae and Salamaua by aircraft flying over the Owen Stanley Range from the carriers USSLexington and USSYorktown, leading the Japanese to reinforce these sites. Intelligence gained from breaking the codes protecting Imperial Japanese Army radio messages led the Allies to learn that the Hollandia area was only lightly defended, with Japanese forces being concentrated in the Madang-Wewak region. Advancing on Australia The Japanese effort at the start of World War Two was focused on conquest. The translation of documents captured in the Southwest Pacific Area began with those taken in the Milne Bay operation in August 1942. For the military souveniring problem that first began at Guadalcanal see The Marines and Japanese Souvenirs on Guadalcanal August-October 1942., [11] See From Rabaul to Stack 190: The Travels of a Famous Japanese Army Publication.. ATIS Inventories were also prepared. Base G played an important role as a staging area for subsequent operations in New Guinea and the Philippines. As the body of available material continued to grow, individual studies based on information available to ATIS were produced as Information Bulletins on subjects of general interest. 11, Factors in Japanese Military Psychology was ever completed, although the material intended for this publication could have been used instead for Research Report No. In December 1943, an operational order indicating the times and dates at which Japanese submarine were scheduled to appear in designated spots in the Arawe area, New Britain, was translated by ATIS and immediately forwarded to Naval Intelligence where prompt action was taken. This attack also destroyed 60 percent of all rations and ammunition that had been landed, and resulted in shortages amongst the infantry advancing towards the airfields. In late 1943, the Information Section was given the task of writing Briefs consisting of a summary and highlights of Enemy Publications and Current Translations. [28][29] Secondary landings would take place Aitape, 125 miles to the east, at the same time as those around Hollandia. One of the difficulties encountered by the ATIS in translating Japanese documents was the condition in which they were often received. 72 was published as an accumulation of documentary evidence for the Commission Regarding Breaches of the Rules of Warfare by the Japanese Forces of the Australian Commonwealth. I am estimating that a cubic foot of records is 2,500 pages. [39] It is indicative of the extent to which Japanese ambitions had fallen at this point in the war that a 50% loss of ground troops aboard ship was considered acceptable. They arrived off Hollandia during the night of 21/22 April and about 20 miles (32km) offshore, the convoy split again with the Central Attack Group preceding for Humboldt Bay while the Western Attack Group turned towards Tanahmerah Bay. 2 in May 1943. After four days under these conditions the two units had reached the western airfield and on 26 April it was secured. [16] That summer a Document Restoration Sub-Section, staffed by six WACs (Womens Army Corps), including one officer, was established. This discovery resulted in a hurried revision of the assault plans regarding these islands. RAAF radar could not provide sufficient warning of Japanese attacks, so reliance was placed on coastwatchers and spotters in the hills until an American radar unit arrived in September with better equipment. It was not just on the islands that important information was captured. The Eastern Fleet's British and American aircraft carriers raided Sabang on 19 April. The Netherlands, Britain and the United States tried to defend the colony from the Japanese forces as they moved south in late 1941 in search of Dutch oil. [13] Eventually it would grow to over 2,500 personnel, some of who served with Advanced Echelons and combat units. Statistical and Accounting Branch Office of the Adjutant General 1953, p. 94, Craven & Cate 1948, p. 477 & 723 (note 15), Office of the Combined Chiefs of Staff 1943, p. 67, New Guinea: The US Army Campaigns of World War II, "Biography of Lieutenant-General Heisuke Abe () ( ) (18861943), Japan", United States Army Center of Military History, The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 19421944, "Report on Historical Sources on Australia and Japan at war in Papua and New Guinea, 194245", "The Campaigns of MacArthur in the Pacific, Volume I", "Japanese Operations in the Southwest Pacific Area, Volume II Part I", National Archive Video of Hollandia Bay, New Guinea Invasion, Allies Study Post-War Security etc. Primary Image: The US pursued a two-pronged offensive across the central and southwest Pacific to . It was occupied by the invading Japanese during the invasion of the Dutch East Indies in 1942 and became a base for their expansion to the east towards the Australian mandated territories of Papua New Guinea. Neither Kitazono nor Endo had been able to prepare a comprehensive defensive plan, and in any event had neither the men nor the resources to carry it out. [11] For the same reasons, General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander Allied Forces South West Pacific Area was determined to hold it. They immediately sent back to Australia approximately 3,500 pounds of records, letters, and other documentary material. 126 is Hoko: The Spy-Hostage System of Group Control-The Clue to Japanese Psychology. On April 29, 1944, Research Report No. It made the term amphibious a household word throughout the English-speaking world. Before the end of May 1944 the 41st Infantry Division moved westward from Hollandia and made a landing on the little island of Biak. When the first thirty-five prisoners of war arrived in June 1942, after the Battle of Midway, Japanese interrogators had to be borrowed from other activities. "[43], Marshal Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto promised the emperor that he would pay back the Allies for the disaster at the Bismarck Sea with a series of massive air strikes. In February 1943, the first contingent of twenty graduates from the Navys Japanese Language School at Boulder, Colorado arrived at ICPOA and began interrogating prisoners of war and translating captured documents. ATIS also published a how-to handbook on conservation treatment of captured records and produced a Document Restoration Kit for units in the field. They included: No. [56] On the other hand, the Allied operation had been over-insured; concerns over the strength of the Japanese garrison had left the Allies with a four to one advantage in the event. Reports were issued when sufficient information on any subject had been collated to warrant publication. [9], The Japanese 8th Area Army (equivalent to an Anglo-American army), under General Hitoshi Imamura at Rabaul, was responsible for both the New Guinea and Solomon Islands campaigns. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Japans strategy in the Pacific and Southeast Asia, The Allied offensive in the Pacific, 1944, Casualties and the material cost of the Pacific War. "[32], "Also formidable was the tenacity of the enemy, who would fight to the death in these stinking holes, starving, diseased and with their dead rotting and unburied beside them. ATIS received and translated in April 1944 the diary of prisoner of war Hiroshi Horikoshi, a civilian employee (interpreter) with the Japanese 14th Army, who was captured at the same time. [47], I-Go demonstrated that the Japanese command was not learning the lessons of air power that the Allies were. The Japanese occupied the village with an initial force of 1,500 on 21 July and by 22 August had 11,430 men under arms at Buna. Among this cache were code books and a list of Japanese and German agents in the United States. the strategic base on New Britain (now part of Papua New Guinea), on January 23, 1942. Blog of the Textual Records Division at the National Archives. [18]. It held what turned out to be a gold mine of valuable documents, including battle plans, codes and letters. To alleviate this difficulty, in July 1944, an officer was assigned for duty with ATIS for the purpose of organizing a sub-section to clean and restore documents making them more readily legible. [41] Through the afternoon of 1 March, the overcast weather held at which point everything began to go wrong for the Japanese. MacArthur, with a firm foothold in New Guinea, was determined to move next to the Philippines, from which he had been driven after Pearl Harbor, and from there launch the final attack on the Japanese home islands. The operation consisted of two landings, one at Tanahmerah Bay and the other at Humboldt Bay, near Hollandia. In mid-July 1944, near Moemi, soldiers recovered three cases of buried records, including seven important documents that a Japanese deserter had led them to. They were numerical inventories under 17 principal categories of documents considered to be of probable or general value. 92). The destroyer Yayoi, sent to recover these men, was itself bombed and sunk on 11 September. This translation aided materially in speeding up the execution of the subsequent attack on Saipan and other Japanese bases in the Pacific, which occurred shortly thereafter. With the occupation of Morotai, the long drive up the New Guinea coast was strategically completed. [14] Some sources indicate the figure was 50 tons. Some claim that 97% of Japanese deaths were from non-combat causes. It was captured and was found to be carrying a Japanese message. [46] Yamamoto then turned his attention to New Guinea: 94 planes struck Oro Bay on 11 April; 174 planes hit Port Moresby on 12 April; and in the largest raid of all, 188 aircraft struck Milne Bay on 14 April. It was placed under the direction of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence (J-2), Joint Staff, CINCPAC, and CINCPOA (Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas). Historian Samuel Eliot Morison summed up the results this way: the enemy had shot his bolt; he never showed up again in these waters. The publication was intended as a manual for the training and indoctrination of intelligence personnel and as a reference book for the exploitation of intelligence documents. At Anguar Island in the Western Carolinas in early September 1944, agents from the 81st CIC Detachment, with the 81st Infantry Division, captured a large volume of records, including blueprints, books, miscellaneous documents, files, 40 pounds of mail, and Japanese currency and coins. The report contained 28 pages of translations, each translation accompanied by a photostatic copy of the original document and authenticated under oath by the translation. Over 120 of these Research Reports were published. The beach was narrow, though, and only allowed two LCMs to land at a time, while the even bigger LSTs had to remain offshore where they were cross loaded on to LVTs. [17], After this failure, the Japanese decided on a longer term, two-pronged assault for their next attempt on Port Moresby. Beleaguered, the survivors of the Japanese garrison were evacuated by submarine on the night of 26 October. Similar JICPOA teams participated in succeeding amphibious assaults to examine prisoners and documents for intelligence of immediate tactical value. In response, on 8 March General Douglas MacArthur sought approval from the Joint Chiefs of Staff to bring forward the previously planned landings at Hollandia to 15 April. The beach quickly became congested, as it had also been the center of a Japanese supply dump prior to the assault, and engineers had to work to clear the area with bulldozers and construct a roadway to the beach's only exit. The loss of Hollandia made the Japanese strategic defense line at Wakde, to the west, and all Japanese positions to the east untenable. The Dutch surrendered on 8 March. Horikoshi was in the Philippine Islands from May 1942 to August 1943, and the diary contained a good coverage of that period, depicting atrocities, conditions in Allied prisoner-of-war camps, and conditions in the Philippine Islands in general. Combat boundaries were listed. Most Japanese troops never even came into contact with Allied forces, and were instead simply cut off and subjected to an effective blockade by Allied naval forces. They were carrying Admiral Mineichi Koga, commander in chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and his staff, including Vice Admiral Shegeru Fukudome, who was carrying the Z plan documents and the associated cipher system. region: "", [34][35] During the same period, American air and naval forces sank many of the Japanese ships which were attempting to transport reinforcements to the Hollandia and Wewak areas; these attacks were guided by intelligence gained from breaking the Japanese codes. [39] This operation had no effect on the Japanese, as the air units were being held in reserve for a planned major attack on American naval forces in the Central Pacific. The Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies began on 10 January 1942, and the Imperial Japanese Army overran the entire colony in less than three months. Today known as Jayapura, in 1941 Hollandia (140.707E 2.543S) was the largest settlement in the Dutch half of New Guinea.It was located on the only really first-class natural harbor on the north coast of Dutch New Guinea, Humboldt Bay, though it had only primitive port facilities. While captured records were quickly evaluated in the field, almost all were eventually sent back to Hawaii, and some of those on to the Washington Document Center in Washington, D.C.[12] Although JICPOA was a major player in the captured documents intelligence business, it was ATIS, however, during the war years that handled the most documents. Japan's threatened military encroachment closer to Australia hinted at some type of potential invasion of the northernmost frontiers. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Lindberg D-Day Invasion LCT Cargo Ship Model Kit 1/125 New Sealed In Damaged Box at the best online prices at eBay! 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