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Analog of the Japanese Type B Cipher Machine (codenamed Purple) built by the U.S. Army Signal Intelligence Service Purple analog equipment in use. The "System 97 Typewriter for European Characters" (九七式欧文印字機 kyūnana-shiki ōbun injiki) or "Type B Cipher Machine", codenamed Purple by the United States, was an encryption machine used by the Japanese Foreign Office from February ...
For eighteen months, she worked with other SIS codebreakers to analyze the encryption system used in the Japanese Type B Cipher Machine, code named Purple by the SIS [3]: p. 8 She played a key role in cracking the cipher, [4] discovering cyclical behavior in the code on September 20, 1940.
A copy of the code book was obtained in a "black bag" operation on the luggage of a Japanese naval attaché in 1923; after three years of work Agnes Driscoll was able to break the additive portion of the code. [2] [3] [4] Knowledge of the Red Book code helped crack the similarly constructed Blue Book code. [1]
The PURPLE machine itself was first used by Japan in 1940. U.S. and British cryptographers had broken some PURPLE traffic well before the attack on Pearl Harbor. However, the PURPLE machines were used only by the Foreign Office to carry diplomatic traffic to its embassies. The Japanese Navy used a completely different crypto-system, known as JN-25.
The U.S. called this the "Purple" code, because they kept intercepted traffic in purple binders. Although the Japanese purchased the Enigma machine, they chose to base their cipher machine on a different technology, using a stepping switch rather than several rotors. [20]
Leo Rosen (26 March 1916 – 16 March 1991) was an American cryptanalyst who worked with Frank Rowlett at Signals Intelligence Service (S.I.S.) before the start of World War II on Japanese ciphers. Rowlett found a method to read the messages enciphered on the Japanese PURPLE machine.
During the 1930s, after a lengthy period of training, Rowlett and his colleagues compiled codes and ciphers for use by the U.S. Army and began solving a number of foreign, notably Japanese, systems. In the mid-1930s, they solved the first Japanese machine for encipherment of diplomatic communications, known to the Americans as RED .
A similar break into the most secure Japanese diplomatic cipher, designated Purple by the US Army Signals Intelligence Service, started before the US entered the war. Product from this source was called Magic. On the other side, German code breaking in World War II achieved some notable successes cracking British naval and other ciphers.