Hitori Kumagai

Hitori Kumagai (熊谷 独 Kumagai Hitori, born June 10, 1936), born Kazuo Kumagai (熊谷 一男 Kumagai Kazuo), is a Japanese author. He was the party concerned in the Toshiba-Kongsberg scandal, and was also a whistleblower.[1][2]

Early life and education

Kumagai was born in Onomichi, Hiroshima, Japan. In 1963, he graduated from the Russian department of the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies in Fuchu, Tokyo.

Toshiba-Kongsberg scandal

Kumagai worked in a trading company, Wako Koeki Co., Ltd. (和光交易株式会社)[3] that specialized in working with Communist countries in 1963.

Contract

The KGB told the executive of Wako in Moscow in October, 1980 "I want the robot which builds the screw for large-sized vessels". Wako created a connection to Toshiba Machine Corp. (東芝機械株式会社)[4] which specialized in working with communist countries and was a dummy arm of Toshiba. It went into talks with the KGB late in December, 1980. The spy agency requested four sets of machine tools of nine axes and four sets of machine tools of five axes. This request violated CoCom regulations on machine tool that limited machine tools to two axes. The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) served as the adviser for the violation.[5] When the technical problem was solved, Itochu would work together with Wako and Toshiba Machine. Itochu and Toshiba Machine had long association. Itochu had moved responsibility for the violation to Wako and Toshiba Machine. Itochu occupied the building in Moscow that Armand Hammer of Occidental Petroleum had built. The agreement was signed on April 24, 1981.

Itochu

Shinto Jitsugyo Co., Ltd. (株式会社進展実業) specialized in working with communist countries and was a dummy arm of Itochu and Shinko Seiki Co., Ldt. (神港精機株式会社)[6] It violated the CoCom regulation and exported one set of germanium transistor production facilities to the Soviet Union. Another Itochu dummy arm, Ataka & Co., Ltd. (安宅産業株式会社) also worked with communist countries and exported one set of machine tools of three axes.

Cargo time
Year Kongsberg company The type of the NC device Machine manufacturers Machine Number At the carrying destination Usage Contract
September, 1964 - Shinko Seiki Germanium transistor production facility 1 Industrial technical import public corporation Germanium transistor April, 1963
December, 1964 - Shinko Seiki Germanium transistor production facility Industrial technical import public corporation Germanium transistor
September 25, 1979 NC2000 Toshiba Machine Machine tools of three axes 1 Volgodonsk Atomic energy machinery ?

Delivery

The Numerical Control machine tool was the product of Kongsberg Gruppen in Norway. They obtained export permission for the machine tool by claiming it as a machine tool of two axes and delivered it to Japan, where it was re-exported to the Soviet Union. The software late followed the same path.

Cargo time

Year Kongsberg company The type of the NC device Machine tool manufacturers The number of the spindles of the simultaneous control Unit Number At the carrying destination Usage Contract
1982/12 NC2000 Toshiba Machine 9 1 Baltic shipyard Screw April 24, 1981
1983/2 NC2000 Toshiba Machine 9 2 Baltic shipyard Screw
1983/5 NC2000 Toshiba Machine 9 3 Baltic shipyard Screw
1983/6 NC2000 Toshiba Machine 9 4 Baltic shipyard Screw
1984/4 NC2000 Toshiba Machine 5 5 Baltic shipyard Screw April 1, 1983
6
1984/5 NC2000 Toshiba Machine 5 7 Baltic shipyard Screw
8

Performance

Measurement MBP110
The number of the spindles of the simultaneous control 9 axes
Height 10 m
Width 22 m
Weight 10 t
The maximum diameter of the propeller which can be processed 11 m
The maximum weight of the propeller which can be processed 130 t
The number of sheets of the most feather of the propeller which can be processed 11

Setting

The Soviet Union ship carrying the first piece of contraband departed from Tokyo Bay, passed through the North Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, and arrived in Leningrad via the Arctic Ocean in the spring of 1983. The other items were landed in the Illichivsk port of the Black Sea coast and arrived in Leningrad by rail. Kumagai charged to install two machines in the propeller factory of the Baltic shipyard. The two remaining sets joined them later. He finished equipment and delivered two sets that he was in charge of in the end of December, 1983. He installed two machine tools of five axes in December, 1984.

Dismissal

Wako refused to promote Kumagai on the normal schedule, leading him to resign in 1985. He told Wako about the illegal exports. He had worked with communist countries for 22 years and resided in Moscow for ten years. Soviet government officials contacted several times and invited him to become a business partner. Wako and Toshiba Machine proposed that he reveal his knowledge of the illegal exports. However, he refused both offers. In fact, the CIA already knew that about the illegal exports, but did not grasp the scope of the violation. Furthermore, Stanislav Levchenko who had been a KGB major defected to the United States in October, 1979, and supplied the names of about 200 Japanese agents who had been used by the KGB.

Whistleblowing

At first Kumagai went to the authorities concerneds of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, etc.. But they refused him. They took sides with the companies blown the whistle on. Therefore, he wrote a letter to CoCom. The contents were the details of the products which violated the CoCom regulations, and which had been exported and were likely to be exported to the Soviet Union. He attached documents on hand about the machine tools of nine axes. He wrote correctly the information, including his name, address, and telephone number. And he posted the letter written in English to CoCom headquarters in Paris, France in December, 1985. Because he worried about the assassination to him, he recorded in detail the event which he knew on work with the Soviet Union during summer from spring of 1986, and handed his friend the copy of this record. If he had an accident to him, he asked his friend to pass the record to the address written on the letter.

CoCom and Japan

The CoCom agreement corresponded to the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Control Law[7] in Japan. CoCom showed the government of Japan the contents of whistleblowing sent by Kumagai and demanded correspondence from the government of Japan in the end of December, 1985. The ministries and government offices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan), the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, the Ministry of the Treasury, the National Police Agency (Japan), and the Ministry of Defense (Japan), etc. related to this affair in Japan held the meeting in January, 1986. However, moreover, they did not make it an incident. After that, the government of Japan, Itochu, Toshiba, and the associated companies refused his whistleblowing as if they became one organization till 1987. He went also to the Embassy of the United States in Tokyo, Japan and blew the whistle by the summer of 1986. The federal government of the United States did the same cross-examination about this affair to the government of Japan 40 times by 1987. But the government of Japan did not tell the federal government of the United States the truth. He was cornered mentally. Therefore, although he answered the telephone call in English in his house several times in December, 1986, he had refused them.

Disclosure

On January 26, 27, 1987 The United States asked Norway and Japan about the 9-axis machine tool. Norway investigated the incident, revealing Japan's crime. Kumagai received no reply from the government of Japan from December, 1985 until they finally did so on April 27, 1987.

News of the 9-axis violation in Japan appeared for the first time on April 30. The news in Japan of the 5-axis violation appeared for the first time on June 18. The statute of limitations on both violations had already expired. Because the government of Japan knew the details by the end of December, 1985, they had apparently the interval lapse intentionally. He conferred with William C. Triplett, a former CIA analyst, in the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in July, 1987. Triplett asked him to testify at a United States congressional hearing that he refused it fearing KGB retaliation. Instead, he produced testimony a book on January 30, 1988.[1]

Mosukuwa yo, saraba: Kokomu ihan jiken no haikei

Mosukuwa yo, saraba: Kokomu ihan jiken no haikei
Author Hitori Kumagai
Country Japan
Language Japanese
Genre Non-fiction
Publisher Bungeishunju
Publication date
 January 30, 1988
Media type Print (Hardback)
Pages 226
ISBN 978-4-16-342060-8

モスクワよ、さらば―ココム違反事件の背景
Good-bye, Moscow: The background of the Toshiba-Kongsberg scandal

Chapter Comments
1. 事件の発端
The beginning of the incident		 Refer to Contract and Illegal exporting.
2. 水の都レニングラード
The capital of the water Leningrad		 Refer to Delivery.
3. 和光交易との決別
Parting with Wako Koeki		 Refer to Dismissal and Whistleblowing.
4. KGBの役割
The role of the KGB		 Because Kumagai feared retaliation, he described only generalities.
Refer to KGB.
A bribe and a written apology are provided. These were the means to threaten foreigners later, and the foreigner was alleged to be the agent of the KGB. An international marriage and the KGB. The establishment of the dummy entities. A prostitute and a foreigner.
5. 対ソ貿易の実態
The actual suituation of the trade for the Soviet Union		 Refer to All the Soviet Union trade public corporations.
The corporation could acquire almost all the information from a foreign company. As a result, the Soviet did not need to do espionage. The visa was important for a foreigner in the Soviet Union. This public corporation could release the duties such as the application and the contents change, etc. of the visa. Surveillance to the foreigners.
6. ザ・デイ・アフター
The day after		 Refer to Disclosure.
Afterword Final comments of Kumagai.

Illegal exporting

Illegal exports used eight basic patterns.

Methods

Two contracts were prepared, one for legal products and one for prohibited products. Only the legal contract was submitted for approval. The side letter was submitted to the Soviet Union.
The prohibited product was physically disguised to appear as a legal product.
The prohibited product was carried as baggage.
The product was delivered directly to the Soviet Trade Representative in Japan.
The product was disassembled into components, each of which was not prohibited.
The product was shipped first to a third country.
The product was moved through a less-sophisticated customs office, such as that in Niigata.
The product was displayed at a trade fair and then delivered to the Soviet customer. Refer to Foreign technical cooperation public corporation.

KGB

The KGB agents recruited foreign agents. The agents in this case were workers at the organization that supplied the prohibited products.

Soviet Union trade corporations

The trade of the Soviet Union was managed trade corporations. These corporations monopolized trade in specific product categories.

Public corporations

Works

Year Japanese Title English Title Comments ISBN
1988/1 モスクワよ、さらば―ココム違反事件の背景
Mosukuwa yo, saraba: Kokomu ihan jiken no haikei		 Nonfiction, Whistleblowing sentence 9784163420608
1993/11 最後の逃亡者
Saigo no tobosha		 Fiction, Hardcover 9784163143606
1995/10 秘境からの脅迫者
Hikyo kara no kyohakusya		 Fiction 9784166400409
1997/1 最後の逃亡者
Saigo no tobosha		 Fiction, Paperback 9784167303037
1997/7 エルミタージュの鼠
Erumitaju no nezumi		 Fiction 9784106027505
2000/8 尾道少年物語
Oomichi syonen monokatari		 Fiction 9784163194608
2002/7 ロシア黙示録
Roshia mokushiroku		 Fiction 9784163202501

See also

References

  1. 1 2 熊谷(Kumagai), 独(Hitori) (1988). モスクワよ、さらば: ココム違反事件の背景. 文藝春秋(Bungeishunju). ISBN 978-4-16-342060-8.
  2. ↑ New Scientist 17 September 1987
  3. ↑ 新和光交易株式会社
  4. ↑ TOSHIBA MACHINE CORPORATE SITE
  5. ↑ 春名(Haruna), 幹男(Mikio) (1993). スクリュー音が消えた: 東芝事件と米情報工作の真相. 新潮社(Shinchosha). ISBN 978-4-10-394501-7.
  6. ↑ SHINKO SEIKI CO.,LTD.
  7. ↑ Japanese Law Translation - (Law text) - Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act

External links

Judgement

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