TheCodeBreakers
smudge that could not be read at all, Part 10 a 45-letter blur, and Part
11 one of 50 letters. Part 13 went awry in two patches. One deciphered
as andnd and the other as chtualylokmmtt; GY thought the first should be
and as and the second China, can but.5
In the Japanese embassy, about a mile away, the code clerks had
completed deciphering the first seven or eight parts of the message by
dinnertime. Then they all repaired to the Mayflower Hotel for a farewell
dinner for Hidenari Terasaki, head of Japanese espionage for the western
hemisphere, who had been ordered to another post.
While they were enjoying themselves, American code clerks at the
Department of State were at work encoding a personal appeal for peace
from the President of the United States to the Emperor of Japan. This
had been off again, on again since October, Roosevelt apparently wishing
to save it for a last resort. Now he decided that the time had come. The
message was on its way by 9 o'clock
annaabi.ee 
