Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor

Douglas Wada was born in Hawaii in 1910 to Japanese immigrant parents Chiyo and Hisakichi Wada. He had two sisters and two brothers, the eldest brother dying in a tragic accident when Wada was 11. Wada was raised in a traditional home and sent to Japan to be educated in Japanese culture, language, and custom. He returned to Hawaii as Japan’s expansionism began recruiting soldiers from the young population that included Wada’s peers and friends. In Hawaii again, Wada drew the attention of Ken Ringle, who later revealed himself to be Naval Intelligence. He recruited Wada for his language and culture skills, and Wada spent his career as an interpreter and translator for the Navy, and sometimes as an undercover spy. Wada married Helen Fusayo Ota and resided on Kama Lane near his family’s home; he had one child during the buildup to and during the war. Wada’s contributions to Naval intelligence were largely ignored until the release of Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese-American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor, which brings his full career into the spotlight.

Douglas Wada’s father is an Issei traditionalist, a miyadaiku carpenter of Shinto shrines of community esteem, and a husband (his wife is Chiyo Wada), father, and grandfather. He is injured during the war and completes his legacy of handcrafting decorative shrine pieces with most of the fingers on his left hand missing. He dies after seeing the end of WWII and the rebuilding of the Japanese community in Hawaii, ultimately witnessing the regeneration of the Shinto shrines he loved and the expansion of his family through a new generation.

FBI Special Agent Robert Shivers arrives in Honolulu in 1939 to set up an FBI headquarters “and assess the loyalty of 160,000 people” (29). Throughout his career he will remain dedicated to the opinion that the great majority of Japanese in America are loyal to the United States. Although tasked with coordinating intelligence efforts, Shivers remains skeptical of the assessments of other agencies and works to verify all reports using his limited staff.

Shivers graduated from high school, forgoing university to join the FBI in 1923. His work with the FBI targeting Ku Klux Klan and alcohol bootleggers earned him respect from FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who would listen to Shivers’s analysis while advising President Roosevelt on the “Japanese problem.”

Ken Ringle is posing undercover as a student at the University of Hawaii when he recruits Douglas Wada; Ringle is a commander in the Navy, stationed at Pearl Harbor as the assistant district officer for 14th Naval District Intelligence.

Born in 1900 in Kansas, Ringle quickly rose through the ranks after graduating from the Naval Academy in 1923. He spent three years in Tokyo as Naval Attache to the US Embassy, a role for which he learned Japanese and spent time with a host family learning about Japanese culture. These experiences in Japan prepared him for his eventual role in Naval intelligence.

Ringle leaves Hawaii for the 11th District Intelligence Office in California, where his reports on the hysteria following the breakup of a spy ring help to ground those in the intelligence community. With the help of a convicted safecracker, he breaks into diplomatic offices and secures a wealth of intelligence.

Ringle drafts several notable reports on the Nisei’s loyalty, some of which reach Roosevelt, though the president ultimately decides against his advice. Upon request from Eisenhower, Ringle helps with the concentration camps for Japanese people out of California, though he is ashamed of this role. He later serves on several Navy ships, earning praise before retiring to Hawaii, where he runs for governor before succumbing to heart difficulties and dying in 1963.

Richard Kotoshirodo is a driver for the Japanese spy Takeo Yoshikawa. He is helpful to Yoshikawa, showing vantage points from to monitor the fleet. Kotoshirodo spends the war in a concentration camp on the mainland before being released without being charged. When Wada learns he has returned to Hawaii, he files a report hoping Kotoshirodo will face trial. He does not, and the abettor lives out his life in Hawaii, eventually earning a decent living and dying in 2009 having never been punished for his role in the Pearl Harbor attack.

Gero Iwai is a Japanese American Army Intelligence office who befriends Douglas Wada and is instrumental in lobbying for more rights for Nisei, especially the right to serve in the armed forces. He helps translate and interpret alongside Wada and is well respected by his peers and superiors. Thanks to the efforts of Douglas Wada, Iwai is posthumously inducted into the Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame in 1995.

Masaji Marumoto is a respected lawyer and advocate for Nisei rights in the military and civilian sectors of Hawaii. He is instrumental in building the pro-US Japanese community in Japan and later helps establish postwar Okinawa. He is president of the Hawaii Bar Association and an associate justice in Hawaii’s supreme court—in both cases he is the first Asian American to hold the post. He dies in 1995 after a long and respected career.

Takeo Yoshikawa is a promising Imperial Navy ensign sidelined by illness and forcibly retired. He is depressed and without prospects when Imperial intelligence recruits him, assigning him to learn English and study US Pacific fleet assets. He is sent under diplomatic cover to the Japanese consulate in Hawaii to monitor the US Navy there.

In Hawaii he uses the pseudonym Tadashi Morimura for his diplomatic cover and reports directly to Consul General Kita. He is responsible for the intelligence that leads to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Along with the other staff at the consulate, Toshikawa is arrested, though US intelligence quickly ascertains his role in the spy network and have him, his handler, and his accomplices sent to a separate holding area before being traded for US citizens.

In Japan after being traded in a prisoner exchange, Yoshikawa goes into hiding, leaving his wife and young daughter behind. He emerges only after the peace treaty. In 1960 he releases an article about his contribution to the war, including his alias and role in the Pearl Harbor attack. He lives out his life as a gas station owner, dying in 1993.

Otto Kuehn is a Nazi spy living in Hawaii who provides material support to the Japanese. His wife and children collect intel from American seamen, and they set up a system of codes and transmitters on their seaside properties. The family is arrested after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Otto is sentenced to death; this sentence is later commuted to labor, which ends when he is deported to Germany after the war. Neither he nor his family suffer lasting consequences for their action in Hawaii.

Captain Hart replaces Walter Kilpatrick, the man who approved Ringle’s recruitment of Douglas Wada, as the head of the 14th District Intelligence Office in 1938. Wada finds Hart sympathetic to his position and protective of it the more he relies on Wada for trusted interpretations and translations of clandestine and open-source intelligence.

While others await approval to bug the phones in the Japanese consulate, Captain Hart does this without permission, securing valuable intelligence in the process. Hart is replaced by Captain Irving Mayfield in March of 1941, and Hart takes up his new role as head of Mine Division 4 in Pearl Harbor.

Captain Mayfield arrives in Hawaii at the same times as Nagano Kita, the new Japanese consul general, and his chief spy Takeo Yoshikawa. He has been warned by his predecessor Captain Hart and others that the various agencies are working the “Japanese Problem” without much coordination.

Lieutenant Commander Denzel Carr replaces Lieutenant Commander Ken Ringle in Hawaii’s 14th Naval District Intelligence.

Nagao Kita is the new Consul General at the Japanese Consulate in March 1941. A bachelor with diplomatic experience in China, he comes to Hawaii as ties between Japan and the United States rapidly deteriorate. Kita is the handler for undercover spy Yoshikawa, who is there to study the fleet. Kita is responsible for relaying information in both directions and assisting Yoshikawa as needed.

When the consulate staff are arrested, Kita and his family are arrested and held with the other spies until being traded in a prisoner swap and returned to Japan, without repercussions for Kita’s role in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Born 1879, Yoshihito was the 123rd Emperor of Japan after the death of his Meiji father (Meiji refers to an era in Japanese history spanning the late 19th and early 20th century, during which time Japan underwent rapid modernization). Yoshihito suffered from poor health and was little involved in official duties, save producing heirs. His son Hirohito became Prince Regent in 1921. He died in 1926 of a heart attack at age 47. He was posthumously titled Emperor Taisho.

Hirohito works as Prince Regent beginning in 1921 due to his father’s poor health. He assumes the throne in 1926, though he is not officially crowned until November of 1928 after two years of preparation for rule. His role in the war effort is debated, though many soldiers fought and died in his name. Hirohito reigns for 62 years, and is posthumously given the title Emperor Showa.