Read further · read 77.0% · existing decipherment · partial

Tokyo reads the State Department, 1932 (Japanese Navy copies of American telegrams)

Sixteen bundles of the Japanese Navy Minister’s records for 1932 hold about 850 intercepted American telegrams, copied as the clear text the Navy’s cryptanalysts had recovered, with no cipher groups (JACAR C05022467800–C05022469300). Brice Dudout inventoried them, transcribed eight bundles and compared 53 State Department telegrams with FRUS: about 77% of the words recovered, 45–95% by telegram, and the confidential passages not read. The wrong words are alphabetical neighbours of the true ones (63 of 137 share the initial against 6.3% for shuffled controls), which fits a one-part code and is compatible with the Gray code. Contributed by Brice Dudout.

Date
1932
Read now
77.0% of the cipher tokens give sense
Write-up
tokyo1932.html
Files
targets/tokyo1932
Open gaps
needs the archive ×2no key known

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/tokyo1932.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: Tokyo reads the State Department, 1932 (Japanese Navy copies of American telegrams)
This page: https://dbourdeau.github.io/cyphersolver/further/tokyo1932.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/tokyo1932.html (read it first: how the text was read, the key, the reading)
  Date:       1932
  Outcome:    existing decipherment · partial
  Read now:   77.0% of the deciphered cipher tokens give sense (pieces below may be untouched)
  Files:      https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver/tree/main/targets/tokyo1932 (NOTES.md, key, transcription, reading, scripts)

OPEN GAPS (from NOTES.md, "## Remaining gaps")
  1. [no-key-material: needs a new source] Confidential passages (e.g. Grew no. 223, last 45 words; Johnson no. 1078, paras. 2-10; Johnson 12 July, 28 + 251 words "Enciphered") - blocker: no-key-material; not read by the Japanese in 1932, and no cipher groups were copied, so nothing can be read from the file; the American text is known from FRUS.
  2. [needs-physical-access: needs a new source] Code identification (Gray or another one-part code) - blocker: needs-physical-access; the NARA RG 59 file copies with their code groups are needed.
  3. [needs-physical-access: needs a new source] Bundles (9)-(16) transcribed only as an inventory - blocker: needs-physical-access; the inventory lists every message and the comparison with FRUS covers them (gaps files), but a full transcription needs the JACAR images, which cannot be redistributed.

ALREADY TRIED (from NOTES.md, "## Escalation")
  [x] siblings: all sixteen bundles of the series opened; JACAR searched for other 米特情 / 英特情 years (none found apart from one 英特情 of 1937).
  [x] print: FRUS 1932 vol. III-IV and Japan 1931-1941 vol. I searched; 53 telegrams found and compared.

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/tokyo1932/NOTES.md in full, and the
   key, transcription and reading files it names; lang/README.md (shared language models).
   Work in targets/tokyo1932/. 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/tokyo1932/. 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+tokyo1932&page=tokyo1932.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

Needs the archive

These gaps can only be closed from the original or a book out of reach. If you can visit or order, take one: all archive requests.

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