A historical examination of Hotsumi Ozaki’s path into the Sorge spy ring, highlighting the pivotal role played by Agnes Smedley and the international communist intelligence network linking journalism, academia, and espionage.
Agnes Smedley’s confirmed role as a Comintern agent reveals how journalism and espionage merged within the global communist network surrounding the Sorge spy ring.

2017-03-21

What follows is a continuation of the previous chapter.

To Shanghai

From October 1927 until the following year, Ozaki was assigned to the China desk of the Osaka Asahi Shimbun.
During his posting in Osaka, he met Takeo Fuyuno, an alumnus of the First Higher School and a member of the Japanese Communist Party, and was influenced by him.
Just before leaving for Shanghai, Hani Gorō—his contemporary from the First Higher School and Tokyo Imperial University, recently returned from Germany—taught him the importance of researching and analyzing local newspapers.
In November 1927, Ozaki was transferred as a special correspondent to the Shanghai bureau of the Osaka Asahi Shimbun.
Fluent in English and German, Ozaki was placed in charge of diplomatic affairs under bureau chief Ōta Uynosuke.

While in Shanghai, he frequented Uchiyama Bookstore, associating with its owner Kanzō Uchiyama, as well as figures such as Guo Moruo, Lu Xun, and Xia Yan of the League of Left-Wing Chinese Writers.
He also interacted with the Chinese Communist Party.
In November 1928, at the Zeitgeist bookstore operated by Irene Weitemeyer, Ozaki met Agnes Smedley.
Through this encounter, he came to indirectly assist intelligence activities by joining organizations connected to the Comintern headquarters.
Later, at a Japanese restaurant called Tokiwatei, Ozaki was introduced by Smedley to Richard Sorge, the Frankfurt Zeitung correspondent known under the alias “Johnson.”
Reports Ozaki provided through Sorge regarding developments within the Nanjing government were highly valued.
At the Xinghualou restaurant on Nanjing Road, Sorge informed Ozaki that he was a member of the Comintern and requested his cooperation, which Ozaki accepted.
In fact, the person who introduced Ozaki to Sorge was Ginichi Kito, an American Communist Party member dispatched to Shanghai to the Pacific Secretariat of the Pan-Pacific Trade Union Secretariat (PPTUS), who had infiltrated an international transport company affiliated with the South Manchurian Railway.

In the spring of 1931, Ozaki attended a meeting of the Japan–China Struggle Alliance, where he met Sadakichi Kawai through the introduction of Shigeo Komatsu of the Shanghai office of the South Manchurian Railway Research Department.
To investigate the movements of the Kwantung Army, Ozaki dispatched Kawai to Manchuria in June of that year.

Espionage Activities

At the end of February 1932, Ozaki received an order to return to Japan from the Osaka headquarters and began working in the foreign affairs section.
At the end of May, Yutoku Miyagi, known as “Minami Ryūichi,” visited him at headquarters.
Through Miyagi, Ozaki reunited with Sorge in Nara in early June, where Sorge requested that he engage in intelligence activities.
Ozaki pledged full cooperation and began active involvement as a core member of the Sorge spy ring under the code name “Otto.”
He also met frequently with Ginichi Kito in Kobe and Osaka.

In October 1934, Ozaki transferred to the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun to work at the newly established East Asia Problems Research Association.
In 1936, he attended the Institute of Pacific Relations conference held in Yosemite, California, as a China specialist, where he became close friends with Saionji Kinkazu and met Ushiba Tomohiko, who served as Saionji’s interpreter.
At a party during the conference, a Dutch delegate from the Dutch East Indies introduced him to Sorge, then posing as a journalist for the Amsterdam Handelsblad, allowing Ozaki to learn Sorge’s real name for the first time.

From April 1937, Ozaki joined the Shōwa Research Association, a policy study group led by Takayuki Gotō, a close aide to Prime Minister Konoe Fumimaro, through the introduction of Hiroo Sassa.
In July, he resigned from the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun and, through Ushiba Tomohiko, became a cabinet advisor in the First Konoe Cabinet.
Simultaneously, he participated in Konoe’s political study group known as the “Breakfast Meetings,” a relationship that continued through the Second and Third Konoe Cabinets.
On June 1, 1939, he became a contract researcher for the South Manchurian Railway Research Department at its Tokyo branch, where he worked until his arrest in the Sorge Incident.

Agnes Smedley (February 23, 1892 – May 6, 1950) was an American journalist known for her writings on modern China, particularly the Chinese Communist Party.
During World War I, she operated within the United States while receiving financial support from the German government to aid India’s independence from Britain.
She worked for extended periods on behalf of the Comintern, promoting the theory of world revolution.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was revealed that she had been an operative of the Comintern.
(From Wikipedia)