Read further · read 87.8% · key from adjacent plaintext · partial

General Staff drafts to Fukushima, 1901

Five drafts of telegrams from the Japanese Army General Staff (Maj.-Gen. Tamura) to Major-General Fukushima in Peking, February to May 1901: romanised Japanese with the sensitive words in two-digit kana on a grid table. Harumi-Matsuba rebuilt the table from three words guessed from the clear romaji beside the digits. Two drafts read in full and three in part (130 of 148 pairs); five off-grid values stay open. Checked here with an independent decoder.

Date
1901
Read now
87.8% of the cipher tokens give sense
Write-up
army1901.html
Files
targets/army1901
Open gaps
no key known ×2hard to read on the scan ×2needs the archive

Hand this page to your AI agent

Give your agent (Claude, ChatGPT or any assistant that can open web pages) this address and ask it to do the task on the page:

https://dbourdeau.github.io/cyphersolver/further/army1901.html

Or copy the block below into the chat. It is the whole task: the reading, every open gap, what has been tried, the steps, and how to report back.

TASK: take a partial decipherment further: General Staff drafts to Fukushima, 1901
This page: https://dbourdeau.github.io/cyphersolver/further/army1901.html

You are helping a public research project finish reading historical cipher letters. This one is read in part:
the key works, but some pieces are still open. Your job is to close one or more of the open gaps below.

THE READING
  Write-up:   https://dbourdeau.github.io/cyphersolver/army1901.html (read it first: how the text was read, the key, the reading)
  Date:       1901
  Outcome:    key from adjacent plaintext · partial
  Read now:   87.8% of the deciphered cipher tokens give sense (pieces below may be untouched)
  Files:      https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver/tree/main/targets/army1901 (NOTES.md, key, transcription, reading, scripts)

OPEN GAPS (from NOTES.md, "## Remaining gaps")
  1. [no-key-material: needs a new source] values 59, 60, 80, 89, 99 (ten occurrences in C09122809400, C09122810100, C09122812300) - blocker: no-key-material; outside the grid, apparently word codes; no code list found, and contexts only suggest (Russia, China, Germany, minister) without confirming
  2. [illegible: needs a new source] C09122809400 first group (99506 or 77306), 22652 (マ vs ヤ for 密約), re-read digits 43962/43162 and 16598/16593 - blocker: illegible; the blind second reader and the first transcription disagree, and JACAR was not reachable from this session to look again
  3. [illegible: needs a new source] C09122810100 09626 (ミ vs マ for 漫遊) and 〔モチ〕 (92 16); C09122808300 〔ケ〕コウ (32) - blocker: illegible; the images, per the contributor, show these digits; drafter's slip or misreading cannot be settled without the originals at NIDS
  4. [needs-physical-access: needs a new source] the rest of the 通報綴 after C09122810000 (only C09122810100 and C09122812300 viewed) - blocker: needs-physical-access; JACAR unreachable from this session (proxy), so the sibling items could not be opened here
  5. [no-key-material: needs a new source] C09122806100 (18 Feb 1901, incoming) values 69 and 91 - blocker: no-key-material; outside the #371 incoming table, which reads the rest of it; a different key from this target's, to go with a separate #371 target not created in this session

ALREADY TRIED (from NOTES.md, "## Escalation")
  [x] siblings: contributor viewed C09122807700-C09122809900 (22 items, 53 frames) of the same file; only 808300 and 808400 carry digits; the incoming telegrams of the same months use the #371 table
  [x] clear-pages: no Japanese draft or translation of the five found in the viewed items; the clear romaji around the digits supplied the cribs
  [x] known-keys: the #371 incoming table and the 1902-04 table of army1902 tried; neither reads these drafts (decode.py)
  [x] print: contributor's prior-work list (PRIOR_CHECK.en.md); Cryptiana pages; nothing found
  [x] key-rebuild: table fixed by the grid rule from 13 cribbed values; the five off-grid values tried against context only
  [x] retry: every doubtful digit re-read by the contributor and judged blind by Codex; the four re-reads kept apart, two confirmed

STEPS
0. Set up. If you can run a shell, fork and clone the repository and work inside it:
     git clone https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver.git
   Then read, in this order: CONTRIBUTING.md (how a contribution is sent and credited); README.md, sections
   "Repository layout" and "Conventions" (how readings are measured and named); targets/army1901/NOTES.md in full, and the
   key, transcription and reading files it names; lang/README.md (shared language models).
   Work in targets/army1901/. Add your findings to NOTES.md under a dated heading without rewriting what is there, and
   update the "## Remaining gaps" line of every gap you close. Keep WORKLOG.md there: one dated line per step
   (hypothesis, value tried, solver run, crib, control), failures included. Do not edit docs/ (the site is generated).
   If you cannot run a shell, fetch the files from the links above and keep your work in files you send with the issue.
1. Pick a gap. Start with the ones marked "doable now" (open-codes, not-attempted, left-open): the images and the key
   are online, so they need only work. A gap marked "needs a new source" (no-key-material, too-short, illegible,
   needs-physical-access) can be closed only by something new: a key
   or a deciphered sibling found elsewhere, a better image, a printed edition or calendar, a photograph from the archive.
   For those, search for that material first, and say where you looked even when you find nothing.
2. Start from the existing key and transcription in the folder. Do not rebuild the key from scratch, and do not
   re-read parts that are already read unless you find an error in them.
3. For a code group or sign value: list every place the group occurs, show how each reads with the value you propose,
   and say what still does not fit. For a passage: re-read it at the image and give the folio and line. For a missing
   letter or leaf: say where it is held and how it can be reached.
4. Measure again. Apply the key to the whole text, write the reading file, and count the share of cipher tokens that
   give sense (not an estimate). The reading is "complete" only when (1) at least 95% of its cipher tokens give sense;
   (2) no gap is left untried; (3) every letter in it is covered; (4) what stays open is scattered code groups or names,
   or pieces blocked from outside. Otherwise it stays "partial": say which gaps are still open and why.
5. Be honest. Mark every uncertain word with [?], leave unread groups as their numbers or signs, and never fill a gap
   with a plausible guess. A gap retried and still open, with what was ruled out, is worth reporting.

REPORT BACK
With a clone: open a pull request with your changes to targets/army1901/. Say in the description which gaps you worked on,
  the share read before and after, and how you want to be credited (name, initials or handle, and a link).
Without one: open an issue: https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver/issues/new?template=further-reading.yml&title=Further+reading%3A+army1901&page=army1901.html
  Give the write-up, the gap you worked on (its line in Remaining gaps, or the code group, folio and line), what you
  propose, the evidence (every occurrence, the images or sources), the share read before and after, your step log,
  and the tools and AI model you used.
If you cannot open issues or pull requests, write this report for your human to send. Credit goes to the person who sends it.

Open gaps

gold can be done now: the images and the key are online, it needs only work. grey needs a new source first: a key, a better scan, an edition or the archive.

Already tried

Send a result

One closed gap counts: a code group valued, a passage re-read, a key or clear copy found elsewhere. It is credited to you on the write-up.

Open a further-reading issueOther kinds of reportHow credit works← All partial readings