BBC - The Fall of Singapore The Great Betrayal
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00:00On this shore, just after midnight on the 7th of December 1941, Japanese troops invaded
00:10the British colony of Malaya.
00:13The Pacific War had begun.
00:19Two hours later, Japanese planes launched from aircraft carriers blew up the American
00:23fleet at Pearl Harbor.
00:25A date which will live in infamy.
00:30Within ten weeks came Japan's crowning victory, the fall of Singapore, symbol of British power
00:38in the East.
00:40They were blows inflicted by the most devastating combination of naval and air power ever seen.
00:48Disaster had struck Britain and America.
00:53Behind Japan's conquests lies an extraordinary secret that has remained hidden for 70 years.
00:59It's from Churchill, I regard the attached as most serious.
01:05Here are all these Englishmen, two of them I know personally, collecting information
01:11and sending it to the Japanese.
01:14It may seem incredible, but it was the British who gave Japan the know-how to take out Pearl
01:19Harbor and capture Singapore.
01:22Shocking of all, for nearly two decades the Japanese had infiltrated the very heart of
01:27the British establishment.
01:28The duty you owe is to this country, not for any other country.
01:34Through a mole who was a peer of the realm, known to Churchill himself.
01:51In 1918, it felt as though the sun would never set on the British Empire.
01:58Britain was the dominant power in Asia, and victorious after the First World War, she
02:03didn't just rule the waves, but the skies above them.
02:09That year she found a revolutionary way of harnessing power from air and sea.
02:17The first aircraft carrier was born, HMS Argus.
02:23These great ships could carry an entire squadron of planes thousands of miles over the ocean,
02:28to bring them within range of anywhere on the planet.
02:34Naval air power already is seen as something with great potential, and the British are
02:40recognized as being ahead.
02:43One nation had particularly noticed the advantage the carriers were giving the British.
02:49Though it's largely forgotten today, Japan had been an ally of Britain throughout the
02:54First World War.
02:57It was a bond forged of two island peoples, who shared a maritime destiny.
03:06When HMS Argus's sister ship, the Eagle, was launched in 1918, the Japanese approached
03:12the Royal Navy to inspect its state-of-the-art carrier.
03:16Yet surprisingly, they were rebuffed, not once, but ten times.
03:24The Admiralty were very sensitive about the technology around naval air power.
03:29They understood that this was a war-winning weapon, and indeed they described this as
03:34a deadly technology.
03:37But the Air Ministry and the Foreign Office saw the prospect of lucrative arms contracts
03:41with Japan, so a compromise was agreed.
03:47A civilian mission would be allowed to go to Japan to help develop aircraft carriers,
03:52and encourage the Japanese to buy British military hardware.
03:57Many thought that even with the new technology, Japan could never be a threat.
04:03There was some now seemingly ridiculous stories that the Japanese would never make good pilots,
04:09because they weren't good cavalrymen.
04:12So you could sell them the aircraft, and they'd never actually pose a threat to anyone.
04:18It was believed the Japanese would want only gentlemen on the mission.
04:23Whitehall believed they'd found the perfect man to lead it.
04:29William Forbes Sempil.
04:31He was the son of a Scottish peer, and carried the title Master of Sempil.
04:38His father has been an aide to George V.
04:44Sempil himself goes to Eton.
04:47He's one of the founder members of the Royal Flying Corps.
04:49He transfers to the Royal Naval Air Service in 1916.
04:54By 1917, aged 24, he's a wing commander, and probably one of the most experienced British
05:01officers in terms of naval air power.
05:06In 1920, the Sempil mission left for Japan.
05:10And the Japanese get a hand-picked team of people, the best people who develop this technology.
05:21They're being shown what sort of aircraft they need.
05:28What sort of weapons they're being trained in, both level flight bombing and also the
05:32use of torpedoes.
05:35This is a large-scale operation.
05:39But these planes had limited range.
05:43To take on an enemy on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, the Japanese needed aircraft
05:48carriers.
05:49This was way beyond their know-how.
05:54The crucial technology is the deck, and the Japanese won't even attempt to construct the
05:59deck on the carrier without British assistance.
06:03Work began on the first Japanese carrier, the HÅshÅ.
06:09Within two years, Sempil and his military missionaries had given Japan's naval air service
06:14a potentially worldwide reach.
06:21Sempil returned home.
06:23The mission and its base were put under the vice-command of Yamamoto Isoroku, the future
06:29mastermind of the attack on America's naval fortress, Pearl Harbor.
06:39The United States viewed Japan's growing naval strength in the Pacific with increasing alarm.
06:47At the Washington Conference of 1922, the United States insisted on curbs to new Japanese
06:52warship building.
06:55But crucially, the Anglo-Japanese alliance was terminated.
07:02The price of the Washington Conference, Britain's to abandon her cherished ally.
07:07Japan is cut adrift.
07:10What this means is the end, really, of any discussions over naval technology or tactics,
07:18all of that is going to come to an end.
07:22This should have meant the severing of close military contact between Britain and Japan.
07:28But for another distinguished British naval flyer, it was only the beginning.
07:35By 1923, the aircraft carrier HÅshÅ was in ocean-going service.
07:41Now the Japanese needed training on how to operate its planes at sea.
07:47They were in luck.
07:49Britain's finest carrier pilot came calling.
07:55Frederick Joseph Rutland, the son of a laborer, had risen through the ranks to become squadron
08:00leader of the Eagle.
08:05In a statement to British intelligence two decades later, Rutland would explain his initial
08:11motive.
08:13I felt that there were not going to be any more wars anyway.
08:17I therefore decided to leave the service.
08:20I have a strong instinct of adventure.
08:23And I decided to go to Japan.
08:28Rutland, rather like Sempil, was a pioneering Royal Flying Corps pilot.
08:33He joins in 1914.
08:35He's an ace.
08:36I mean, Rutland is famous for having spotted the German fleet during the First World War,
08:42hence his nickname, Rutland of Jutland.
08:44And indeed, he's given one of the highest awards for this, the Albert Medal.
08:49At first, the Japanese put Rutland to work designing aircraft chassis for the Japanese
08:54Air Force.
08:58In Japan, my cover was the Mitsubishi Company, in whose Tokyo building I had an office.
09:05The Mitsubishi Company was, in fact, the Japanese government.
09:12Mitsubishi would later manufacture the Zero Fighter, a plane that would cost the lives
09:16of thousands of Allied servicemen.
09:21Rutland's paymasters then revealed they had a much more important job for him.
09:26They would increase his salary if he agreed to show their pilots how to fly off and on
09:30to the decks of carriers.
09:34They were so pleased with the results, they gave him a year's leave on full pay.
09:40The Sempil mission and the information provided by Rutland, certainly in the early to mid-1920s,
09:49that is the foundation for the establishment of the Japanese air arm.
09:55During their respective periods in Japan, Rutland and Sempil had formed a bond with
10:00their hosts they did not want to break.
10:05Sempil and indeed Rutland develop an affinity with the Japanese.
10:11Sempil's been in Japan for a long time, he's made those personal connections.
10:15It's not just friendship, he's part of a revolutionary element, almost, within the
10:20Royal Navy.
10:21He's part of this elite of air power enthusiasts and he's found kindred spirits.
10:29Back in Britain, Sempil was carving out a new career, but it was a role closely regulated
10:34by the Official Secrets Act.
10:38His job seems to be going round advising governments on arms sales, particularly of aircraft.
10:44He should be very careful with any contacts he has.
10:48If he's involved in discussions about technology transfer, then he really ought to be letting
10:56the government know.
11:00But here, at the National Archives in London, recently declassified documents reveal that
11:10instead Sempil was embarking on a far more dangerous path.
11:17What we've got here is an MI5 report and what's fascinating is it shows the really
11:27forensic detail which MI5 was collecting on Sempil.
11:33MI5 suspicions were first aroused in early 1923.
11:41Several small incidents have recently shown that the Japanese may be adopting other than
11:50orthodox methods for finding information about the Royal Air Force.
11:54Notably, your recent report that Colonel Sempil's servant is a Japanese naval rating.
12:04MI5 began an investigation of Sempil.
12:09It turned out he wasn't just socialising with the Japanese, he was in regular contact of
12:14a very different nature with Japan's naval attaché in London, Captain Toyoda.
12:23Toyoda's not just a naval attaché, he's not just attending cocktail parties.
12:27MI5 have evidence that he's also conducting his own espionage.
12:31This is a trained intelligence officer, not just a routine naval attaché.
12:40In February 1924, MI5 intercepted a letter from Sempil to Toyoda, which instantly raised
12:47the alarm.
12:50You will remember I wrote to you on the 7th of January regarding large bombs.
12:55The MI5 case officer noted,
12:59Letter was enclosed in a double envelope, the inner marked strictly confidential.
13:05Air Ministry were of the opinion that the matter referred to a very confidential matter
13:09Renew construction of bombs for the RAF.
13:14This is about naval air power, this is about destroying capital ships.
13:18The Japanese are struggling to see how you can take out major battleships with a relatively
13:24light aircraft of the 1920s.
13:27It's this kind of forensic detail that really persuades MI5 to take the next stage,
13:35which is to start to monitor Sempil's phone.
13:42Phone tapping was a new and revolutionary surveillance in the 1920s.
13:47It was also not sanctioned lightly.
13:53The evidence that Sempil was trading Britain's secrets to Japan began to mount.
13:5913th of May 1924, letter from Toyoda to Sempil, thanking him for the enclosed drawings and
14:05detailed specifications.
14:08The perusal of which has afforded me great interest.
14:13I am forwarding these papers to Japan with my whole authority.
14:18Sempil told Toyoda, it would be useless for you to attempt to obtain such information
14:23officially.
14:25Sempil was passing on a whole range of secret information.
14:30Inquiry showed that experiments with regard to sound detectors for anti-aircraft work
14:34would then...
14:35Toyoda writes to Sempil saying he would be grateful for any new information regarding
14:39parachutes, the new Handley page and other machines.
14:47In July 1924, Toyoda was invited to the British Fleet Review, a public event.
14:55Sempil used this opportunity to introduce his Japanese friends to top British carrier
15:00designer Sir Tennyson Danecourt.
15:05He wrote to Toyoda, 27th of July 1924, I hope you had a good look at the carriers.
15:14Danecourt will with careful handling produce much valuable data.
15:20Danecourt was warned off by the authorities.
15:25Sempil then tried to procure another key figure for the Japanese, Air Vice Marshal Sir Charles
15:30Vivian.
15:32My dear commander, in my humble opinion the advice and active cooperation of such a man
15:38would be invaluable.
15:39It is vital that this matter be kept quiet, as should any word get out it will cause trouble.
15:47What Sempil is doing here is he is talent spotting for Toyoda and of course he is always
15:52anxious to keep this secret.
15:55MI5 was appalled by Sempil's behaviour.
15:5930th of October 1924, Sempil's conduct in inciting Toyoda to endeavour to secure Air
16:06Vice Marshal Vivian's services and to keep it dark, shows that he is quite unscrupulous
16:11as regards what confidential British Air Force information he passes on to the Japanese.
16:16MI5 was unequivocal about Sempil's conduct.
16:22He presented himself as a man only helping British companies sell abroad.
16:30Is Sempil a spy?
16:34I'm not entirely sure.
16:38I think he's interested in trying to portray himself as a very useful conduit to naval
16:45technology. I'm happier with the expression he's pushing the envelope as far as it goes.
16:52It's not illegal to talk to a foreign power about military matters and military technology
16:59if that information is a matter of open source. But if it's information that's on the secret
17:06list, yes it's illegal. You're breaking the official secret sector.
17:11In July 1924, MI5 obtained evidence which they believed showed that Sempil had clearly
17:17crossed the line into illegality. Sempil had written to Toyoda with key technical details
17:24about Britain's latest aero engine.
17:29My dear commander, it appears that the Jaguar 4 has passed all the practical tests imposed
17:34by landing on and flying off. A feature of supreme importance that it exhibits is the
17:40phenomenal slow running, 100 to 150 rpm.
17:45And he's talking about the Jaguar 4 engine which is one of the latest aero engines. It's
17:50on the secret list.
17:53If the information contained in this letter is in any way correct, it would appear that
17:57Sempil has committed a serious infringement of the Official Secrets Act.
18:02MI5 believed it now had overwhelming evidence that Sempil was spying for the Japanese. Yet
18:09nothing was done about it.
18:12MI5 don't want to give away sources and methods. They're also in the 1920s reading telegrams
18:18which are being passed by cipher from the Japanese embassy back to Tokyo. And above
18:23all this is the work of the antecedents of Bletchley Park. They do not want to give that
18:28away. That is one of the most closely guarded secrets of the British state. So all this
18:33is potentially in jeopardy if you bring a case against Sempil.
18:38Despite the secrecy of MI5's operation, one letter to Toyota shows that Sempil may have
18:44realised he was under suspicion.
18:5110th December 1924.
18:58My dear commander, I meant to tell you today, please be very careful how you use any information
19:03you get and don't couple the name of any individual with it. I will tell you more when we meet
19:09again, but I know just exactly how the wind blows and the need for being super cautious.
19:17In late October 1925, Sempil travelled to Brough in Yorkshire to visit the Blackburn
19:23aircraft factory. This trip would later be of great significance.
19:30His ostensible reason was to see a single engine plane, but his real motive was to spy
19:36on a new state-of-the-art flying boat, the Iris Blackburn was building exclusively and
19:42secretly for the Air Ministry, MI5 noted.
19:4730th October 1925. Following on Sempil's visit to Brough, the Blackburn aeroplane company
19:52forwarded to Sempil a letter containing a detailed account of the performance of fleet
19:56aircraft, including the secret flying boat, the Iris, in practically the same form as
20:02that requested by Toyota.
20:066th January 1926. It is quite clear that not only is Sempil furnishing the Japanese with
20:11aviation intelligence, but that he is being paid for doing so. This is the smoking gun
20:17provided by British codebreakers. Essentially this document is saying that Sempil is not
20:24just providing information to friends, but he's being paid for the gathering of what
20:29they call aviation intelligence, so he's paid espionage.
20:35Then in early 1926, the authorities were finally given the chance to challenge Sempil
20:41without giving MI5's game away.
20:49He was negotiating with the Greek government to organise and train its naval air service.
20:54But the Greek naval attaché in London reported to his government a chilling warning about
21:00Sempil he'd received from the Air Ministry.
21:04I do not think he is a proper man, as what he would sell to us he may sell to any other
21:09state, and I was told by the Air Ministry that he is in financial difficulties.
21:17Sempil heard about the warning. On 26th April he wrote to the head of the Air Ministry demanding
21:24a meeting about the cloud of suspicion which he claimed hung over him and was damaging
21:29his business prospects. MI5 now at last saw a way of confronting Sempil without admitting
21:36they'd been intercepting his letters and tapping his phone.
21:47At 12 noon on 4th May 1926, in the office of the Deputy Chief of Air Staff, Sempil's
21:54interrogation began. Also present were Major Ball of Air Intelligence Security MI5 and
22:00the Director of Public Prosecutions himself, Sir Archibald Bodkin.
22:07The verbatim transcript was locked away for more than eight decades.
22:14From the intercepts, the interrogators already knew what Sempil had done. The only question
22:20was, would he come clean?
22:23In order that we may clear up this matter, you will tell us what foreign governments
22:27you've had activities with.
22:29I've had connections of a kind with most foreign governments. As you know, I went out to take
22:34charge of the Japanese Air Service, and since my return I've had connections with the Chileans,
22:39Greeks, Brazilians, etc. However, the connections I've had are really very small. These connections
22:46do not amount to much. Just a letter or two and perhaps a conversation here or there.
22:54Sempil was instantly on dangerous ground. His interrogators knew from the surveillance
22:59that his dealings with the Japanese had been anything but really very small. The transcript
23:06records how they began to probe that connection.
23:12What is the nature of your relations with them?
23:14Only on a friendly basis.
23:16Do they write?
23:17Yes.
23:18Do you reserve a salary?
23:20No.
23:21Who is the naval attache?
23:23Captain Toyoda is the Japanese naval attache.
23:26Do you receive applications from the Japanese or from any other power which might be of
23:33a secret character?
23:35If I ever have received any applications for information and they're doubtful as to the
23:40secrecy or otherwise, they mention it.
23:43Is it left to them to see if it is secret?
23:47I expect if I had all the correspondence I could produce letters from the Japanese attache
23:51asking for information and saying that it may be something of the nature of secret.
23:58If he wants a parachute or bombs or anything, he represents the matter to his chief and
24:02the chief takes the action. Sometimes Captain Toyoda refers to me.
24:07You mentioned that you might receive a request about parachutes or bombs. Did they ask you
24:13about parachutes or bombs?
24:15This is not in my line.
24:18The real truth was that the very first MI5 intercept had shown Semple giving away secret
24:24information about bombs.
24:28You will remember I wrote to you on the 7th of January regarding large bombs.
24:33MI5 had also obtained evidence that Semple was being paid regularly by the Japanese.
24:43Semple's initial claim had been he had only helped them out of goodwill.
24:48So they expect you to do this as an act of friendship?
24:51I told them when I left Japan that I would.
24:54They're casting a good deal of work on you.
24:57Yes, they do bother me to a certain extent. I have helped but simply because I believe
25:02it for the best to help.
25:05I should be considerably out of pocket because the money I received from the Japanese would
25:08not carry one very far.
25:10Have you had any remuneration from the Japanese?
25:14Yes, small presents. They write to thank me for the great help I'd given them and said
25:19that they did not know what to do about it. They gave me £100 last Christmas time.
25:25Is that the only occasion they've been so generous?
25:28Every Christmas I receive their thanks. If I weighed up all I have done it would be worth
25:33more than £100.
25:37The interrogators now move to the heart of the matter. The Japanese attache's motive
25:42for dealing with Semple rather than directly with the Air Ministry.
25:48What is the object of the Japanese asking for information which they could have got
25:52for nothing on application to the Air Ministry? They could come here and ask any question
25:56they like.
25:58I can't say exactly as to the motives as to whether they go to the Air Ministry or not.
26:02But they know that I know their situation and they have faith in my knowledge and experience
26:07and recommendations and rely on me.
26:10You did not think that they'd come here first and find that they cannot get information
26:15and then write to Colonel Semple about it?
26:17I cannot say.
26:19This is the danger of such an arrangement. Of course, with all your knowledge and experience
26:24in general you would know the answer to many questions that they might not be able to get
26:29from here.
26:31Yes, no doubt.
26:33You see the danger of such an arrangement?
26:35Yes.
26:36The obvious danger is that if there is anybody who knows such things which are kept secret
26:41they may let the cat out of the bag.
26:45You are your own judge on these matters. Have you ever referred any question to the Air
26:50Ministry as to whether you should answer this question or that question by another foreign
26:54power?
26:55No. I don't think there's any case of that kind.
27:01Because the detailed evidence of Semple's dealings with the Japanese had been established
27:05by covert methods, it could not be used against him.
27:10But the interrogators had an ace up their sleeves.
27:16While on the train to visit the Blackburn factory in Brough, the previous November,
27:22Semple had made a foolish mistake.
27:26He'd talked openly to foreign air attachés, one of them from Chile, about the secret aircraft
27:32the British were developing.
27:35A witness to this conversation reported it to MI5.
27:42He heard the Master of Semple discussing, in the presence of two attachés of foreign
27:46powers, the futility of the Air Ministry's policy of secrecy regarding certain aircraft.
27:51Incidentally, he referred to the Iris as one of the aircraft on the secret list in
27:56question.
27:57Semple's loose talk provided the one piece of damning evidence obtained openly that could
28:03be used against him.
28:04You might take it from me that it is perfectly plain that on your way up to Brough, the Iris
28:08was mentioned to the Chilean representative.
28:11As far as I can recollect, I said that a large flying boat was being constructed by Blackburn.
28:16That was a sort of show day to see a single-engine seaplane.
28:19Yes.
28:22Why did you want to see the Iris?
28:25You'd previously acknowledged it was on the secret list.
28:28Naturally.
28:29Being interested particularly in the marine side of aviation, and knowing the officer
28:33extremely well who was designing this machine, who was at one time under me, I was anxious
28:37to see it.
28:38Well, why not ask the Air Ministry if they had any objection to you getting these particulars?
28:42Wouldn't it have been the wisest and most patriotic thing to do?
28:48I admit, in that case, it would have been the thing to have done.
28:53With this admission, Semple had effectively confessed to a breach of the Official Secrets Act.
29:01Do I understand that neither the Japanese nor any other power ever asked you other than
29:06general questions?
29:08Did they ask about the Iris?
29:10No.
29:12But the Japanese had requested information about the Iris.
29:16He was lying.
29:20There is such a thing as a law in this country.
29:23Have you read the Act of 1920?
29:25No.
29:28You should take my advice and see a solicitor.
29:31Acquaint yourself with the spirit of the Act.
29:35You are sort of a law unto yourself.
29:37The public law of the country is entirely disregarded.
29:42The fault was, in a sense, double.
29:46Firstly, you had no right to obtain that information.
29:51And secondly, you induced somebody at those works to give you that information.
29:56I do not dispute that.
29:59The duty you owe is to this country, not for any other country.
30:06The Director of Public Prosecutions concluded with a prophetic warning.
30:12We have got, I believe, a paramount position in regards to air matters.
30:17Now, if information we have found and details are in any way communicated to a foreign power,
30:24we, in effect, are providing the material by which that foreign power can become a more effective enemy.
30:33Despite this, at a high-powered meeting in Whitehall on the 13th of May 1926,
30:39chaired by the Foreign Secretary himself, Sir Austin Chamberlain,
30:43it was decided not to prosecute Semple.
30:47He had been let off the hook,
30:49though the Director of Public Prosecutions wrote that he could not free his mind
30:53of the uneasiness he felt about the case.
30:56He's a member of the aristocracy.
30:58You wouldn't want to necessarily see this come to trial.
31:02If he carries on, well, then that might be a different matter.
31:06MI5 know that even if they hold this trial in Canberra,
31:10Semple will know what's going on and he will blow the whistle on MI5 sources,
31:15and they can't afford to do that.
31:18Re-examination of the files has uncovered another worrying dimension to Semple's activities,
31:24which went far beyond the shores of Great Britain.
31:31This is a letter from Semple to Commander Toyota.
31:35He says,
31:36My dear Commander, I hear that one of your men has been shot.
31:41This is a letter from Semple to Commander Toyota.
31:45He says,
31:46My dear Commander, I hear that one hunter who was with me in Japan as a WO2,
31:52that's a Warrant Officer 2,
31:54is now in the American Air Service at Honolulu.
31:58He does not know much and is a rather weak character,
32:01but they may try and use him.
32:03Do what you like, but I suggest you keep an eye on him.
32:06Yours sincerely, WS Semple.
32:10This is extraordinary because this is essentially Semple assisting the Japanese with counter-espionage,
32:16and they're telling the Japanese that their people in Honolulu need to keep an eye on him.
32:21Honolulu is of course Hawaii, it's Pearl Harbor,
32:25so we can see where all this is pointing.
32:30By 1930, the help of men like Semple and Rutland meant that Pearl Harbor was now a viable Japanese target.
32:40BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
32:43They had achieved astonishing advances.
32:46In just seven years, Japan had developed a carrier fleet equal in size and strength to the Royal Navy.
32:55Japan now had the means to realize her imperial ambitions.
32:59She set her sights on Southeast Asia.
33:04The ultimate prize was Singapore.
33:11It lay at the foot of the British colony of Malaya,
33:14and was her strategic lynchpin for the whole region.
33:27Back in 1920, under the Anglo-Japanese alliance,
33:31a grateful Britain had granted Japan naval concessions in Penang, at the northern end of the peninsula.
33:40Japanese warships could dock at the port and easily observe British defenses.
33:48Japanese businessmen began buying up prime sites from Penang all the way to Singapore.
33:56They overlooked the area where the British ships would be grouping,
34:00where there might be a future development of the harbor.
34:03There was almost a pattern of purchase going on.
34:09Japan's interest was not just commercial.
34:16She needed people on the ground to gather intelligence for a future invasion.
34:26What you're seeing in the 1930s, to some extent, is a Japanese diaspora across Southeast Asia.
34:34The Japanese are providing a lot of, if you like, new services.
34:41Photographers, engineers, also some traditional services.
34:47Under the front of these businesses,
34:50Japanese intelligence began inserting sleeper agents from Penang to Singapore.
34:57The identity of one would be revealed after Japan's victories ten years later.
35:03He was identified as the barber in Singapore,
35:09He was identified as the barber in Singapore,
35:14cutting the British and Australian hair.
35:18What happened? He turned out he was a colonel in the Japanese army.
35:23You know, when you go into a barber's, they start talking that, they get all sorts of information.
35:29The sheer number of Japanese citizens, which was in the thousands,
35:33made blanket surveillance practically impossible.
35:37To make matters even worse,
35:39the British found it difficult to distinguish between Chinese and Japanese residents.
35:45Singapore's melting pot was the perfect hiding place for spies.
35:52They're acquiring the workaday,
35:56They're acquiring the workaday,
35:58routine intelligence that you would require to invade Southeast Asia.
36:03The width of bridges, numbers of troops, weaknesses of air defences,
36:09locations of logistical stores and arms dumps.
36:14Like MI5 in London,
36:16British intelligence in the Far East was expert in the use of intercepts.
36:21Early on, FESS, or the Far Eastern Security Service,
36:25broke Japanese codes, but the code breakers were swamped.
36:32They had only seven people monitoring Japanese traffic for the whole of Asia,
36:37the Americas and the Pacific.
36:41And there was no appetite in Whitehall for taking a hard line against Japan.
36:46They want to turn a blind eye.
36:48They're worried about the consequences for diplomatic relations with Japan.
36:53And at this critical moment of British weakness, Japan struck.
37:02In 1931, Japanese troops invaded Chinese Manchuria.
37:07Japan's march to war had begun.
37:10In response, the British began construction works here
37:13to turn Singapore into the biggest and most fortified naval base in the world.
37:22The cost was then an astonishing 50 million pounds,
37:26two and a half billion pounds today.
37:29The dry dock alone was 28 miles square.
37:33Enormous 15 and 16 inch guns,
37:36were built to repel any attack from the sea.
37:39Just a year later, it was discovered that the Japanese
37:42had secretly bought plans of the base from a British serviceman called Roberts.
37:53In 1936, MI5 stepped up their game in the East
37:57and sent out a new station officer to Singapore.
38:00He worked closely with the Japanese,
38:04British strategists assumed that any attack on Singapore
38:07could come only from the sea.
38:15But Army Intelligence Officer Joe Vindon had doubts.
38:19He investigated the possibility of an attack by land
38:23after an invasion of Malaya.
38:27In the winter of 1937, Vindon sailed up the East Coast.
38:42We landed on several beaches from Medingi
38:45and came close inshore all along the coast.
38:49The beaches presented no difficulty to any landing party.
38:53The defence scheme, as laid down,
38:55considered that any attack during the period of the northeast monsoon
38:59from November to February was impossible due to rough seas.
39:05What Vindon saw, convinced him that an attack would come by land, via Malaya.
39:11I learnt that during this period,
39:13several thousand Chinese landed on the East Coast every year.
39:18Vindon even predicted the place the Japanese would come ashore, Kota Bharu.
39:23This would render Singapore's new fortifications redundant.
39:27Vindon recommended the cancellation of additional guns
39:30by the end of the war,
39:32and that the Japanese would not be able to attack Singapore again.
39:37Vindon recommended the cancellation of additional guns
39:40priced then at £15 million,
39:42that's £747 million today,
39:45and that the money should be spent on new planes instead.
39:50His advice was ignored,
39:52and the new MI5 station officer retired.
39:59Japanese spies were now everywhere,
40:02and not just Malaya.
40:05Their tentacles stretched across the Pacific to the United States.
40:10They even had agents in Pearl Harbour.
40:15The base wasn't just crucial to the United States.
40:18Churchill believed the American fleet
40:20would deter any attack on Britain's colony of Singapore.
40:26Yet incredibly, one of Japan's key agents at Pearl was now British.
40:32He was the man who, back in the 1920s,
40:35had taught Japan's pilots to fly from aircraft carriers,
40:39Frederick Joseph Rutland.
40:43Rutland had turned his technical expertise to espionage.
40:52This is a fascinating document.
40:54MI5 are saying here,
40:56he used seagoing craft to investigate the harbour,
40:59this is in the United States,
41:01he's not taking moving pictures of any warships there,
41:04he is an expert 16mm movie cameraman.
41:11Later, in a confession to intelligence officers,
41:14Rutland would state...
41:16As to my duties, I was to report in peacetime
41:19whether people were in favour of war,
41:21when war appeared to be imminent,
41:23whether the Americans were really going to war,
41:26the dispositions of their fleet.
41:28I fixed up a letter code.
41:30A was for aircraft, B was for battleships,
41:33C was for carriers, D for destroyers.
41:38Rutland's activities aroused suspicion,
41:41and the FBI was soon on his case.
41:43His every move was being followed
41:45as they waited for the right moment to pounce.
41:52In Britain, the naval pilot who'd already come close to prosecution
41:57was now a distinguished public figure.
42:02Semple had commanded the highest pillar
42:05in Britain's flying establishment,
42:07president of the Royal Aeronautical Society.
42:11In 1934, he inherited the family title
42:14as the 19th Lord Semple,
42:16and took his seat in the House of Lords
42:19as a conservative peer.
42:22Society would regard him as someone with real integrity.
42:27But Semple has an ideological affinity
42:30with militarist right-wing regimes.
42:36In 1937, Japan, now an ally of Nazi Germany, invaded China.
42:44That year, Semple welcomed a Japanese delegation to Croydon Airport.
42:51Their aeroplane's name, Kamikaze,
42:54was a chilling premonition of the shape of things to come.
42:58The airmen are officially welcomed by the Master of Semple.
43:02British aviation is very proud indeed
43:05of the splendid flight that has just been accomplished
43:08by our two Japanese friends.
43:12But there's evidence that Semple also maintained
43:15his secret links with the Japanese.
43:21The records on Semple from the 1930s
43:23seem mysteriously to have disappeared.
43:28But one surviving MI5 document from 1940
43:32mentions that from 1931,
43:34he was a paid consultant for Mitsubishi,
43:37which he knew built aircraft
43:39for Japan's rapidly expanding carrier force.
43:42By then, she already had 130 planes and three carriers.
43:49The Japanese use a number of commercial fronts for espionage,
43:52so some of these major military industrial combines like Mitsubishi
43:56are effectively conducting espionage for the Japanese government.
44:02The same report also suggests,
44:04in addition to his Japanese sympathies,
44:07another motivation for Semple's actions.
44:11He's somebody who seems to live beyond his means.
44:15As far as we know from MI5 material,
44:17he's running a hefty overdraft,
44:20and clearly if the Japanese are willing to pay
44:23substantial sums of money for access,
44:26and other governments are as well,
44:28it would be very tempting.
44:31He was running a 13,000 pound overdraft.
44:34That's nearly three quarters of a million pounds by today's money.
44:40Semple wasn't just pro-Japanese.
44:42Another line in the same report
44:44mentions his membership of pro-Nazi organization The Link.
44:48He was also on the council of the Right Club,
44:51whose objective was to expose organized Jewry
44:55and clear the conservative party of Jewish influence.
45:06In September 1939, war in Europe broke out.
45:12Winston Churchill returned to government
45:14as first Lord of the Admiralty.
45:17Astonishingly, Lord Semple also joined the Admiralty.
45:22Semple gave a specific assurance
45:24that he would have no further discussions
45:26with his Japanese friends on service matters.
45:32Despite that, when the manager of Mitsubishi in London
45:35was arrested for spying in August 1941,
45:38at a time when relations with Japan were rapidly deteriorating,
45:42Semple intervened to secure his release.
45:47MI5 noted...
45:50Makahara was released after two days,
45:53and Semple telegraphed,
45:55delighted results, proud to help, working hardcores.
46:03The British government doesn't detain foreign nationals lightly,
46:06so these people are under suspicion of espionage,
46:08and Semple is working to get them off.
46:13At this precise moment,
46:15the two great leaders of the Western powers,
46:17the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill
46:19and American President Roosevelt,
46:21were meeting face to face for the first time.
46:26Churchill was desperate to get Roosevelt to join the war against Hitler.
46:30Their discussions were held in total secrecy.
46:36On board the Prince of Wales,
46:38with the Royal Marine Guard of Honour,
46:40was Peter Dunstan.
46:44We knew that there was a conference
46:46between Churchill and Roosevelt,
46:49and that was in the officers' quarters
46:52in the rear of the ship,
46:54which was taboo to anybody,
46:57and so we didn't know what was going on,
47:00but we knew it was a conference between the two great men.
47:05Later that month,
47:07Churchill received news from British intelligence about the meeting,
47:10which filled him with horror.
47:14This document is so sensitive,
47:17it was classified for 60 years.
47:22This is a detailed account of that meeting,
47:26sent from the Japanese embassy in London,
47:30back to Tokyo.
47:32We have this document because the British codebreakers
47:35at Bletchley Park intercepted and decoded this document,
47:39and shortly after the Japanese sent this detailed account back to Tokyo,
47:43it's on Churchill's desk.
47:46This is not the sort of account that you could put together
47:50through reading the coverage in the newspapers.
47:53This is the inside story of the Placentia Bay meeting.
47:57So essentially what this points to
47:59is the fact that the Japanese have excellent sources in and around Churchill,
48:03and they have the inside track on that meeting with Roosevelt.
48:06All the details about, for example,
48:09the war against the Germans in the Atlantic.
48:12And you can see Churchill's handwritten minute on this document,
48:17pretty accurate stuff.
48:21The fact that the Japanese knew all this about that meeting
48:25means someone British was feeding them with the information.
48:29How does that make you feel?
48:32I'm absolutely shocked to know that that...
48:38Just cannot comprehend that that should have happened.
48:44And how it happened and where it happened...
48:47I just can't...
48:49Can't answer that question.
48:55To this day, no-one knows who passed these secrets on,
48:59but the pool of candidates is very small.
49:04We know who the Japanese informants are around this time,
49:08and perhaps the most important one,
49:10certainly the most important one with access to Churchill,
49:13is Lord Semple.
49:18There was worse to come.
49:20A few days later, MI5 told Churchill
49:23that the Japanese had information about his inner circle.
49:27He demanded evidence.
49:29A month later, after a surveillance operation,
49:32it was presented to him with the names of two sources.
49:36One was Semple.
49:38The other had been with him in Japan.
49:41This is Prime Minister's personal minute.
49:43It's from Churchill to Eden.
49:46And it's 20th September 1941.
49:50I regard the attached as most serious.
49:53At any moment we may be at war with Japan,
49:55and here are all these Englishmen, many of them respectable,
49:59two of them I know personally,
50:03moving around, collecting information
50:06and sending it to the Japanese embassy.
50:08I cannot believe the Master of Semple and Commander McGrath
50:12have any idea what their position would be
50:14on the morrow of a Japanese declaration of war.
50:17Immediate internment would be the least of their troubles.
50:22It is impossible for Lord Semple to continue to be employed at the Admiralty.
50:28Semple was told he had to leave his job.
50:31But when Churchill heard the news, he backtracked.
50:37First Lord,
50:39I had not contemplated Lord Semple being required to resign his commission,
50:44but only to be employed elsewhere than at the Admiralty.
50:48The matter should be treated as one of employment
50:51and not one of status.
50:55You wonder if it's something to do with his aristocratic background.
50:59The problem, of course, is to recall in this,
51:02he's actually a member of the House of Lords.
51:04And he does have friends, presumably, still within the Conservative Party,
51:09who could create difficulties if he was interned.
51:14What Churchill's realising is that here is someone
51:17that MI5 has been watching since 1925,
51:20and Churchill's actually been giving this person classified information.
51:24And in some ways, it's bad for Semple,
51:27but it also looks very bad for the British government.
51:30Once again, Semple had been let off the hook.
51:34This time, by Churchill himself.
51:40On 7th December 1941,
51:42a Japanese fleet was sailing across the Western Pacific Ocean.
51:47Its air arm now surpassed both Britain and America's,
51:51thanks largely to the Semple mission
51:53and his illegal supply of technical information afterwards,
51:56exposed by MI5 intercepts.
52:01Armed with this know-how,
52:03the Japanese embarked on a secret naval operation
52:06that would change the course of history.
52:10Many of their planes were Mitsubishi Zeros.
52:13They could outperform any Allied aircraft.
52:19The first Mitsubishi to land on a Japanese carrier
52:22had been flown by a British pilot 17 years before.
52:28The Japanese had perfected the technique
52:30with the help of British air ace Frederick Joseph Rutland.
52:35The use of torpedoes, which hung from their chassis,
52:38had also been taught by the Semple mission.
52:44The commander of the fleet, Yamamoto Isoroku,
52:48had become vice-chief of the naval airbase
52:51which Semple had overseen 19 years earlier.
53:03Simultaneously, another fleet sailed across the Gulf of Thailand
53:07towards Malaya.
53:09Its objective?
53:10To land a Japanese invasion force here at Kota Bharu,
53:14just as intelligence officer Joe Vindon had predicted.
53:19From pillboxes like this one,
53:21British and Indian troops put up stiff resistance.
53:24Churchill was confident that if they could just hold on,
53:27reinforcements from Pearl Harbor would soon be on their way.
53:33Two hours later, Yamamoto Isoroku ensured that hope was extinguished.
53:39In two waves, Japanese planes launched from carriers
53:43attacked the fleet at Pearl Harbor.
53:46Small aircraft with large bombs,
53:49the secret technology which had first prompted MI5's phone tap of Semple,
53:54destroyed the American fleet.
53:57Yamamoto's right-hand man in planning the attack
54:01was Takejiro Onishi.
54:03He'd been personally trained by Semple.
54:07With the US fleet at Pearl Harbor wiped out,
54:09the only British ships available in the Far East
54:12sailed from Singapore to intercept the Japanese.
54:17Led by the finest battleship in the Royal Navy,
54:20the Prince of Wales,
54:21on which Churchill and Roosevelt had met just three months earlier,
54:25they were the only hope of stopping the invasion fleet,
54:28but had no air cover.
54:32They were spotted by Takejiro Onishi's Navy air fleet.
54:37Now the British would learn just how well Semple had trained Onishi,
54:41who planned the attack.
54:43Eighty-three aircraft dived with heavy bombs and torpedoes.
54:48Underneath was Peter Dunstan.
54:52One of the first torpedoes hit the Prince of Wales
54:56on the port forward propeller shaft.
55:00It ripped a great big hole in the Prince of Wales
55:03and she dropped down to the stern
55:07with the amount of flooding water that came in.
55:10After the Japanese had stopped bombing us
55:15and she was going down,
55:17we were told to abandon ship.
55:21The Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse were sunk
55:25with a loss of nearly 900 lives.
55:30The same day, Semple was caught making calls to the Japanese embassy,
55:35a full three days after hostilities had begun.
55:40Who the hell are you?
55:41Astonishingly, he made more calls on the 13th of December.
55:45I don't give a damn who the hell you are.
55:47When his office was searched,
55:49he was found to have admiralty files
55:51he was supposed to have surrendered three weeks earlier.
55:55Despite all of this, Semple was never prosecuted.
56:01On the 15th of February, 1942,
56:05Singapore fell.
56:07A hundred thousand troops were taken prisoner.
56:11The majority were shipped to Japanese concentration camps.
56:15Where a quarter died in horrific conditions.
56:21In a secret session of the House of Commons,
56:23MPs demanded an inquiry to explain how this tragedy could have happened.
56:28It was blocked by Churchill himself.
56:32If it had gone ahead,
56:34it might have revealed that for nearly 20 years before the surrender,
56:38British officers had provided the military secrets and know-how,
56:43first legally, and then covertly,
56:46that enabled both the raid on Pearl Harbour
56:49and the capture of Singapore.
56:53Rutland was deported to Britain,
56:55where he was interned for two years.
56:58He comes out towards the end of the war, destitute,
57:03eventually ends up killing himself by putting his head in an oven
57:07in a bedsit in London.
57:10Semple is given a choice when Churchill discovers his activities.
57:15He can either resign his naval commission,
57:19or else he's given the choice of taking a position
57:23up in northern Scotland.
57:27Rutland isn't part of the British elite, and Semple is.
57:32Lord Semple died in 1965.
57:36He went to his grave treasuring a very special possession,
57:40the Order of the Rising Sun,
57:43given to him for what the Japanese Prime Minister called
57:46the splendid results, almost epoch-making,
57:50that have been brought about in the Imperial Japanese Navy.
58:00In the wake of the sacrifice at Pearl Harbour
58:03and the fall of Singapore,
58:05these words took on an added resonance.
58:09Japan had wounded a superpower and crippled an empire.
58:14Worse still, it was done with the help of people
58:17the Japanese were supposed to be fighting against.
58:20For Britain, the price was enormous.
58:23She would never be the dominant power in Asia again.