Evening star., 1951-08-21
Senate Security Group
Pledges Full Inquiry
Into Sorge Spy Ring

A full investigation of the story
Of the Sorge spy ring and Amer
leans who may have been con-
nected with it-a ring said to have
tipped off Russia that Japan would
attack the United States-was
promised by the Senate Internal
Security subcommittee today.
Senator Ferguson. Republican.
of Michigan, a member, and Rob-
ert Morris, counsel, said the entire
matter would be explored at fur
ther public hearings.
They made the statement after
Mitsusada Yoshikawa, director Of
special investigations for the Jap
anese attorney general, related the
sworn testimony before the sub
committee yesterday.
Pacific Institute Mentioned.
Yoskikawa testified that Rich
ard Sorge, German-born Russian
agent whom he sent to the gallows
as head Of the spy ring, named the
late Agnes Smedley, American
writer on Far Eastern affairs, as
member Of the espionage group.
But he said Sorge never gave the
names of young officer con-
nected with the American consul
late at Shanghai" and an Ameri-
can newspaper correspondent who
also were members.
The japanese prosecutor told
the Senate group that the name
Of the Institute of Pacific Rela-
tions cropped up in the investiga-
ton. He said he learned some
institute officials were members of
the spy ring
The subcommittee is Scrutiniz-
ing the affairs of the institute.
Chairman McCarran has charged
that Communists worked through
the institute to influence Ameri-
can Far Eastern policy in favor of
the Kremlin. The institute, a pri-
vate research organization, has
denied this.
Tells of Sorges' Spy Mission.
Yoshikawa said Sorge confessed
that his mission was Cd to spy on
Japanese and German war plans,
and CD to induce Japan to strike
at the United States, Britain,
France and the Netherlands. but
not at Russia, If she struck at all.
He said the ring thus not only
had advance information of jap
aneSe plans, but had helped to
shape them through the exercise
Of influence on brain trusters"
in the Japanese government.
The lean, spectacled witness,
speaking in Japanese through an
interpreter. described the capture
of Sorge in November, 1941. a
few weeks before Pearl Harbor.
He said Sorge "felt relieved
that he had just about completed
all the work he had set out to do"
before his arrest.
Hint of Pearl HarbOr Attack.
Sorge and Hozumi Osaki, the
witness said, said they had used
positions of trust to sell to the
japanese the idea that Soviet
Russia was too powerful to be at
tackled successfully.
Yoshikawa said they argued an
attack ito the south" would be
more likely to yield the oil and
rubber Japan needed for her war
machine.
YoShikawa said he saw a mes
sage relayed to Moscow in 1941
by Sorge advising that Japanese
mobilization then under full steam
an attack aimed "to the
south"
He said the message did not
specifically mention an attack on
the United States or Pearl Harbor
but that any power would know
such a move would necessitate
going to war with America"
He said that Sorge, although 81
Russian agent and a Communist.
also was a member of the Nazi
party so fully trusted by German
Ambassador Eugene OFT that OFT
denounced his arrest. Yoshikawa
said Sorge was able to warn Rus
sia before Hitler's invasion of that
country June %, 1941.
WillOughby to Be Heard.
YoShikawa has previously testi-
fed before the House Committee
on Un-American Activities, which
also is undertaking a full-scale
inquiry Of the Sorge spy case.
Maj. Gen. Charles Willoughby