Piercing the Fog - Air Force Historical Studies Office

Piercing the Fog
attack on the airfields in the vicinity, and it required substantial support from
Halsey and Nimitz in the way of shipping and naval protection, much of which
was directed by radio. Partly to cover MacArthur, Nimitz’s Central Pacific
carrier task forces, supported by the Seventh and Thirteenth Air Forces, struck
Japanese-held islands including Truk, Guam, Woleai, and Yap. Late in March,
the Japanese reported by radio that they had learned (probably again from their
colonel captive) about American fighter and bomber tactics and of the functions
of the radar analysis aircraft known as ferrets?’
The full extent of Japan’s military intelligence capability and accomplishments
remains obscured in the wreckage of her defeat and the large-scale
destruction of records at the time of her surrender in 1945. Yet, the Japanese
were not without an understanding of the AAF’s operations in the Pacific, and
one should not assume they were uncertain of Allied capability. Although less
sophisticated than the Allied SIGINT system, Japan’s radio intercept teams
accurately predicted and followed American attacks directed against their
homeland. Hampered by the general lack of regard, even disdain, for intelligence
as a field of military endeavor, some adroit Japanese analysts nevertheless
reached surprising conclusions as to their enemy’s intentions. At least one
such conclusion probably could not have been more correct had the Japanese
had an ULTRA of their own equal to the SWPA’s CB. As the Allies drew up
their plans for the projected November 1945 landing on Kyushu, Maj. Hori
Eizo, who served on the Imperial Army’s General Staff and was an accepted
expert on MacArthur’ s planning tendencies, predicted the landing beaches with
uncanny, even unsettling, accuracy, based upon his thorough studies of past
Allied campaigns. Working in smaller groups and with fewer resources than
their Allied counterparts, Japanese air intelligence officers kept a close watch
on AAF combat operations, all the while the Allies’ ULTRA system was
allowing Kenney’s senior staff to watch over the shoulders of the Japanese
analysts at work.’8