William D. Puleston, ONI Director, took a personal interest in the so-called language students. "The personality and movements of Japanese language officers are matters of greatest interest to this office, because experience in the past has shown that they engage in illegal activities." ONI was able to confirm the Director's concerns about this perceived threat from deciphering Japanese coded radio messages.

 In reviewing a Japanese message, a cryptanalyst, Miss Aggie Driscoll, had marked a section with contained the word "TO-MI-MU-RA." Not knowing what it meant, Miss Aggie, as her colleagues called her, showed the message to a Japanese language expert. The expert initially said that the word could reflect a Japanese name but Miss Aggie did not buy that explanation. The expert next suggested that the part of the word "mura" means town but also has an alternate meaning of "son." By putting the first part of the word with "son," the word becomes "Tomison or Thompson. ONI now a lead to a possible spy.

The lead led to Harry J. Thompson, a clerk in the Navy, who was contacting his ex-shipmates on behalf of the Japanese. His case officer was Commander Miyazaki, who was in the United States under English language student cover. When the FBI arrested Thompson, Miyazaki suddenly left the United States for Japan. Thompson was convicted under the Espionage Act of 1917 and sentenced to fifteen years at McNeil Island.

            The radio traffic also revealed another possible American spy, codenamed Agent K. ONI investigation resulted in identifying Agent K as John Semer Farnsworth.

Copyright - Frank Rafalko