From: Panama (Akiyama)
To: Tokyo
October 18, 1941
J-19
#220 (Part 1 of 2)

 

1. Ship movements from the 14th to the 18th:

 

Moving toward the Pacific: 4 American, 1 British freighters; 2 American tankers.

 

Moving toward the Atlantic: 4 American, 2 British, 1 Dutch freighters; 1 American tanker, 1 American passenger steamer. Recently ships have been going through the canal at night.

 

2. In order to find out the plans of the Canal command, I inspected the military establishment at the Pacific end on the 10th. (Naturally they do not allow us to inspect the forts.) I found that construction is going on at a rapid rate and the whole area is being covered with fortifications. Specifically, at Albrook Field, 3 large hangars, storehouses for airplane parts, underground tanks, and 8 barracks to accommodate 200 men each.

 

At Corozal, 4 two-hundred-men barracks, 55 two-family officer's quarters and a 500-patient hospital are nearing completion.

 
ARMY 23909                                           Trans. 10-23-41 (2)

 

From: Panama (Akiyama)
To: Tokyo
October 18, 1941
J-19
#220 (Part 2 of 2)
 

At Fort Clayton there are stationed, as before, the 2nd Field Artillery Battalion, the 1st Engineers, and the 33rd Infantry. Besides barracks for the (signal ?) unit attached to these groups, 18 or (48 ?) barracks large enough to accommodate 250 persons each are approaching completion. In addition to the recently completed hangars at Howard Field, barracks for 26 companies have been roughly completed at Fort Kobbe. Some of these are already in use (details will be sent (by mail ?). In the Canal Zone there are between the two oceans three cruisers, 8 new type destroyers, 18 submarines, one gunboat, and one submarine tender. The construction work of the submarine base at Balboa is progressing. According to information coming from - - - - -, 16-inch guns have been emplaced on Pearl Islands, and some of the warships of (this country ?) are patrolling the waters around them.

 
ARMY 23910                                           Trans. 10/24/41 (2)

 

(EXHIBITS OF JOINT COMMITTEE , EXHIBIT NO. 2 JAPANESE MESSAGES CONCERNING MILITARY

INSTALLATIONS, SHIP MOVEMENTS, ETC.)