Joseph Yoshio Kiyonaga
 Joseph Yoshio Kiyonaga  ( spook) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1918 |
| Died | March 1977 (Age 58) |
Cause of death |  stomach cancer |
| Nationality | US |
| Ethnicity | Japanese |
| Alma mater | • University of Hawaii • SAIS |
| Mentors | Paul Linebarger |
| Religion | Catholic |
| Children | Paul Y. Kiyonaga |
| Spouse | Bina Cady Kiyonaga |
Joseph Yoshio Kiyonaga was a CIA spook who was Chief of Station in three countries.[1] His widow, Bina Cady Kiyonaga, wrote a memoir,My Spy - Memoir of a CIA wife,[2] giving some details of his work, which she said was according to Joe's wishes.
Contents
Background
Kiyonaga was born in Hawaii of Japanese parents. He was one of the Japanese-Americans allowed to form their own unit, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which was formed on January 22, 1943, and fought in Europe.
He graduated from the University of Hawaii and received a master's degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.[3]
Career
Japan
He joined the CIA in 1949. He was sent to Japan, where he worked until 1958. He was first assigned as chief of operations at the CIA base in Atsugi, the U.S. Naval Air Station about forty miles southwest of Tokyo. He was part of JTAG (Joint Technical Advisory Group), the name given to the group that conducted covert operations out of Atsugi. He oversaw many operations related to the Korean War, including some employing psychological warfare.
Later, in Tokyo, Kiyonaga headed up political action and propaganda for the station - "fitting for Joe, as his mentor at SAIS had been Paul Linebarger, the guru of psychological warfare."[4] Joe recruited many agents during his time in Tokyo. Chief among his recruits was one of Japan's leading business figures of the day. "Even though he's dead, I can't mention his name because his company is still well known worldwide." He recruited the national leader of the Communist Party of Japan and his deputy.[5] He recruited a cabinet minister "who proved invaluable in providing Joe with economic intelligence." Kiyonaga headed an effort to produce a Japanese film, funded by the Agency, called I Was a Prisoner in Siberia (1952), depicting the torture inflicted by the Soviets on Japanese prisoners during the war.[6]
"Joe had learned from Dr. Linebarger that an effective propaganda tactic was to find a trusted, respected and influential third-party "voice" (maybe a newspaper editor) to broadcast your message or spread unflattering information to neutralize your foe. The key was that no one should ever be able to determine that you had provided the information. Joe had been targeting a top journalist with the Asahi Shimbun for some time"...helping him when he was in hospital. "As soon as the man recovered his health, a steady stream of articles-political, economic, and anticommunist-began appearing in the Asahi, the New York Times of Japan."[7]
Brazil in the early 1960s
When stationed as second-in-command at the base in São Paulo in the early 1960s, Kiyonaga helped organize the conspiracy that led to the 1964 Brother Sam military coup against President João Goulart. Richard Welch (later assassinated when COS in Athens) was also stationed there.
Social milieu
Bina's memoirs illustrate the social milieu the CIA operatives identified with:
Society women, including some of my luncheon friends, marched to protest Goulart's leftist government. They were resplendent in mink and pearls, with Mercedeses and chauffeurs at the ready. The parade was routed on Avenue Paulista, near our street. I walked to the corner and watched in fascination as the matriarchs of Sao Paulo strode by in dignified silence. I spotted two neighbors and waved. Goulart was too leftist for their taste- and pocketbooks. I still find it interesting that those captivating Brazilian women were more politically attuned, and active, than their North American counterparts.[8]
Coup in Brazil
At close of business one Friday, an unidentified Brazilian turned up at the U.S. Consulate General. He hinted at the nature of his business to the receptionist. She, in turn, turned him over to the United States Information Service (USIS) man. The visitor stated his case. He was an ex-military man and a concerned Brazilian. He was alarmed at what was happening to the economy and to the country. He claimed to be the head of a group of business and military men working clandestinely toward the overthrow of "Jango" Goulart. The USIS man called Joe. Thus began Joe's largest operation in Brazil. Joe began meeting with the group. Brazilians are great talkers, but it soon became obvious to Joe that someone other than the group present was masterminding the whole undertaking. Joe confronted them and demanded to know who the actual head of the organization was. They conceded that Joe's suspicions were well founded, and in a dramatic manner, Joe's contact withdrew his calling card and wrote a name on it - Gen. Olympio Mourao Filho Jr. - a prominent general.
The general requested money and arms, especially light artillery. Joe promised to make a note of it, but was secretly convinced that providing arms to the military, in this case, was unnecessary. What they needed was money and an American seal of approval for their undertaking. Once the coup was an accomplished fact, they had to be able to count on U.S. recognition and support. Mourao hardly needed advice on things military, but he lacked the political know-how that Joe could provide. Joe was to be his conduit and confidant. He also helped the general perfect his intelligence organization. I'm assuming Joe must have discussed all of this with his superiors and gotten the go-ahead to work with Mourao. I think Vernon Walters was in the picture. I recall his being at our house. On April 1, 1964 -April Fool's Day (and six months after we left Brazil)- General Mourao and the First Army marched on Rio and overthrew the government[9]
Recruitment
Securing scholarships to U.S. colleges for the children of important contacts was a favored CIA recruiting tool.[10]
Joe had many valuable contacts within the American business community. Some were so willing to cooperate that they actually helped to recruit agents within their employ. A few occasionally served as "cut-outs," that is, they acted as a go-between in meetings with agents, so that the agent would not be seen in direct contact with the CIA operative....Sometimes CIA operatives would pose as U.S. "businessmen." In fact, some of the agency's most successful operatives were "businessmen." Joe worked closely with one such operative. This man served as a perfect example of what a CIA undercover, or "deep-cover," business operative should be. "Mike" learned to speak Portuguese fluently, immersed himself in things Brazilian, even began driving a motorcycle rather than a car.[11]
Catholic Church
His widow wrote "Joe might have taken the whole collaboration with the Church a little far. He seemed to spend half his professional life in church...In fact, one of Joe's best agents was a priest who was a federal deputy (equivalent to a congressman in our House of Representatives) and later became a senator. There were about sixteen political parties in Brazil when we lived there in the sixties. Father "Marco" was invaluable in keeping Joe apprised of what was happening in Brazil's Congress. He also engineered some congressional bills, dealing mainly with the critical issue of relations with Cuba. Despite his political position, Father accepted modest remuneration."[12]
El Salvador
I'd been out shopping, and was surprised when I returned home to see a Salvadoran military jeep parked in our driveway. I found Joe seated in the center patio. "Jose Medrano, at your service." In this simple, yet compelling man, resided the real power of Salvador. He was head of the National Guard, chief of Salvador's intelligence service and literally controlled the president, Fidel Sanchez Hernandez. Medrano had been offered the presidency but had hand-picked Sanchez instead, with the tacit understanding that he, Medrano, would call the shots. [..] In effect, Joe was asking Medrano to be his agent and Medrano accepted. [..] Equal to his fame with a .45 was his fame with a capucha. A capucha is an instrument of torture that is similar to the hoods worn by Capuchin monks except that it completely covers the head. When drawn over the head and tightened it cuts off almost all air-an extra tug and the prisoner is dead. [13]
Panama
The United States was so fearful of adverse world reaction if it did not sign the canal over to Panama that Joe told me we once protected Torrijos's brother from being arrested on drug charges in New York. Moises Torrijos was Panama's ambassador to Spain, but he was also a suspected trafficker in heroin. (He was indicted for drug smuggling in 1978 in the United States but denies the charge and has never faced trial.) Joe and the CIA, as well as the Drug Enforcement Agency, knew that Moises Torrijos was planning to pass through customs in New York on a return trip to Panama. They wanted to apprehend him.[why?][14] But years later, Joe told me that the State Department - fearful of upsetting the canal negotiations - objected strongly, State alerted General Torrijos, who warned his brother, who changed his flight plan, stopping off in Caracas instead of New York in the course of his flight home.[14]
Aside from Torrijos, one of Joe's main contacts was Manuel Noriega the head of Panama's secret police, the DENI.
The widow writes that she saw him for the first time when he dressed in civilian knocked on the door after midnight, wanting to talk to Joe. "I don't know if Noriega was an agent. I read newspaper reports, during Noriega's trial here in the U.S., that Noriega was put on the CIA payroll starting in about 1971, which coincides with our arrival in Panama. His first contacts with CIA apparently preceded that. All I know is that Noriega showed up at our apartment door unannounced more than once.[15]
Defectors
She incidentally tells how defectors were sabotaged by counterintelligence chief Jim Angleton's methods: "The only instance that I know of when Joe was involved with a defector was in Panama. (There were probably others of which I'm not aware.) This man was an Eastern European visiting Panama as part of a military mission. He approached a colleague of Joe's and requested asylum in exchange for information. Joe was informed and, as chief of station, contacted headquarters, which, in turn, dispatched two polygraph experts to probe the defector's bona fides. By the time the polygraph men had tested, retested, analyzed, reanalyzed, and disputed each other's findings, the Eastern European colonel had lost interest and rejoined his own group."[16]
Brazil Chief of Station
He was Brazil Chief of Station during the military dictatorship, until he died of stomach cancer in 1977.
References
- ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1977/03/13/joseph-yoshio-kiyonaga-was-cia-station-chief/470f215d-8dd7-4cdc-95ed-2e20fe168dab/
- ↑ Bina Cady Kiyonaga,My Spy - Memoir of a CIA wife (2000), ISBN 978-038097587 further page numbers refer to this book
- ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/1977/03/11/archives/joseph-y-kiyonaga-59-exsoldier-cia-agent.html
- ↑ page 116
- ↑ pages 124-25
- ↑ page 136
- ↑ page 125
- ↑ page 180
- ↑ page 180 and 185
- ↑ page 163
- ↑ page 171
- ↑ page 173
- ↑ page 214
- ↑ a b https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP91-00587R000100030009-1.pdf
- ↑ page 257
- ↑ page 260
