» The Emperor's Codes: The Breaking of Japan's Secret Ciphers

The Emperor's Codes: The Breaking of Japan's Secret Ciphers Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: Heavy On Detail
Comment: If you want to know every last detail about breaking the Japanese codes, this is the book. If you are looking for a good story, the focus on detail makes the book a ponderous read.

Breaking the Japanese codes during WWII is a fascinating topic and an incredible achievement. The ability to decipher Japanese messages was a key to the allies winning the war in the pacific. I was dissappointed that the author did not elaborate more in telling the story of how the information was used in different circumstances and the corresponding results.

Was this a good read? Yes, I learned a lot that I did not know. However, when the amount of detail got too heavy, I would skim forward.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: A Fine Overview Of An Untold Important Aspect of WW II
Comment: Admittedly Michael Smith does have two important agendas in his book "The Emperor's Codes"; first to tell the largely untold saga of breaking Japanese military and diplomatic codes, and then, to emphasize the important role played by British codebreakers in unlocking these Japanese secrets. On both accounts, Smith succeeds admirably, even if he tends to dwell too much on the anecdotal first hand accounts given by some codebreakers. Smith notes that many of the most important Japanese codes were broken first by Australian and British codebreakers such as Eric Nave and John Tiltman, long before American codebreakers made significant headway in reading encrypted Japanese messages. However, he does not trivialize the important contributions American codebreakers made in this effort, though some readers may wish that Smith gave a more comprehensive overview of American achievements in codebreaking, which would prove to be far more substantial by the war's end. Nevertheless, Michael Smith has made an important contribution in emphasizing the important work done by codebreakers during the Pacific theater of World War Two, which unfortunately has been long overlooked in stark contrast to the well documented history of cracking Enigma and other Nazi codes by both British and American codebreakers.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Moderately Interesting
Comment: This is an interesting and journalistic account of Allied efforts to break Japanese codes during WWII. There has been a great deal published about Allied, mainly British, success in deciphering German codes but little on the corresponding effort aimed at Japan. Smith provides a broad outline of the Allied effort to attack Japanese codes. He is especially interested in documenting the British role in this effort. This emphasis occurs for two reasons. First, he is especially concerned with dispeliing the notion that American cryptographers completely dominated this effort. Second, most of his sources are British, due partly to the greater availability of relevant British and Australian sources. The book does an adequate job of covering the major efforts in cryptography, discusses the major figures, and some of the problems inherent in this collaboration between the allies. The American Navy appears as having a poor record of interservice and inter-Ally cooperation. This book has some deficiencies. It is not really detailed or systematic enough. While Smith's emphasis on the British is understandable, I don't think there is enough material on American efforts to give a truly balanced picture. Much of the material is presented in an anecdotal manner, punctuated with interviews of participants. These excerpts are interesting, well chosen, and entertaining but there is not much corresponding analysis. For example, there is enough in the book on details of cryptography to make the reader confused but not enough to make the subject readily understandable. Smith also deals poorly with the scope of Allied efforts. Implicit in the book is the growth of cryptography and signal intelligence from a rudimentary prewar effort to a major and very well organized enterprise. Yet, there is no systematic accounting of the growth and organization of these complex efforts. This subject really deserves a more systematic and detailed treatment.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: How the codebreakers actually worked
Comment: Plenty of titles have focussed on the breaking of the Nazis' 'enigma' cipher by codebreakers; but this focus on Allied codebreakers who worked on Japanese codes provides many insights on a little-discussed subject, considering how Japan's codes were broken and how the codebreakers actually worked. This focus on both the Japan codes and the cipher breakers themselves provides a much-needed, well-rounded examination and fills in much world history.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: well worth the effort
Comment: Not an easy read, unless you're already into ciphers, but a very useful exposition of the trials and tribulations of codebreaking in a wartime setting.

I'm amused that folks found it one-sided or biased. Hey, it's about the British effort, which was considerable! I thought Smith was more than fair to the American effort, which he concedes was larger and often faster. The point is: it took both British and American expertise (and contrasting attitudes) to do the job.

The most valuable lesson here is that the codes (neither German nor Japanese) were never entirely broken. The codebreaker's job was almost as arduous in August 1945 as it was in November 1941. How they did their work is endlessly fascinating.

---

More Reviews for The Emperor's Codes: The Breaking of Japan's Secret Ciphers