전후 연합국번역통역국(ATIS)의 일본인 귀환자 심문과 공산권 첩보활동

ATIS’ Interrogation with Japanese Repatriates and Intelligence Activity against Communists Post-War in Japan

The Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) collected the documents on Japanese POWs and capture during the Asia-Pacific War, secret information on communism in the Korean Peninsula and Japan from the right after the war to the Korean War and North Korean and Chinese POW interrogation and capture-related documents during the Korean War through organizational changes from 1942 to 1951. The ATIS was launched in Brisbane, Australia under the order of the General Headquarters, Southwest Pacific Area (GHQ/SWPA) on September 19, 1942 when the Asia-Pacific War in full swing. This organization was formed with the troops from the U.S., U.K., the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. The purposes of the ATIS were to i) provide interpretation & translation services among allied states, ii) translate and analyze the documents collected during the war, iii) prepare the protocol of examination and interrogation of POWs and iv) publish the results on bulletin, spot and reports and distribute them to the related authorities. The size of the ATIS varied, but it had up to 2,667 employees at the end of 1945. After the war, the most important duty of the ATIS was to support the GHQ regarding the occupation of Japan. It translated the periodicals published in Japan, collected and translated war criminal interrogation and war crime-related data and provided interpretation service at a war crimes trial. With the beginning of repatriation from the region under the control of the Soviet Union since December 1946, however, the activities of the ATIS started to change. In other words, it collected information on the Soviet troops and industrial activities in the Far East region from the returned Japanese people and inside information in Siberia and border area from the repatriates. According to the ATIS’ data, a total of 624,296 people were returned from the regions under the control of the USSR and registered from December 1, 1946 to January 1, 1948. The particular information collected during their interrogation included topography, railway lines, road, communication network, airport & air routes, shipping industry, meteorological data, military fortress, coastal line and ports. As the number of Japanese repatriates started to decline, and a demand for the interrogation of North Korean and Chinese POWs with the outbreak of the Korean War increased, the ATIS’ interrogation of Japanese troops from the regions under the control of the USSR was ended on December 31, 1950. According to the ATIS’ intelligence activity against communists, the U.S. was very sensitive to the expansion of the Soviet Union and checked strategic and geographical information on the USSR through the repatriates. After all, the Cold War in East Asia was already happening earlier than expected.