"Code Breaking in the Pacific": Peter Donovan & John Mack's book released

We are thrilled to announce that Peter Donovan and John Mack's new book, "Code Breaking in the Pacific", has just been released by Springer Publishing.

The 387-page tome is unique in that it traces Pacific Japanese code-breaking from 1938-1945. Conversely, European and Atlantic cryptology has been extensively published about for many years.

By 1942, it was established that the Americans would be overall responsible for Pacific cryptology. Some of this work was conducted in Australia.

To a large extent, this was a naval war, and incidentally the Japanese Naval systems were much less secure than their Army counterparts.

"The book explains the technology utilised to process data at the time. It also identifies who produced the principal theoretical code-breaking methods", says Dr Donovan. "It also explains why it was possible at all".

Dr Donovan says that some of the consequences of deciphering and reading Japanese messages include the all-important Battle of Midway (which resulted in the decisive defeat of an attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy), and also revealed the location - resulting in the consequent sinking - of over 1,000 Japanese merchant ships. Weak spots in the Japanese strategy were laid bare.

Dr Donovan identifies Brits John Tiltman and Alan Turing as key figures who undertook the very important early work in this area.

Dr Donovan and A/Professor Mack collaborated on this book over several years. Dr Donovan is a leading expert on cryptologic history. Both authors have strong backgrounds in classical mathematics, coupled with initially quite separate interests in WWII, dating back 40 years.

We congratulate them on the publication of their book and wish them all the best!

"Code Breaking in the Pacific" can be purchased via Amazon.