Shadows Dancing: Japanese Espionage Against the West, 1939-1945

Australian writer Matthews describes how the Japanese infiltrated agents into Allied and neutral countries through Spanish embassies, inflicting serious damage on the Allied war effort by supplying information to Tokyo about shipping and troop movements. He explains why Spanish foreign minister Ramon Suner (the brother-in-law of dictator Francisco Franco) encouraged the establishment of Japanese espionage rings on Spanish soil, then traces the deterioration of Spanish-Japanese relations after the Imperial Army began mistreating Catholics and Spanish nationals in the Philippines. In his survey of Japanese espionage activity during WW II, Matthews includes Japanese-American fishing fleets based in California ports, recounting how they were trained to report ship traffic, take soundings and scout landing sites for a proposed invasion of the West Coast. Throughout the war, U.S. counterintelligence authorities intercepted and decrypted top-secret messages between the Tokyo Foreign Office and various embassies. Extended quotes from these ``Magic Summaries''--as the decoded messages were called--form the core of Matthews's tersely informative study, which will be of interest to espionage buffs. Photos. (Apr.)