Catalogue description Japanese espionage case in Singapore, December 1935. In the course of investigating two...

Japanese espionage case in Singapore, December 1935. In the course of investigating two Japanese residents of Singapore named KOKUBO and OHKI who were known to be trying to recruit people serving on the RAF base, the Singapore authorities arrested a contact of KOKUBO's, a Japanese naval officer named KASEDA who in November 1934 had arrived in Singapore under a false identity with a camera and large amounts of money to pay for information about the RAF and naval bases. KASEDA admitted that his purpose in coming to Singapore was for espionage and he was deported. Another Singapore resident, NISHIMURA, head of a local mining company and President of the Japanese Association in Malaya who was linked to KASEDA, when called for interview at a police station, committed suicide by strychnine poisoning. The iron-ore mining and shipping company involved, Ishihara Sangyo Koshi (ISK) of which NISHIMURA had been local manager and KASEDA had posed as an employee, had branches throughout the Far East and was in this instance at least used as a cover for Japanese espionage against the Singapore Base