The Emperor's Codes: Bletchley Park's role in breaking Japan's secret cyphers: Bletchley Park's Role in Breaking Japan's Secret Ciphers

While Allied Forces understandably pursued a Europe-first policy in the Second World War, the Japanese threat in the Far East grew with every passing month. Popular history credits the Americans with breaking Japanese codes and saving perhaps two years of conflict. This is not Michael Smith's view.

The Emperor's Codes uses recently released British archive records to fill in the details of British and Australian involvement in the Far East. In fact, Smith goes further and controversially concludes that internal bickering in the US military, compounded by a less than open exchange of information with the British, 'must have cost many lives, the majority of them American'. In addition, he observes that the Allies knew a Japanese 'unconditional surrender', dependent on Emperor Hirohito remaining on the throne, was on the cards before the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, throwing into considerable doubt the need for such demonstratively horrific tactics.

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