The spy who shot us

ROGER MORONEY It has all the makings of a ripping yarn ... and a story which, if verified, means that a Japanese spy was put ashore in Hawke's Bay in 1943 where he carried out pre-invasion reconnaissance disguised as a Chinese market gardener.
The intrigue of "the Opapa spy" came to the attention of Hastings amateur radio operator David Walker only recently, although it first emerged in 1946.
Mr Walker said he heard the story from fellow ham-radio operator Peter Keong, who in turn had heard about it while travelling to a ham-radio event.
What intrigued both was that the man who had been a radio operator stationed at Opapa in 1943, Lynden Martin, had spoken on occasions of how he had actually met the spy while serving in Japan with the post-war J Force in 1946.
"Lyn was born in Hastings in 1921 and gained his amateur (operator's) licence in 1939, possibly the youngest person in New Zealand to do so up until that time.
"Unfortunately he passed away about three years ago, but we are hoping someone else may be able to pass on some information about this," Mr Walker said.
The story first came to light when Lyndon Martin was in Japan 61 years ago.
He struck up a conversation with a Japanese man at a dinner, and during that conversation the man asked Mr Martin which part of New Zealand he was from.
"Lyn told him he was from a little place called Opapa," Mr Walker said.
The Japanese man surprised Mr Martin by saying he knew of Opapa.
Mr Walker said Mr Martin was sceptical as Opapa was well off the beaten track, some 20km from Hastings between Poukawa and Pukehou, although on the main highway south. Mr Martin told the Japanese man he doubted the story but the next day the man returned and handed him a photograph. It was of the Opapa radio transmitter site.
He told Mr Martin that he had taken the photograph three years earlier, in 1943.
"The Japanese man explained that he had been dropped off at Cape Kidnappers and had eventually worked his way to the South Island posing as a Chinese gardener."
He went on to tell Mr Martin that he had been landed to gather information and take photographs of New Zealand localities.
Mr Walker said that without being able to take it further with the late Mr Martin, that was all the information he and Mr Keong could put together.
But after making many phone calls to people he thought could add to the story, he came across what he described as an "element" of authentication.
He tracked down retired broadcasting technician Jim Grant, and Mr Grant said he, too, had heard the story.
He added that he had also seen the photograph which the Japanese "spy" had given to Mr Martin, and said it would indeed have been taken about 1943 due to the number of houses which could be seen. . Those houses were no longer there.
"Opapa during WW2 would be significant from a radio direction-finding point of view, as it is today, for aviators," Mr Walker said.
Joan Wiffin, whose late husband was head technician at Opapa in the 1950s, agreed.
"All the radio communications in Hawke's Bay went through Opapa. It was a very important site."
She said there used to be five houses on the site, three for the married couples and two, used as barrack accommodation, for the young technicians.
She could not recall her late husband ever mentioning the spy incident, but she thought he may have started work there after the war.
Mr Walker said he and Mr Keong wanted to find out more about what could have been one of the most colourful incidents in wartime Hawke's Bay, and would like to hear from anyone who may have come across the story and has anything to add.