This is an amazing account of nearly forgotten episodes in American history which led to the breaking of the Japanese Codes that were instrumental in the ultimate US victory during World War II. This book was obviously written in 1942, well before Herbert Yardley's death in 1958. It is probable that the publication of this book, The Chinese Black Chamber, did not take place until 1983 for fear or because of what had happened to Yardley's previous works. Herbert O. Yardley is one of the legendary figures in the history of espionage. He founded and directed the famous 'American Black Chamber' in World War I. In 1938, Chiang Kai-shek, fighting his desperate, retreating war against the Japanese, sent a message to Yardley to come to Chungking to set up a Chinese version of the signals intelligence operation that Yardley had headed in Paris and New York. Yardley accepted. Until June 1940, he worked in the remote, bomb-torn capital of Chungking. This book is the account of his intelligence exploits and a vivid description of a strange, mixed society under fire... a world where nobody was exactly what he or she pretended to be. European traders, generals' mistresses, Japanese spies, journalists, politicians, and many other types peopled the city where Chiang Kai-shek ruled.