page_title: Japanese dissidence in 20th-century Imperial Japan
section_title: The Sorge spy ring
hierarchical_section_title: Japanese dissidence in 20th-century Imperial Japan / Japanese resistance during World War II / The Sorge spy ring
caption_attribution_description: English: Hotsumi Ozaki 日本語: 尾崎秀実
context_page_description: Japanese dissidence in 20th-century Imperial Japan during World War II covers individual Japanese opponents to the militarist Empire of Japan before and during WWII.
context_section_description: Richard Sorge was a Soviet military intelligence officer who conducted surveillance in both Germany and Japan, working under the identity of a Japanese correspondent for the German newspaper Frankfurter Zeitung. He arrived in Yokohama in 1933 and recruited two journalists: Asahi Shimbun journalist Hotsumi Ozaki, who wanted successful communist revolutions in both China and Japan; and Yotoku Miyagi in 1932 who translated Japanese newspaper articles and reports into English and created a diverse network of informants.
  In 1941, he relayed to the Soviet Union that Prime minister Konoe Fumimaro had decided against an immediate attack on the Soviets, choosing instead to keep forces in French Indochina (Vietnam). This information allowed the Soviet Union to reallocate tanks and troops to the western front without fear of Japanese attacks. Later that year, both Sorge and Ozaki were discovered to be guilty of treason (espionage) and were executed three years later in 1944.
caption: Hotsumi Ozaki
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