After the "Pearl Harbor Incident" broke out on December 7, 1941, the United States officially declared war on Japan. Americans still have fresh memories of the "Pearl Harbor Incident". One reason is that it happened to be Sunday, a day that was originally part of family life. But ironically, this day of family life was ruined by a "spy family".
This is a little-known story. There are four people in the "spy family"
, that is to say, there are "eight eyes" engaged in spying work.
On December 7, 1941, the commander of the Japanese aircraft carrier watched the fighter plane take off to carry out the bombing mission at Pearl Harbor. How did
"spy family" embark on the path of spying?
On the surface, the Kuhn family is no different from any family in Honolulu. Like all successful spies, they have the talent to make themselves "unobtrusive". The host of this house, Bernard Kuhn, is gentle and gentle. He has many friends on this island. No one at all doubts that the middle-aged uncle next door and his dignified wife will be agents, and no one will treat them as teenagers. Yes, the beautiful daughter and six-year-old son are suspicious. But the fact is that the true identity of the entire Kuhn family (including the six-year-old son) is a spy, and they have created the largest intelligence leak in history. The
family of four began their spying career back to the time when Kuhns’ charming young daughter, Susie Ruth, was in Germany. At that time, she was only 17 years old and was the mistress of Joseph Goebbels, the powerful Nazi propaganda minister. Although Goebbels may not look good, there were still many ambitious "mistress candidates" in Germany before World War II. Soon he lost interest in his mistress who was still a student. However, the young Ruth happened to be the daughter of Dr. Bernard Julius Otto Kuhn. Dr. Kuhn participated in the First World War as a student of the German Naval Academy. After the war, he was resigned and became a physician. He was frustrated on the battlefield and joined the Nazi Party. In 1935, he was already in the party. Has a great influence. Dr. Kuhn and Heinrich Himmler, the leader of the Gestapo, developed a very close relationship. Later, he himself became the head of the German secret police organization. When the Pearl Harbor incident occurred, a thick smoke billowed in the harbor. It is certainly not an easy task for
to get rid of a girl with this background, but the cunning Goebbels came up with a way. At that time, Nazi Germany had established a close relationship with Japan, and Japan required Germany to send spies with a Western background to work for them in Pearl Harbor, because it would be impossible not to attract people's attention if it was an Oriental working in the American community. It's like Japan is "renting" German spies, because Japan will pay them a lot of "salaries" and cover all their expenses. After Goebbels heard the news, he immediately recommended Ruth Kuhn and her family. Dr.
Kuhn quickly accepted Goebbels' proposal. On August 15, 1935, the Kuhn family boarded Honolulu. Kuhn’s family members who came to the United States include: Dr. Kuhn: a 41-year-old gentle-looking scholar-like figure; his wife Felidel; beautiful and charming daughter Susie Ruth and her half-parents (or different mothers) Father)’s brother, 6-year-old Hans Joachim. Dr. Kuhn bought a house in Pearl City and a cabin in Kalama near the Pacific Ocean (Pearl Harbor can be seen). He has many identities to cover up: for some people, he is a retired doctor and inherited a large inheritance; for others, he is a student studying Hawaiian history; and some people think he is An inventor. None of the people who have been to his well-decorated and well-equipped house will doubt his true identity and profession. Even when Mrs. Kuhn went to Japan twice and brought back $16,000 to deposit in the bank for the second time, no one had any doubt about it. In fact, there has been a steady flow of funds from a Swiss bank into Kuhn’s account for many years. In the end, the amount in his account reached 100,000 US dollars, and he always claimed that his overseas investment was successful. .
At the same time, the Kuhn family kept collecting military intelligence on an unprecedented scale (really a family mobilization) and transmitting it. By 1939, they had been instructed to obtain all available information about the US Pacific Fleet (especially Hawaiian waters).interest. At that time, Japan was already actively training relevant personnel for the implementation of Yamamoto's bold plan to attack Pearl Harbor. The cooperation and partner of the "spy family" of
is truly seamless.
When the Pearl Harbor incident occurred, there was a thick smoke billowing in the harbor. The beautiful and charming Ruth could obtain intelligence through various methods. First of all, this girl who can play tennis, dancing and many other social activities can easily learn some information about naval missions, fleets or naval bases from them by dating American officers. Later, she was engaged to a young naval officer, which also facilitated her access to intelligence. She opened a beauty shop in Pearl Harbor, which became an important source of all valuable information for her. Ruth insists on giving her customers the best and lowest price service. Most of her customers are the families of some senior military officers. These people are not tight, and it is easy to reveal some military information they know, and this information often exceeds Ruth's expectation, she was even a little angry with these family members. She later said, "They talk too much" and "This may be a kind of vent from them." The information leaked by
in this beauty shop makes Ruth a little busy. Her mother will regularly come to help her daughter monitor these conversations-this is the special task of the hostess Friedel-record this All military intelligence. The German lady wearing glasses looked just like the aunt next door. In the eyes of others, she often follows her husband on a "exploratory journey of historical research" so that his husband can better conduct "Hawaiian studies". She bought binoculars and often used them to secretly monitor fleets and military installations in the harbor. Sometimes, the wife and her husband would go out to sea around Pearl Harbor in a small boat. They often smiled at the crew on the ship, but secretly remembered everything they saw.
movie "Pearl Harbor" poster
even this six-year-old son was used as a tool for spies. He may be regarded as the most sincere and kind "child spy" in history. Hans became an "agent" before he was 11 years old. Mrs. Kuhn puts on her son a little sailor suit, and then his father will take him for a walk along the water's edge. This "friendly little sailor" is often invited to visit the ship, and the officers will answer any questions about the ship raised by this "smart little guy". But what they didn't know was that the "little sailor" and "wise" father taught him to ask him, and his father also taught him to observe and remember all the unusual things.
Little Hans was asked what information he got every time he returned from a "walk" with his father, and Mrs. Kuhn recorded it. In the beginning, the information was secretly sent to the Japanese consul, and then transferred to Japan by the correspondent-due to diplomatic immunity, these letters would not be checked. In the later period, the transmission of intelligence was more cautious. Later, the Japanese spy Takeo Yoshikawa personally came to Honolulu to obtain information with the Kuhn family. Takeo Yoshikawa would watch Dr. Kuhn’s light signal from his cabin along the coast through a telescope from the Japanese consulate. They used this method to transmit information, and this ancient method was not discovered until the end by the US military.
Due to the spying work of the Kuhn family and Takeo Yoshikawa, Japan actually knew almost all the information about the US military base before the "Pearl Harbor" incident. Five days before the attack, Kuhn had transmitted information about almost every U.S. ship in Pearl Harbor to Japan. What happened to
"Spy Family"?
After the "Pearl Harbor Incident", the true identity of the Kuhn family was exposed. When Kuhn used the flashing lights to signal the consulate's Takeo Yoshikawa from the cabin, the U.S. intelligence agency who was awakened by the attack finally noticed the mysterious flashing lights from the cabin, and conducted an investigation, arresting Ku En family. When they were arrested, the Kuhn family was still working hard. Dr.
Kuhn was sentenced to death and was going to be executed, but he voluntarily handed over his valuable contacts about Japan and Nazi Germany in exchange for 50 years of hard labor punishment, after 4 years of hard labor He was released. Takeo Yoshikawa was handed over to the Japanese government at that time, and exchanged for a diplomat from the United States, and then he went into business. Mrs. Kuhn was sentenced to a lighter sentence. Later, she and her son and daughter Ruth returned to Germany after serving several years in prison. (Translated from the US "Military Trivia") Source: China Netz1in
