Summary: Quiet, Backroom Heros
Comment: Even after the author explains how the decoding occured it still seems impossible that people with paper & pencil could decipher the codes. Impressive. About time these "backroom" heros were held up for admiration. At times a bit scholarly but an excellent read for any history or puzzle buff. Should be required reading in our schools--as an example of what can be done without a computer or pocket calculator.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Comment: I was excited to see this book but was ultimately not very pleased. This book spent way too much time on personal recollections of housing conditions from some of the participants and too little on stories of the consequences of the code-breaking. For example, the shootdown of Yamamoto is the title of a chapter but it is covered almost parenthetically in it. It is told entirely from the British perspective. The Americans may have been too secretive with their allies but some perspective from the US participants was needed.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Emperor's Codes - Fails to Decode History
Comment: I recommend buying Emperor's Codes. However, it is just
a small part of the history and has some significant flaws.
Michael Smith's book failed to convince me that the British
were the primary breakers of most Japanese codes and ciphers
before and during the war. Both the British and American invested
increasing resources to identify and break Japanese codes.
The efforts of both were separate, but as the war continued
agreements were worked out to share the results of their
individual work. Some of these efforts were impeded by
politics on both sides. The United States was not the sole
obstructor of efforts to share intelligence. Both sides also
made mistakes in ignoring intelligence from their codebreakers.
Smith's arguments come across as rather one-sided and sound
a bit too resentful for good history in my opinion. He would
have been better off detailing the British and Australian
efforts and let that speak for itself.
He greatly misleads the readers by implying that the breaking
of JN25, the main Japanese Naval Operational Code, by Colonel
Tiltman of GC&CS was a prime British triumph, and that
later codebreaking efforts by Americans to break JN25 was
mere catch up with the British. The fact is JN25A was broken
by Tiltman but not the successor JN25B. JN25B superceeded
JN25A and was a completely new code that was vastly more
complex than JN25A. It was related to JN25A in name only.
The British did not break JN25B. Joe Rochefort and his group
in Hawaii successfully discovered or guessed at enough code
groups to predict the Japanese invasion attempt on Midway, the
greatest code triumph of the war in the Pacific.
One thing I did like about this book was the identification of
the various codes and their purposes. Amongst those id'd
are JN11 (Fleet Auxillary Code), JN40 Naval Shipping Code,
ZMTW or 2468 (Army Shipping Code), JN152 (Navigational Warning
Code), JMA - Coral, etc. So many writers of the Pacific War
refer to the breaking of the 'Japanese Code'. Well, there was
not a single code but many different codes and ciphers with many
different uses. A code as minor as a contact report code used
by the merchant shipping was extremely helpful in identifying
the location of convoys. For this information alone I was happy
to have bought the book.
There is no question that the British and Australians contributed
to the codebreaking efforts in the Pacific. Especially when the
sharing of information enhanced everybody's efforts. For their
efforts I am surely grateful. It saved many lives.
I believe a good history remains to be written that identifies
the various codes, describes the cryptanalysis, the
intelligence value, and how the information was used for each
code. Until that time interested readers must cull through the
various books and piece together the story. I recommend reading
John Prados's 'Combined Fleet Decoded', Edward Drea's
'MacArthur's Ultra', Stripp's 'Codebreakers of the Far East',
and Edwin Layton's 'I Was There'.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Too much fluff!
Comment: I bought this book hoping to learn more about British cryptanalytic techniques or some new information concerning the British eforts in the Pacific Theater. I was very dissapointed! There is far too much personal fluff (who cares how a certain upper class twit dressed?) and not enough history. At times it also seems like the author expects the reader to somehow regret England's loss of its colonial influence in Asia. I suggest Frank B. Rowlett's "The Story of Magic, Memoirs of an American Cryptologic Pioneer" instead of this book for anyone interested in the details of WWII cryptology. While it only covers the American side, it offered much more information from a first hand perspective. Those who just want a light read should go for Simon Singh's "The Code Book".
Customer Rating:
Summary: Biased report
Comment: This book is way too biased. Tha book reads as though, the British did everything, the Americans took the credit. The British are good codebreakers, but a better balance of historical facts would have been good.