An Instance of Treason: Ozaki Hotsumi and the Sorge Spy Ring Hardcover – January 1, 1990

Johnson at his best (and much better than other versions of this famous case).

This is a meticulously researched and well-written account of one of the most famous espionage cases of the 20th Century told from the perspective of its leading Japanese participant Ozaki Hotsumi. Chalmer Johnson's proficiency with the Japanese language (spoken and written) and timing (as stated in the Acknowledgements, research for the book was conducted in 1961-2 when several of Ozaki Hotsumi's acquaintances were still alive and there was a resurgence of public interest in his life and work) provide a wealth of valuable information that would make undertaking to write such a book today challenging. The notes and bibliography are comprehensive and include mostly Japanese references such as the Gendaishi Shiryo (Materials on Modern History, issued by the Japanese government as an official history of the prewar period), a post-war investigative account of the Sorge spy ring by Ozaki Hotsumi's half-brother Hotsuki, Ozaki's personal letters to his wife Eiko written in prison while Ozaki was on trial for treason, as well as Richard Sorge's own memoirs (also written while he was in prison during trial). Johnson's coverage of Ozaki's life spans his early upbringing among the ruling Japanese social elite in Taiwan where he was first exposed to Japan's colonial foreign policy towards other Asian nations to his time as a foreign correspondent for the Asahi newspaper in Shanghai during the turbulent late 1920s when he witnessed first hand the brutal suppression of Chinese nationalists by foreign powers (Western and Japanese) to his involvement in the highest levels of Japanese government via his role as an official advisor on contemporary Chinese culture and society to the Konoye cabinet in the 1930s. Also described are the roles and activities of the other members of the ring: Max Clausen, Branko de Voukelitch, and Miyagi Yotoku (as well as Agnes Smedley). The eight years from 1933-41 that Richard Sorge, officially acting as a Far East advisor to the German ambassador in Tokyo, operated the ring with orders from Department Four of the Red Army (Soviet Intelligence) are reviewed well using German sources. Perhaps the only major unresolved issue in the book is how Ozaki really reacted to finding out prior to his execution in November 1944 that he was not (as he thought and was told by Richard Sorge) working to advance the cause of the Communist International by helping to bring about a Communist revolution in Japan which would then align itself with China and the Soviet Union in order to confront the Western powers but that he was merely serving the interests of the Soviet Union to avoid waging war with Japan in Manchuria. How did Ozaki really feel upon realizing that he had given his life and severely jeopardized the national security of Japan to just another hegemonic power? Overall, this book combines deep scholarly research with well-written and engaging prose. This book was originally published in 1964 by Stanford University Press and reprinted with permission in 1977 by Tuttle. Given the historical significance of the Sorge spy ring and Johnson's masterful contribution to its field of study, one wonder why this book has not been reprinted since 1990.