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Top government officials got their information from many sources. Worldwide newspapers and military magazines provided some. American citizens and government officials supplied other clues . Many bits of secret information hinted at Japan’s interest in Pearl Harbor. Joseph C. Grew was the American ambassador to Japan. He sent the American States Department a very early warning of Japanese intentions. He learned from a Peruvian diplomat, through a Japanese cook working in an embassy in Tokyo, that japan intended to attack the United Sates. This information was sent to Washington on January 27, 1941. After limited investigation, the American government dismissed the information as idle gossip. A British spy brought information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) in Washington. The information, preserved in microdots, told of strong Japanese interest in the schedules of ships in Hawaii. FBI agents distrusted and disliked the agent who brought this information so they dismissed this warning as well. In addition to random pieces of information like these, the United States had its own very special source of secret information. Lieutenant Colonel William F. Friedman was a cryptographer working for the government. Friedman was intrigued by the prospect of breaking the Japanese diplomatic code. In August of 1940, after an intensive analysis lasting twenty months, he broke the code. Friedman knew the importance and urgency of his task. He worked at such a feverish pace to complete his assignment that he suffered a nervous breakdown and had to be hospitalized in December 1940. He spent three months in Walter Reed Hospital recovering his strength. He had supplied the United States with a source of secret information unequal to anything known in history. The code system Friedman broke was called ” Purple “. It was produced on a machine similar to a complicated typewriter. On this machine, the keys changed their positions so that the code frequently changed. The information this machine supplied was called ” Magic “. Only once during the course of the war did the Japanese suspect that the diplomatic code had been broken. But Because the Japanese did not believe that the Americans were capable of such a task, they ignored their suspicion. Japan did not change its code. Keeping Friedmans work a secret was a major priority in Washington. After a message was discovered, decoded, and then translated, fourteen copies were made. Two were kept on file. The other twelve were placed in specially designed heavy leather cases, each with a padlock security system. They were hand delivered to recipients. After the messages were read they were replaced in the cases, returned to either the army or navy, and destroyed. Those who received magic included the president of the United States, the secretary of state, the chief of staff, the secretaries of the army and the navy and a handful of other top ranked army and navy officers. None of these people were permitted to discuss Magic. In the last months of 1941 the amount of Magic became enormous. No one could possibly view all the information at a single time. There was one question that should have been raised regarding Japan’s interest in the American battleships at Pearl Harbor. Certain decoded Japanese messages collectively have been called the ” bomb plot ” series. It did not refer to a scheme or conspiracy. It referred to the mapping, or plotting, of the sectors of the harbor. These messages were requests for the specific information. They contained questions regarding the location of battleships and their movements in and out of the harbor. A message on November 14, 1941, seemed to be especially urgent. It contained a request for two reports weekly. The messages were to be sent to Tokyo on different days of the week to avoid a pattern for detection. The messages were to contain information about all ships movements. Tokyo required the information because the United States and Japanese relations were getting wore. The Japanese consul General Nagao Kita, responded to these requests from Tokyo on a regular basis. Just as regularly, American cryptographers listening in on the

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