4 January 2016

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About NSA SIGINT Sites in Japan But Were Afraid to Ask

January 1, 2016
US signals intelligence (SIGINT) activities in Japan 1945 – 2015: A Visual Guide
Desmond Ball and Richard Tanter,
The Nautilus Institute, December 23, 2015
Full report available here [6MB].
I. Introduction

The US maintained signals intelligence (SIGINT) activities at about 100 sites in Japan during the Cold War, probably than in any other country. In Japan today, about 1,000 US personnel are engaged in SIGINT, Information Operations, Internet surveillance and Network Warfare activities, mainly at Yokusuka, Misawa, Yokota Air Base in Tokyo, Camp Hansen and Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, and the US Embassy in Tokyo. The US SIGINT activities in Japan have directly supported US nuclear war planning, Korean War and Vietnam operations, and since September 2011, the ‘Global War on Terror’. The technological developments over these seven decades have been stupendous. The end of the Cold War coincided with the beginning of the World Wide Web and the Internet age. Surveillance of the Internet and computer network systems became the highest priority. Intelligence became conflated with operations, with a proliferation of Information Operations (IO) and Cyber-warfare units. There has been no Japanese involvement in the US SIGINT activities, and no direct cooperation between US and Japanese SIGINT stations, apart from limited cooperation with respect to particular crises, and with the partial exception of Camelus at Camp Hansen since 2007. Japan is a Third Party to the UKUSA Agreements under which the US and Japan exchange certain designated intercept materials, including HF/VHF DF bearings, but excluding higher level cryptologic material.
Authors
Desmond Ball is Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University (ANU). He was a Special Professor at the ANU’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre from 1987 to 2013, and he served as Head of the Centre from 1984 to 1991.
Richard Tanter is Senior Research Associate at the Nautilus Institute and Honorary Professor in the School of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Melbourne.

Acknowledgements
The authors are very grateful to several friends and colleagues who assisted us with this project. Our interest in Japan’s signals intelligence (SIGINT) capabilities and activities was in large part inspired by two peace researchers, Sato Yuji and Owen Wilkes, who in the 1980s comprehensively and systematically studied all of Japan’s major SIGINT facilities, as well as many US SIGINT facilities in Japan. Both are now long dead, but we have been fortunate to inherit copies of most of the material they collected. Euan Graham, a former PhD student in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University, also gave us copies of extensive files he had compiled on US SIGINT units in Japan around 1999-2000. Jeffrey T. Richelson, the leading authority on the US intelligence community, generously gave us copies of much relevant material. Kim Keukmi provided us with wonderful research support. Bill Robinson has been unsparing in his assistance. He has made his holdings of satellite imagery available to us, and calculated the dimensions of many of the antenna elements described herein. Luke Hambly kindly prepared Figure 1.

Desmond Ball also wishes to thank his wife, Annabel Rossiter, and his children Katie, Matthew and James, for their love and forbearance. Matthew and James prepared several of the Plates in this volume. Richard Tanter wishes to thank Luisa Macmillan and Kai and Nathaniel Tanter for their love, patience and support over the long haul of this project, and Luisa especially for the gift of time to complete this work.

The views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Nautilus Institute. Readers should note that Nautilus seeks a diversity of views and opinions on significant topics in order to identify common ground.
II. Special Report by Desmond Ball and Richard Tanter


US signals intelligence (SIGINT) activities in Japan 1945 – 2015: A Visual Guide

Report 

The full report is available here [6MB].

Contents 
Introduction 
Post-War Occupation and the beginning of the Cold War, 1945-50 
The Air Force’s 1st RSM, Johnson Air Base, 1945-50 
Chitose, Hokkaido, 1945-51 
Yokosuka and Kannon Zaki, 1946-50 
The Korean War, 1950-53 
ASA stations in Japan during the Korean War 
The USAFSS during the Korean War 
The NSG during the Korean War 
USAF DF sites, 1952-54 
The British SIGINT station at Sukiran, Okinawa, 1952 
Nagoya, 1946-56 
Naha, Okinawa 
The establishment of Kami Seya (USN-39) 
Ashiya Air Base, 1953-58 
Shiroi Air Base, 1953-59 
Yokota Air Base, 1950-72 
Fushimi Momoyama and Fukakusa, Kyoto, 1953-58 
The ASA at Torii Station, Sobe, Okinawa 
The USAFSS at Yomitan, Okinawa, 1952-56 
Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s 
Hakata (USM-48), Kyushu 
US Army Signal Research Unit No. 3, Itazuke Air Base, Fukuoka 
Kuma Station, Chitose, Hokkaido, 1954-71 
Makubetsu, Hokkaido, 1952-64 
Futenma (USN-25), Okinawa, 1955-60 
The USAFSS at Onna Point, Okinawa, 1956-71 
Naval Air Station Iwakuni 
The 1956 reorganisation 
Sakata and Mount Chokai, 1956-62 
Misawa in the 1950s 
Wakkanai in the 1950s 
Yamato Air Station, 1961-64 
Fuchu Air Base, 1953-74 
US Marine Corps airborne ELINT activities, 1959-65 
NSA Pacific HQ, Camp Fuchinobe, Tokyo 
North Camp Drake 
NSG Sasebo, Kyushu, 1957- 68 
NSGA Hanza in the 1960s: the AN/FRD-10 CDAA 
The Joint Sobe Processing Center (JSPC), Torii Station, 1961-71 
The 6990th Security Squadron unit at Torii Station 
Sukiran, Okinawa, 1961-74 
Camp Zama in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s 
Wakkanai from the 1960s to 1972 
Misawa in the 1960s and 1970s 
Kami Seya (USN-39) from the 1960s to 1995 
Torii Station in the 1970s and 1980s 
Atsugi Naval Air Station 
The US Embassy, Tokyo 
Yokota Air Base since the 1970s 
Camp Zama since the 1990s 
Kadena since the 1970s 
DoD Special Representative Okinawa (DSRO), Kadena 
US Army Network Operations and Security in Okinawa 
Misawa since the 1980s and 1990s 
The US Army at Misawa since the 1990s 
The US Navy at Misawa since the 1990s 
US Marine Corps (USMC) Company E at Misawa, 1971-2000 
Operation Ladylove 
Project X-Keyscore (XKS) at Misawa 
Project Botanicreality, Misawa, 2007 
‘Low-rate carriers’, Misawa, 2009 
Civilian contractors at Project Ladylove, Misawa 
The 3rd Space Surveillance Squadron, Misawa, 1990-2004 
Project ICEBox at Amagamori, Misawa 
Deactivation of the AN/FLR-9 CDAA at Misawa, 2013 
Installation of a ZENGARDEN antenna system at Misawa, 2011 
Project Assett at Misawa, 1997-present 
Yokosuka 
The closure of Camp Hanza, 1996-2007 
Project Camelus, Camp Hansen, Okinawa 
Japanese involvement in US SIGINT activities 

Tables

Table 1. U.S. SIGINT sites in Japan, 1945-2015

Table 2. Ladylove radomes, Misawa, 1983-2014

Table 3. Japanese Personnel Army Security Agency Stations

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