Hitori Kumagai

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Hitori Kumagai
BornKazuo Kumagai
(1936-06-10) June 10, 1936 (age 87)
Onomichi, Hiroshima, Japan
Alma materTokyo University of Foreign Studies
GenreMystery fiction
Notable awardsSuntory Mystery Award (1993)

Hitori Kumagai (熊谷 独, Kumagai Hitori), born Kazuo Kumagai (熊谷 一男, Kumagai Kazuo) on June 10, 1936,[1] is a Japanese author and whistleblower who uncovered the Toshiba–Kongsberg scandal.[2][3]

Early life and education[edit]

Kumagai was born in Onomichi, Hiroshima. In 1963, he graduated from the Russian-language department of the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies in Fuchū.

Toshiba–Kongsberg scandal[edit]

Main article: Toshiba–Kongsberg scandal

After graduation, Kumagai worked for the Wako Koeki trading company (和光交易株式会社),[4] which specialized in collaborating with communist countries. In October 1980, the KGB told a Wako executive in Moscow they were looking for "a robot which builds [propeller] screws for large vessels".[5] Wako created a connection to the Toshiba Machine Corporation (東芝機械株式会社),[6] which also specialized in collaborating with communist countries. The company began talks with the KGB in late December 1980, and the spy agency requested four sets of nine-axis machine tools and four sets of five-axis tools—violating Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (CoCom) regulations for certain machine tools. Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) advised the violation.[7] The Itochu Corporation worked with Wako and Toshiba Machine, shifting responsibility for the violation to the other two companies in an agreement signed on April 24, 1981.

Shinto Jitsugyo Company (株式会社進展実業), which also specialized in working with communist countries, was a subsidiary of Itochu and the Shinko Seiki Company (神港精機株式会社).[8] It violated CoCom regulations, exported germanium transistor production facilities to the Soviet Union. Another Itochu subsidiary, Ataka and Company (安宅産業株式会社), also worked with communist countries to export a set of three-axis machine tools.

Shipments
Date Kongsberg NC device type Manufacturer Machine Quantity Destination Use Contract
September 1964 - Shinko Seiki Germanium transistor production 1 Germanium transistor April 1963
December 1964 - Shinko Seiki Germanium transistor production Germanium transistor
September 25, 1979 NC2000 Toshiba Machine 3-axis machine tools 1 Volgodonsk Atomic energy machinery

Delivery[edit]

The numerical control machine tool was produced by Kongsberg Gruppen in Norway. They obtained export permission by claiming that it had two axes and delivered it to Japan, where it was re-exported to the Soviet Union. Its software later followed the same path.

Shipments
Date NC device type Manufacturer Spindles Quantity Destination Use Contract
December 1982 NC2000 Toshiba Machine 9 1 Baltic Shipyard Screw April 24, 1981
February 1983 NC2000 Toshiba Machine 9 2 Baltic Shipyard Screw
May 1983 NC2000 Toshiba Machine 9 3 Baltic Shipyard Screw
June 1983 NC2000 Toshiba Machine 9 4 Baltic Shipyard Screw
April 1984 NC2000 Toshiba Machine 5 5 Baltic Shipyard Screw April 1, 1983
6
May 1984 NC2000 Toshiba Machine 5 7 Baltic Shipyard Screw
8

MBP110 performance[edit]

  • Number of axes: Nine axes
  • Height: 10 m (33 ft)
  • Width: 22 m (72 ft)
  • Weight: 10 t
  • Maximum diameter: 11 m (36 ft)
  • Maximum processing weight: 130 t
  • Number of maximum-feathering sheets: 11

Shipment[edit]

The Soviet 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 landed at the Black Sea Port of Chornomorsk and were shipped to Leningrad by rail. Kumagai was charged with installing two machines in the propeller factory of Leningrad's Baltic Shipyard; the two remaining sets arrived later. Kumagai delivered two sets at the end of December 1983, and installed two five-axis machine tools in December 1984.

Dismissal[edit]

Wako refused to promote Kumagai, who resigned in 1985. He told Wako about the illegal exports after working with communist countries for 22 years and living in Moscow for ten. Soviet officials contacted him several times, inviting him to become a business partner. Although Wako and Toshiba Machine proposed that Kumagai disclose his knowledge of the illegal exports, he refused. The CIA knew about the illegal exports, but did not grasp the scope of the violation. KGB major Stanislav Levchenko defected to the United States in October 1979, and provided the names of about 200 Japanese agents who had been used by the KGB.

Whistleblowing[edit]

Kumagai unsuccessfully attempted to report what he knew to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, but officials sided with the corporations. He then wrote a December 1985 letter in English to CoCom headquarters in Paris, outlining which products had violated the regulations and details of what had been exported (or were likely to be exported) to the Soviet Union. Kumagai attached documentation of the nine-axis machine tools, and included his contact information. Concerned about a possible assassination attempt, he recorded in detail what he knew about the Soviet Union in the spring of 1986 and gave his friend a copy for safekeeping. Kumagai told his friend that if anything happened to him, he should pass the information on to the address on the letter.

CoCom and Japan[edit]

The CoCom agreement corresponded to the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Control Law[9] in Japan. CoCom showed the government of Japan Kumagai's whistleblowing, and demanded correspondence at the end of December 1985. The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Ministry of the Treasury, the National Police Agency, and the Ministry of Defense met in January 1986. The government of Japan, Itochu, Toshiba and their associated companies denied Kumagai's whistleblowing until 1987. He went to the Embassy of the United States in Tokyo by summer 1986. Although the United States discussed the affair with the government of Japan 40 times by 1987, the Japanese government of Japan did not tell the United States the truth.

Disclosure[edit]

On January 26–27, 1987, the United States asked Norway and Japan about the nine-axis machine tool. Norway investigated the incident, revealing Japan's crime. Kumagai contacted the government of Japan in December 1985, and received a reply on April 27, 1987.

News of the nine-axis violation in Japan appeared for the first time on April 30; news about the five-axis violation appeared in Japan for the first time on June 18. The statute of limitations on both violations had expired. The government of Japan knew the details by the end of December 1985, and allowed the statute of limitations to lapse. The Japanese government conferred with William C. Triplett, a former CIA analyst, in the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in July 1987. Triplett asked Kumagai to testify at a United States congressional hearing, but he refused. Fearing KGB retaliation, he published a book on January 30, 1988.[2]

Books[edit]

Nonfiction[edit]

  • Mosukuwa yo, saraba: Kokomu ihan jiken no haikei (Goodbye, Moscow: The Background of the Toshiba–Kongsberg Scandal, モスクワよ、さらば―ココム違反事件の背景, Bungeishunjū, January 30, 1988), ISBN 978-4-16-342060-8.

Fiction[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "熊谷独（くまがい ひとり）-直木賞候補作家". prizesworld.com (in Japanese). Retrieved April 13, 2021.
  2. ^ a b Kumagai, Hitori (1988). モスクワよ、さらば: ココム違反事件の背景 (in Japanese). Bungeishunjū. ISBN 978-4-16-342060-8.
  3. ^ Fagan, Mary (September 17, 1987). "Eight ways to break the technology embargo with the East". New Scientist. Vol. 115, no. 1578. p. 28. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
  4. ^ "新和光交易株式会社". shinwako.co.jp (in Japanese).[verification needed]
  5. ^ Wrubel, Wende A. (January 1989). "The Toshiba-Kongsberg Incident: Shortcomings of Cocom, and Recommendations for Increased Effectiveness of Export Controls to the East Bloc". American University Journal of International Law and Policy. 4 (1): 241–273. S2CID 155366596. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
  6. ^ "TOSHIBA MACHINE CORPORATE SITE". toshiba-machine.co.jp. Archived from the original on November 2, 2011.[verification needed]
  7. ^ Haruna, Mikio (1993). スクリュー音が消えた: 東芝事件と米情報工作の真相 (in Japanese). Shinchosha. ISBN 978-4-10-394501-7.[page needed]
  8. ^ "SHINKO SEIKI CO.,LTD". shinko-seiki.com. Archived from the original on January 10, 2012.[verification needed]
  9. ^ "[Law text] - Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act". Japanese Law Translation. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
  10. ^ "サントリーミステリー大賞受賞作". bunshun.co.jp (in Japanese). Bungeishunjū. Archived from the original on July 2, 2016.

External links[edit]

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