Across the Pacific: The Secret Intelligence War between the United States and Japan, 1941-45

Examines intelligence operations in the Pacific War, showing how espionage and codebreaking shaped outcomes. Across the Pacific is a comprehensive history of intelligence in the war between the United States and Japan-how it was gathered, interpreted, and at times fatally ignored. Drawing on decades of research and newly translated Japanese sources, the book examines both American and Japanese intelligence operations across every Pacific theater, including the often-overlooked China Burma India front. It explores the rise of Japanese militarism and espionage, the U.S. struggle to understand its adversary, and the decisive intelligence battles that shaped the Pacific War-from Pearl Harbor to Midway, Guadalcanal, and the Philippines, through the submarine and bombing campaigns that brought Japan to defeat. The narrative traces both sides' evolving use of signals intelligence, codebreaking, and counterintelligence, revealing successes, failures, and missed warnings that influenced the course of the conflict. Rich with maps, photos, and original analysis, Across the Pacific illuminates the shadow war of information that underpinned the Pacific's epic struggle. AUTHOR: Peter C. Oleson is an historian, professor, and former senior intelligence officer. He began his career in the State Department in 1967 before serving as an intelligence officer in the Air Force. He was the intelligence briefer for the Chief of Staff and then served in Southeast Asia as the intelligence analyst for northern Laos and assisted CIA's covert operations. He worked in industry before being recruited in 1977 onto the staff of the Secretary of Defense where he was the director for intelligence and space policy. He served as the assistant director of the Defense Intelligence Agency for four years and was a charter member of the new Senior Executive Service in 1982. He developed the worldwide Theater Intelligence Architectures Program and managed the defense intelligence portion of the national continuity of government program. Concurrently, he was the black programs advisor for the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff. After leaving government he consulted for elements of the Intelligence Community, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and private laboratories. He was part of the CIA R&D team that laid the basis for digital mammography and other medical imaging. He ran the 1993 DoD-wide study that established today's unmanned aerial vehicles. He has taught as an adjunct professor at the National Intelligence University, CIA University, the University of Maryland, the Institute of World Politics, and now teaches at the University of Hawaii's life-long learning institute. He is on the executive committee of the International Maritime Security Exchange in Hawaii and has focused on illegal fishing as an intelligence problem. He was on the national board of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers and is the editor of its Guide to the Study of Intelligence. 25 photos and maps