Japan

Remembering Moe Berg, MLB Catcher, OSS Operative, Born March 2, 1902

Moe Berg was one of the more fascinating characters in the world of both professional baseball and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. After playing professional baseball for 15 years and coaching for two more, he joined the OSS and was an operative in Europe during the war. But prior to that, he actually spied for the United States on Japan prior to the war during a pair of “friendship tours” of Japan with fellow baseball players.

Morris (Moe) Berg was born in Harlem, NYC on March 2, 1902. When he was just four, his family moved to Newark, after his father bought a pharmacy. He graduated from Barringer High School at the age of 16 and was named to an All-Star baseball team “Dream Team” as one of Newark’s top ballplayers.

He attended New York University for a year before enrolling in Princeton. He was a captain of the Princeton baseball team and graduated with a B.A. (Bachelor of Arts), magna cum laude in modern languages. He had studied seven languages: Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Sanskrit (ancient Indian).

While playing shortstop in baseball, he and second baseman Crossan Cooper would speak in Latin in calling out their signals whenever a runner was on base. However, because of his Jewish heritage, he was never completely accepted in one of the Ivy League’s premier WASP academies.

In 1923, he signed a professional baseball contract with the Brooklyn Robins for $5000. Thus began a 15-year career in major league baseball. He was never a star, and after catching on with the Chicago White Sox in 1926, he did what at the time was unthinkable. He informed the team that he was going to skip spring training and attend Columbia Law School, in an effort to become a lawyer.

Berg languished on the bench for most of the season before injuries at catcher forced him to be placed there. He did such a good job behind the plate, that catcher became his primary position. In 1928, Berg led the Major Leagues in caught-stealing percentage (60.9). Although the game has changed drastically since then, it should just be noted that the MLB average for runners caught stealing in 2018 was just 27 percent.

Spying On Japan:

During the winter of 1932, MLB arranged for several players, including Berg to tour Japanese universities to teach the finer points of baseball. After their tour was over, while the other players returned home to the United States, Berg remained in Japan and visited other locales such as Manchuria, Shanghai, Peking, Indochina, Siam, India, Egypt, and Berlin. After returning Berg set an American League record of 117 consecutive games without an error by a catcher (since broken).

During his second trip to Japan, Berg, despite being a journeyman backup catcher was asked to be a part of an All-Star team making the rounds in Japan and playing against Japanese All-Stars. The team included such legends as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Earl Averill, Charlie Gehringer, Jimmie Foxx, and Lefty Gomez.

Berg carried a 16-mm Bell & Howell movie camera and was to ostensibly film the tour for a film company in New York. But he’d have another job to do while there in Japan. Berg addressed the Japanese in their own language as the team arrived. While in the country, the team was to play a game in Omiya. Berg, skipped that game to supposedly visit the daughter of American Ambassador Joseph Grew in St. Luke’s Hospital. While there, he snuck up on the roof and using his movie camera to film the city and harbor, providing American intelligence some valuable insight into what, to them was a total mystery.

Later reports surfaced, that has never been confirmed that Berg’s film was used by LTC Jimmy Doolittle to plan his raid of Tokyo during the war. Once again, as soon as the tour was over, Berg didn’t return to the United States, opting to travel to Moscow, Korea, and the Philippines.

As his playing career was winding down, Berg played the final five years of major league baseball playing for the Boston Red Sox. He followed that up with two more with the Red Sox as a coach. During this time, Berg, the athlete scholar who read up to 10 newspapers a day, appeared on the radio quiz show, “Information, Please”. He was a frequent guest and blew people away with his overall knowledge about a variety of subjects.

Major League Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis told him, “in just thirty minutes you did more for baseball than I’ve done the entire time I’ve been commissioner”, but not everyone was enamored with him. Casey Stengle once described Berg as “one of the strangest men to ever play baseball.”

World War II Service:

After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Berg was initially posted at a position that monitored the health of U.S. servicemen in Central and South America. But in early 1943, that all changed when he applied for and was accepted into the OSS.

Berg fit the mold perfectly that General William Donovan had for OSS, “PhDs that can win a bar fight.” Berg was a professional athlete who played 15 years in the bigs, could speak 10 languages, seven of them fluently.

Berg was assigned to the Special Operations Branch (SO). He was a paramilitary operations officer in OSS that would today be part of the CIA Special Activities Division. He was then transferred to the Secret Intelligence Branch, specifically the Balkans Desk.

Berg parachuted into Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia to evaluate the different resistance groups operating against the Germans to determine which was the strongest and which one the United States would lend more of its support. He met with both Draža Mihailović and Josip Broz Tito and got an accurate, detailed look at their different groups, deciding that Tito had a stronger and better-supported group.

From there, Berg then took part in Project Larson and Project Azusa. The mission of the first was for OSS operatives to kidnap Italian rocket scientists and bring them to the U.S. The second project had to do with the grilling of Italian physicists to see what they knew about Werner Heisenberg and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker. Those two men were heading up Nazi Germany’s Nuclear Weapons project.

In December of 1944, OSS learned that Heisenberg was giving a lecture in Switzerland. Berg went there to find out if the Nazis were close to building a bomb. If that was the case, Berg’s orders were to eliminate Heisenberg. But Berg learned that Germans were not close to building a bomb and Heisenberg lived (and was resurrected by Walter White in “Breaking Bad…I digress).

After the war when OSS later became CIA, Berg tried to join and get posted to Israel but was rebuffed. He did, however, get tasked by the agency to use his old contacts in 1952 to check on the Soviet Union’s nuclear weapon program. In his debrief, the CIA agent described Berg as “flaky”.

Unfortunately, that wartime service was the high point of his life. Berg never again held a job and lived with his brother for 17 years where he was forced to evict him. Berg then lived with his sister for the final four years of his life. He died from the results of a fall at his home at the age of 70 in 1972. His ashes were spread over Mount Scopus in Jerusalem per his own request.

His true love remained baseball. He once said, he’d “rather be a ballplayer than a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court” In fact, on his death bed, his final words were asking the nurse “How did the Mets do today?”

Berg would be awarded the Medal of Freedom, the highest honor given to civilians during wartime, but he flat out refused it. After he died, his sister, Ethel, claimed the award, which she later donated to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

“Mr. Morris Berg, United States Civilian, rendered exceptionally meritorious service of high value to the war effort from April 1944 to January 1946,” reads the Medal of Freedom citation. “In a position of responsibility in the European Theater, he exhibited analytical abilities and a keen planning mind. He inspired both respect and constant high level of endeavor on the part of his subordinates which enabled his section to produce studies and analysis vital to the mounting of American operations.”

A former OSS operative and later the President of the New York Yankees, Michael Burke, said Berg was the ideal operative. “Moe was absolutely ideal for undercover work. Not by design; just by nature,” he said.

“One, because of his physical attributes. He could go anyplace without fear. He had stamina. Also, he had a gift for languages. In addition, he had an alert, quick mind that could adapt itself into any new or strange subject and make him comfortable quickly.”

“He was immensely involved intellectually and active in international affairs through reading and travel. He had the capacity to be at home in Italy or France or London or Bucharest. He was on familiar ground in all those places,” Burke added. “He also possessed a great capacity for being able to live comfortably alone and could do this for a long period of time. The life of an agent sometimes is a lonely one and some people aren’t suited for that.”

Berg’s life was made into a major Hollywood film starring Paul Rudd, “The Catcher Was a Spy.” We wrote a review of that here:

Photos: Wikipedia

Jonathan Wainwright, Hero of Corregidor, Rescued By OSS August 1945

When President Roosevelt ordered General Douglas MacArthur to Australia to take over command of the Allies South West Pacific Area on March 12, 1942, Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright inherited command of the US and Filipino forces on the Philippines.

After the surrender of the American and Filipino forces in the Philippines in May of 1942, the POWs were spread around the Japanese Empire. As the war moved to a close, the Americans feared the POWs were ripe for murder as the Japanese had done to Americans in the Philippines. So the OSS (Office of Strategic Services), the forerunner to the CIA and the U.S. Army Special Forces was tasked to rescue Wainwright in Manchuria before that could happen.

The mission was a particularly daring one, the men had to worry about the Japanese forces on one side and advancing Russians who could hold the Americans hostage on the other.

American Defeat in 1942: A third generation cavalry officer, Wainwright’s father had been killed in the Philippines in 1902, his grandfather died during the Civil War. He had the unenviable job of trying to hold Manila Bay from the Japanese with no relief force coming to his aid.

Less than a month later, on April 9, Major General Edward King, unbeknownst to Wainwright surrendered the 70,000 troops on Bataan. On May 5, the Japanese attacked Corregidor and were advancing on a tunnel where 1000 wounded American and Filipino troops were hospitalized.

Fearing a slaughter, Wainwright considered the unthinkable. He’d surrender the troops on Corregidor, but he hoped to spare the rest of the troops under MG William Sharp on Mindanao that so that they could fight on. The Japanese, when hearing this stormed out of the meeting. Either all of the Americans would surrender or none at all. Wainwright gave in and then it was Sharp who was placed in a bad spot. Had his troops continued fighting, he was worried that the prisoners would be murdered.

Wainwright announces U.S. surrender on Corregidor with Japanese censors standing by.

Sharp surrendered as well and the Americans with Wainwright as the senior American POW. Many of Sharp’s men, the majority of them Filipino joined the guerrillas. The POWs suffered terribly under the brutal treatment of the Japanese who considered surrender as unmanly. Wainwright was not spared any mistreatment and suffered along with his fellow POWs.

They were kept in Luzon, Formosa and finally in Manchuria where they were in 1945. The war had turned and the Japanese were in full retreat. And America was worried about her POWs.

The OSS Steps In: In 1945, the OSS had set up specially constructed teams to infiltrate ahead of the allied advance and assist with the freeing of Allied POW camps. They had already used them in Germany but for China, the logistics were much, more difficult in terms of the distances that needed to be covered.

OSS named these six-man teams, “Mercy Missions” and assembled nine teams to insert into China and Manchuria in the hunt for the POW camps. Of these teams, the one code-named “Cardinal” would be the key. Cardinal would parachute into Manchuria, 900 miles from the base in Chunking.

The two atomic bombs had been dropped on Japan on August 6 and August 9 and the collapse of Japanese resistance seemed imminent. The Russians, eager to gobble up as much land as possible, invaded Manchuria on August 8. No one knew how the Japanese army in Manchuria, still over a million men strong, would react.

The team was commanded by Major Robert F. Hennessy. Major Robert F. Lamar, a physician, was second in command. With four other OSS operatives, the men inserted into Manchuria in August 1945 near the POW camp at Hoten. The camp commandant advised Hennessy that Wainwright was not at this camp but at another in Sian, 100 miles farther north.

Hennessy sent Lamar and Sgt Harold Leith an OSS operative fluent in both Russian and Chinese to Sian to locate Wainwright. After a long trek to Sian, the two OSS men arrived on August 19. The then had a confrontational meeting with the camp commandant. But eventually, Wainwright was brought before them.

The general stood before the stunned OSS men, emaciated and in tattered clothing. “Are you really Americans?” he asked. “General, you are no longer a prisoner of war. You’re going back to the States,” Lamar said.

Wainwright’s nightmare was far from over, now he was conflicted believing his country thinking the worst of him for surrendering his troops. He didn’t know at the time that he was recommended for the Medal of Honor earlier in the U.S. but the man who left him behind, MacArthur was vigorously against it, claiming Corregidor should have been held and it was squashed.

Wainwright thought he’d return to the United States in disgrace. He asked a bit hesitantly, “what do the people in the states think of me?” The OSS men tried to explain to the General that he was considered a hero at home, but the general was unconvinced.

Lamar was in a quandary. His radio wasn’t working and the Russians had cut the telephone lines. Worried that the general would be kidnapped by Japanese troops still everywhere, he decided that he’d leave Leith with Wainwright and he’d return by train to the camp at Hoten and try to arrange vehicles to escort all of the POWs from Sian to Hoten for exfiltration to Chunking.

Lamar arrived in Mukden, outside of Hoten, but the Russians had arrived and were in a drunken rampage. They were not interested in helping the Americans at all. Three days passed. Leith and Wainwright believed Lamar was killed before he could report the site of the POWs which included LTG Arthur Percival, the British commander at Singapore.

It was then that a Russian convoy driving American Lend-Lease trucks appeared at the camp. Using Leith as an interpreter, Wainwright explained the dilemma to the Russian Commander. The Russian explained that he was on his to link up with Russian troops in Mukden and Wainwright and the POWs were welcome to accompany them, …if they provided their own transportation.

Wainwright quickly converted from emaciated POW to a General Officer. He ordered the camp commandant to furnish the POWs with the needed vehicles. Enroute the trucks were stuck in the mud. The Russian commander stopped a train and ordered it to take the POWs to Mukden. He also promised to send more support as soon as they reached their comrades.

The train broke down and the men were stuck once again. But the Russian train did arrive and the Russians escorted the men to Mukden, arriving on August 27 at 1:30 a.m. after taking three days.

The OSS men had two aircraft waiting to whisk Wainwright, Percival and a few others immediately to Chunking. There he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal as tears flowed down his cheeks. He was not in disgrace but revered by his country.

He flew to Tokyo where he had an emotional reunion with MacArthur. The two men embraced and shared a whispered moment.

But Wainwright’s story doesn’t end there. On September 2, 1945, with 250 American warships at anchor in Tokyo Bay, Wainwright and Percival stood onboard the battleship USS Missouri. MacArthur stood by a small table with Wainwright and Percival in positions of honor right behind him. MacArthur directed the representatives of the Japanese Empire to sign the formal articles of surrender.

When they had finished, MacArthur sat down and signed the document. He gestured to Wainwright to come forward and accept the pen. A second pen was handed to Percival.

Generals Wainwright and Percival stand behind General MacArthur at the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay.

Wainwright then traveled to the Philippines where he was a witness to the Japanese surrender of the brutal commander LTG Tomoyuki Yamashita. His vindication was now complete.

Congress eventually righted another wrong and awarded Wainwright the Medal of Honor. It was dated September 19, 1945.

Citation:

Distinguished himself by intrepid and determined leadership against greatly superior enemy forces. At the repeated risk of life above and beyond the call of duty in his position, he frequented the firing line of his troops where his presence provided the example and incentive that helped make the gallant efforts of these men possible.

The final stand on beleaguered Corregidor, for which he was in an important measure personally responsible, commanded the admiration of the Nation’s allies. It reflected the high morale of American arms in the face of overwhelming odds.

His courage and resolution were a vitally needed inspiration to the then sorely pressed freedom-loving peoples of the world.

Wainwright passed away in 1953 in San Antonio, TX from a stroke and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

(For further reading, search the OSS website and read an excellent take on the operation in World War II magazine)

Photos: US Archives

China Flexes Military Muscle in the Western Pacific as a Warning to Taiwan

The Chinese continued to act more aggressively in the Pacific, the latest bellicose move by Beijing was a series of military exercises in the Western Pacific in what Chinese officials described as “island encirclement patrols” over Taiwan by their air forces.

These latest drills came just a week after a spokesperson for the People’s Liberation Army said that the Chinese Air Force had recently staged drills over the Yellow and East seas near the Korean peninsula, using “routes and areas it has never flown before”. The latest moves are messages to Taiwan and to the US and South Korea that they intend on increasing their influence, far beyond their borders.

Monday’s drills involved aircraft flying over the Bashi Channel between Taiwan and the Philippines, and the Miyako Strait near the Japanese island of Okinawa. Other patrols encircled Taiwan, air force spokesperson Shen Jinke said, according to a statement posted on the air force’s website.
“Exercises near Taiwan are [primarily] a warning to the DPP, which always plays down Beijing’s military might, and a reminder to the Taiwanese public,” Beijing-based military expert Zhou Chenming said.
“In the East China Sea, however, where China’s air defence identification zone overlaps with Japan’s, drills are more complicated and challenging, because Tokyo scrambles its fighters to [effectively] join the training, which helps the Chinese pilots to improve their combat skills,” he said.
Taiwan’s Defence Minister Feng Shih-kuan said on Tuesday that the island had dispatched aircraft and ships to monitor the PLA’s exercises, but said they were not unusual and that the public should not be alarmed.

Chinese actions continue to show their aggressive and confident nature in pushing their influence in the region. With the situation in North Korea bubbling, the Chinese are not limiting their attention there. And are preparing for any scenario.

To read the entire article from The South China Post click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Trump Touts United States Military Might on Trip to Japan

President Donald Trump on his first visit to the Far East addressed US troops at Yokota Air Base in Japan, raved about American military might. Speaking to the troops, Trump was sporting a bomber jacket and was trying to boost the troops’ morale.

“We dominate the sky. We dominate the sea. We dominate the land and space,” Trump said. “Not merely because we have the best equipment, which we do, and by the way, a lot of it’s coming in. You saw that budget. That’s a lot different than in the past. A lot of beautiful brand-new equipment is coming in. And nobody makes it like they make it in the United States. Nobody.”

While the president did not directly address North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, the president’s choice to address troops in his very first action in the region set the tone of his trip as he seeks to send a clear message to the North Korean regime to back down from its nuclear ambitions.
“No one, no dictator, no regime, and no nation should underestimate ever American resolve,” the president said, standing on a stage in an airplane hangar on the base. “Every once in a while in the past they underestimated us. It was not pleasant for them. Was it? It was not pleasant. We will never yield. Never waiver, and never falter in defense of our people, our freedom and our great American flag.”

Trump made it a point to single out for praise for our Japanese allies as well as the family members who support the military members all over the world. He called the troops and the Japanese allies, confident, competent and capable.

To read the entire article from ABC News click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

U.S. and Japan Seek to Cut Off North Korea’s Oil Supply

In response to the missile launch of North Korea over the Japanese islands on Tuesday, the United States and Japan will call for an international embargo on oil exports to Kin Jong Un’s government. The allied effort seeks to strike at the heart of Pyongyang’s weapons programs.

Japan has requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York City along with the U.S. and South Korea. The three governments will then propose their ban to the UN. Whether or not other nations agree to join this proposed ban on oil is another matter.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump spoke via telephone on Tuesday and both agreed that now is the time for further pressure on North Korea, rather than dialogue. The missile launch by the North Koreans was another dangerous precedent, having the missile carry over Japanese territory.

Though this marks the fifth time North Korean missiles have flown over Japan, key differences from past cases indicate that the threat is greater this time.
The missile was launched from Sunan, near Pyongyang, around 5:58 a.m. and landed in the Pacific Ocean about 1,180km east of Cape Erimo on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. It flew about 2,700km, according to the Japanese government, suggesting that Pyongyang intended to prove that it can strike the American territory of Guam at any time.
Tokyo and Washington see quick, decisive action as necessary to avert a crisis. Past sanctions have done little to hinder Pyongyang, but an oil embargo that includes China, which North Korea relies on for the bulk of its supply, and Russia could deprive the regime of a vital resource, the thinking goes.

Both China and Russia, who have veto powers in the Security Council, are expected to fight this proposal. Which could embolden the North even more.

To read the entire article from The Nikkei Asian Review, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

North Korea’s ‘Reckless’ Missile Test Over Japan Escalates War of Words

The rogue government of North Korea’s Kim Jong Un launched a ballistic missile over Japan’s northern Hokkaido island into the sea on Tuesday morning, prompting warnings to residents to take cover and drawing sharp reactions from Japanese, South Korean and US officials.

The test was done in response to the United States and South Korean annual military exercises in the South. These defensive exercises, which the North sees as a preparation for invasion resulted in a serious provocation of the war of words between North Korea and the rest of her neighbors. The missile launch caused Japanese citizens to shelter in place and disrupted train service.

North Korea has conducted dozens of ballistic missile tests under young leader Kim Jong Un, the most recent on Saturday, in defiance of U.N. sanctions, but firing projectiles over mainland Japan is rare.
“North Korea’s reckless action is an unprecedented, serious and a grave threat to our nation,” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters.
North Korea remained defiant.
“The U.S. should know that it can neither browbeat the DPRK with any economic sanctions and military threats and blackmail nor make the DPRK flinch from the road chosen by itself,” North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun said, using the initials of the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The U.S., as well as Australian diplomats, are calling on China to exert more pressure on the government of Kim Jong Un. A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry stated that each country’s security concerns must be addressed in talks.

“The U.N. Security Council has put through several resolutions and sanctions have all along been put in place but everyone can see whether they’ve had actual results,” she said.

“On the one hand, sanctions have continued to be put in place via resolutions and on the other hand North Korea’s nuclear and missile launch process is still continuing.”

With tensions heightening in the region, firing a missile over another country’s territory is a dangerous and foolhardy act that will only result in disaster unless the Chinese step up and put a stop to these “tests.”

To read the entire article from Reuters, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Chinese Conduct Several Air Drills Near Japan, Tell Tokyo “Get Used to It”

The Chinese air force confirmed Saturday that its warplanes had conducted long-range drills over the Bashi Channel and the Miyako Strait “several times” over the past week. This news broke just a day after the country’s Defense Ministry told Japan that it should “get used to” the military exercises in the area.

“China’s air force over the past week conducted multiple drills far out at sea, with H-6K bombers and many other types of aircraft flying through the Bashi Channel and Miyako Strait, testing actual battle capabilities over the sea,” air force spokesman Shen Jinke was quoted as saying by the state-run CGTN website.
Shen said the drills were carried out as part of the air force’s yearly training plan, stressing that they complied with international law and were not aimed “at any specific country, region or target.”
Saturday’s announcement came after a Defense Ministry spokesman defended what he called “routine exercises” Thursday that saw six Chinese H-6 bombers fly through the Miyako Strait.
Japan scrambled fighters in response. There was no violation of Japanese airspace.
“It is legitimate for Chinese military planes to fly through the strait, and more similar training will be conducted on the high seas as needed,” spokesman Ren Guoqiang Guoqiang said.
“The parties concerned don’t need to overact and make a great fuss about it,” he added. “They will feel better after getting used to such drills.”

With the Chinese flexing their muscle in the region and increasing their influence, indeed the Japanese will need to get used to these kinds of exercises by the Chinese. According to Japanese Defense Forces, they scrambled aircraft in response to Chinese drills a record-high 1168 times during the fiscal year 2016 which ended in March.

During the months from April – June, Japanese aircraft have scrambled 101 times.

To read the entire article from The Japan Times, click here:

Photo courtesy Japan Ministry of Defense