Wolfe Frederick
Friedman, the son of an interpreter, was born Kishinev, Russia,
on 24th September 1891. The following year the family emigrated to
United States to escape increasing persecution of Jews
in Russia. The family settled in Pittsburgh in 1893. As a child his
forename was changed from Wolfe to William.
After graduating from Cornell
University, Friedman began work for Riverbank Laboratories in Chicago.
There he became interested in the study of codes and ciphers and during
the First World War became a cryptologic officer
with the U.S. War Department in Washington.
In 1921 he was appointed
as the War Department's chief cryptanalyst. On the outbreak of the
Second World War Friedman became
involved in Magic, the codename given for
the American operation to break the Japanese diplomatic and military
codes. The Communication Special Unit (US
Navy)
and the Signals Intelligence Section (US
Army)
worked together in monitoring the traffic of coded messages sent by
the Japanese Government and the Imperial Headquarters to their commanders
at sea and in the field.
In 1939
Japan began using a new cipher machine invented
by Jinsaburo Ito. Nicknamed the Purple Machine, the code was not broken
until September 1940 by Friedman and his team. However, because of
the large volume of intelligence being received by the staff of Magic,
they were unable to give adequate warnings about the proposed attack
at Pearl Harbor.
With increases
in the number of people working at Magic they were able to discover
the attack plan at the Battle of Midway.
This enabled Admiral Chester
Nimitz to use this information to fight off a much larger
force and halt the Japanese offensive in the Pacific.
In January
1944 Colonel Friedman collapsed from overwork and was in Walter Reed
Hospital for three months and was eventually given a honorable discharge.
Friedman
became director of Communications Research in the Army Security Agency.
William Friedman retired in 1955 and died of a heart attack on 2nd
November, 1969.
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