Collection MF388-MF401 - MAGIC DOCUMENTS, THE: Japanese diplomatic communications, 1938-1945

Key Information

Reference code

MF388-MF401

Title

MAGIC DOCUMENTS, THE: Japanese diplomatic communications, 1938-1945

Date(s)

  • 1982 (Creation)
  • 1938-1945 (Creation)

Level of description

Collection

Extent

14 reels

Scope and content

The MAGIC Documents: Summaries and Transcripts of the Top-Secret Diplomatic Communications of Japan, 1938-1945, is a themed microfilm collection relating to US deciphers of Japanese diplomatic codes through the use of MAGIC decryption, 1938- 1945. The collection contains copies of deciphered official and unofficial Japanese diplomatic communiqués sent from Japanese personnel stationed at embassies and consulates in the Far East, Europe and the Middle East, to Tokyo, Japan, 1938-1945, and includes material relating to Japanese civil, political and economic conditions and policies, military expenditures, strategy, tactics, and campaigns, and eventual peace initiatives and surrender, 1938-1945. Included in the collection are deciphered messages concerning Japanese perceptions of Allied strategy against Japan; the effect of Allied air raids on Japan; Japanese relations with the German Foreign Office; Japanese relations with the governments of Burma, Indo-China; Korea, Netherland East Indies, Siam, China, the Philippines; perceptions of Allied chemical warfare capabilities; perceptions of Allied Lend-Lease naval forces and strategy; British and French relations with colonies in the Far East; control of industry in Manchuria (Manchukuo); perceptions of Axis strategy and Japan's role within it; Japanese interest in Indian nationalism and the Indian Independence League; the Burma-Siam railway; Japanese attacks on the Burma Road, the supply route which connected Burma to Generalissimo Chiang Kai- Shek's nationalist forces in China; administration of the government of Japanese occupied Nanking, China; the Chinese Communist Party; the rationing of clothing and food in Japan; perceptions of the Soviet Comintern Pact; Japanese relations with German, European, and Chinese banks; Japanese relations with Spanish Gen Francisco Franco Bahamonde, the German High Command and Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini; interpretation of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere; concern for Japanese nationals abroad, 1937-1945; Japanese naval strategy and tactics; function of the Japanese Consular Police, China; territorial claims on the Kurile Islands; material relating to Japanese military campaigns during World War Two; Japan's search for strategic resources in the Far East; military strengths and dispositions of the German Armed Forces; the origins of the Russo-Japanese Neutrality Pact; Allied and Axis propaganda methods; the treatment of Allied prisoners of war; the surrender of Japanese armed forces in the Far East.

System of arrangement

Arranged into chronological order

General Information

Custodial history

University Publications of America, Bethesda, MD, USA

Conditions governing access

Open, subject to signature of Reader's undertaking form, and appropriate provision of two forms of identification, to include one photographic ID.

Conditions governing reproduction

Copies may be printed off the microfilm/microfiche for research purposes and are charged at cost.

Enquiries concerning the copyright of the original material should be addressed to University Publications of America Inc.

Language of material

  • English

Script of material

Finding aids

This collection level description. The following published guide is available in the Reading Room: Paul Kesaris and David Wallace, et al, The MAGIC Documents: Summaries and Transcripts of the Top-Secret Diplomatic Communications of Japan, 1938-1945 (University Publications of America, Inc, Bethesda, MD, 1982)

Related descriptions

Note

Compiled Sep 1999

Alternative identifier(s)

People and Organisations

Genre access points

Rules and/or conventions used

Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000.

Script(s)

Accession area