Reds: Russian and Chinese spies under every rock

Final in a four-part series

TOKYO — At Fuchu Air Station’s Elint, we were constantly reminded that our enemy was communism – Russian, Chinese, North Korean communism – and warned that there were communist spies in our midst. We were instructed to always be on guard.

That was not new. In Tokyo before my time, starting in 1946 in the early Occupation period, there had been the black ops Canon agency. Lieutenant Colonel Jack Canon’s anti-communist spook agency was all about guns, midnight assignations and the third degree, as I wrote in an earlier Asia Times article.

“Loose lips sink ships” was the pet phrase of the aphoristic Navy chief petty officer who was my immediate boss, “If you are asked what you do, just say you are a radar operator. Don’t get drunk in the presence of strangers – and that includes the women off-base.”

The Japan Communist Party had been active since the days of the Occupation. It had only 50,000 members, but it was supported by both China and the Soviet Union, which had helped to subsidize demonstrations against the U.S. presence in Japan.