Country Japan Language Japanese Media type Print (Hardback) | Genre Non-fiction Name Hitori Kumagai Publisher Bungeishunju Role Author | |
Publication date January 30, 1988 | ||
Hitori Kumagai (熊谷 独, Kumagai Hitori, born June 10, 1936), born Kazuo Kumagai (熊谷 一男, Kumagai Kazuo), is a Japanese author. He was the party concerned in the Toshiba-Kongsberg scandal, and was also a whistleblower.
Contents
- Early life and education
- Toshiba Kongsberg scandal
- Contract
- Itochu
- Delivery
- Setting
- Dismissal
- Whistleblowing
- CoCom and Japan
- Disclosure
- Mosukuwa yo saraba Kokomu ihan jiken no haikei
- Illegal exporting
- Methods
- KGB
- Soviet Union trade corporations
- Public corporations
- References
Early life and education
Kumagai was born in Onomichi, Hiroshima, Japan. In 1963, he graduated from the Russian department of the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies in Fuchu, Tokyo.
Toshiba-Kongsberg scandal
Kumagai worked in a trading company, Wako Koeki Co., Ltd. (和光交易株式会社) that specialized in working with Communist countries in 1963.
Contract
The KGB told the executive of Wako in Moscow in October, 1980 "I want the robot which builds the screw for large-sized vessels". Wako created a connection to Toshiba Machine Corp. (東芝機械株式会社) which specialized in working with communist countries and was a dummy arm of Toshiba. It went into talks with the KGB late in December, 1980. The spy agency requested four sets of machine tools of nine axes and four sets of machine tools of five axes. This request violated CoCom regulations on machine tool that limited machine tools to two axes. The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) served as the adviser for the violation. When the technical problem was solved, Itochu would work together with Wako and Toshiba Machine. Itochu and Toshiba Machine had long association. Itochu had moved responsibility for the violation to Wako and Toshiba Machine. Itochu occupied the building in Moscow that Armand Hammer of Occidental Petroleum had built. The agreement was signed on April 24, 1981.
Itochu
Shinto Jitsugyo Co., Ltd. (株式会社進展実業) specialized in working with communist countries and was a dummy arm of Itochu and Shinko Seiki Co., Ldt. (神港精機株式会社) It violated the CoCom regulation and exported one set of germanium transistor production facilities to the Soviet Union. Another Itochu dummy arm, Ataka & Co., Ltd. (安宅産業株式会社) also worked with communist countries and exported one set of machine tools of three axes.
Cargo time
Delivery
The Numerical Control machine tool was the product of Kongsberg Gruppen in Norway. They obtained export permission for the machine tool by claiming it as a machine tool of two axes and delivered it to Japan, where it was re-exported to the Soviet Union. The software late followed the same path.
Setting
The Soviet Union ship carrying the first piece of contraband departed from Tokyo Bay, passed through the North Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, and arrived in Leningrad via the Arctic Ocean in the spring of 1983. The other items were landed in the Illichivsk port of the Black Sea coast and arrived in Leningrad by rail. Kumagai charged to install two machines in the propeller factory of the Baltic shipyard. The two remaining sets joined them later. He finished equipment and delivered two sets that he was in charge of in the end of December, 1983. He installed two machine tools of five axes in December, 1984.
Dismissal
Wako refused to promote Kumagai on the normal schedule, leading him to resign in 1985. He told Wako about the illegal exports. He had worked with communist countries for 22 years and resided in Moscow for ten years. Soviet government officials contacted several times and invited him to become a business partner. Wako and Toshiba Machine proposed that he reveal his knowledge of the illegal exports. However, he refused both offers. In fact, the CIA already knew that about the illegal exports, but did not grasp the scope of the violation. Furthermore, Stanislav Levchenko who had been a KGB major defected to the United States in October, 1979, and supplied the names of about 200 Japanese agents who had been used by the KGB.
Whistleblowing
At first Kumagai went to the authorities concerneds of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, etc.. But they refused him. They took sides with the companies blown the whistle on. Therefore, he wrote a letter to CoCom. The contents were the details of the products which violated the CoCom regulations, and which had been exported and were likely to be exported to the Soviet Union. He attached documents on hand about the machine tools of nine axes. He wrote correctly the information, including his name, address, and telephone number. And he posted the letter written in English to CoCom headquarters in Paris, France in December, 1985. Because he worried about the assassination to him, he recorded in detail the event which he knew on work with the Soviet Union during summer from spring of 1986, and handed his friend the copy of this record. If he had an accident to him, he asked his friend to pass the record to the address written on the letter.
CoCom and Japan
The CoCom agreement corresponded to the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Control Law in Japan. CoCom showed the government of Japan the contents of whistleblowing sent by Kumagai and demanded correspondence from the government of Japan in the end of December, 1985. The ministries and government offices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan), the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, the Ministry of the Treasury, the National Police Agency (Japan), and the Ministry of Defense (Japan), etc. related to this affair in Japan held the meeting in January, 1986. However, moreover, they did not make it an incident. After that, the government of Japan, Itochu, Toshiba, and the associated companies refused his whistleblowing as if they became one organization till 1987. He went also to the Embassy of the United States in Tokyo, Japan and blew the whistle by the summer of 1986. The federal government of the United States did the same cross-examination about this affair to the government of Japan 40 times by 1987. But the government of Japan did not tell the federal government of the United States the truth. He was cornered mentally. Therefore, although he answered the telephone call in English in his house several times in December, 1986, he had refused them.
Disclosure
On January 26, 27, 1987 The United States asked Norway and Japan about the 9-axis machine tool. Norway investigated the incident, revealing Japan's crime. Kumagai received no reply from the government of Japan from December, 1985 until they finally did so on April 27, 1987.
News of the 9-axis violation in Japan appeared for the first time on April 30. The news in Japan of the 5-axis violation appeared for the first time on June 18. The statute of limitations on both violations had already expired. Because the government of Japan knew the details by the end of December, 1985, they had apparently the interval lapse intentionally. He conferred with William C. Triplett, a former CIA analyst, in the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in July, 1987. Triplett asked him to testify at a United States congressional hearing that he refused it fearing KGB retaliation. Instead, he produced testimony a book on January 30, 1988.
Mosukuwa yo, saraba: Kokomu ihan jiken no haikei
モスクワよ、さらば―ココム違反事件の背景
Good-bye, Moscow: The background of the Toshiba-Kongsberg scandal
Illegal exporting
Illegal exports used eight basic patterns.
Methods
KGB
The KGB agents recruited foreign agents. The agents in this case were workers at the organization that supplied the prohibited products.
Soviet Union trade corporations
The trade of the Soviet Union was managed trade corporations. These corporations monopolized trade in specific product categories.