Who Was Takeo Yoshikawa, the Man Who Spied at Pearl?

Takeo Yoshikawa was born in Shikoku, Japan to a policeman. He graduated from the Japanese Naval Academy at Etajima in 1933 at the top of his class. In the 1920s, he served aboard the armored cruiser Asama and later as a submariner. In 1934, he began training as a pilot, but a severe stomach ailment prevented him from completing the training program. In 1936, he was discharged from the Japanese Navy due to health reasons, and he contemplated suicide for the disgrace. In 1937, he returned to the Japanese Navy, this time as an intelligence officer with the United States and United Kingdom section. His detection of a plain-language shortwave radio transmission noting that 17 British transports near the Crown Colony of Freetown in Western Africa directly led to the German sinking of several of these transports, and for this he received a personal letter of appreciation from Adolf Hitler.