In 1940, Coggins relocated to Hawaii and was placed in charge of counterespionage, with a direct report to then Rear Adm. Chester Nimitz. During the following year, Coggins recruited and trained over 100 counterespionage agents. Many were Nisei (those of Japanese ancestry who were born in the territory of Hawaii or on the mainland, as contrasted with the Issei, those who were born in Japan, immigrated to Hawaii, and often maintained dual citizenship). Coggins’ training and investigation techniques were codified and became the first training manual for the ONI.

There was unease in the Hawaiian Islands both before the attack on Pearl Harbor and in the months thereafter, when martial law was declared. Anti-Japanese sentiment was at a fever pitch, and the U.S. government questioned their loyalty. There were calls for the relocation or internment of most of those with Japanese ancestry. Out of a Hawaiian population of 423,000, 158,000 were of Japanese ancestry (one-third with dual Japanese and American citizenship). The Nisei were torn between their allegiance to the land of their fathers and their Shinto beliefs, and to their newfound culture and language.

Looming in the background were events on the U.S. mainland. In 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, resulting in the removal of 122,000 Japanese-Americans on the West Coast to “relocation centers.” (Roosevelt’s order was upheld in 1944 in the Supreme Court case of Korematsu v. United States, a case that historians later viewed as an egregious abuse of executive and judicial power.)

Fear was now a grim reality for the Nisei. However, there were practical economic factors that complicated the issue of the internment of Japanese-Americans in Hawaii. Back then, Hawaii’s large sugar and pineapple plantations were a major part of the economy. Over 80% of the world’s pineapples came from Hawaii, and a majority of the workers on the plantations were of Japanese ancestry. The internment of Japanese-Americans would have crippled the Hawaiian economy.

The Nisei found a champion to plead their case and affirm that they were loyal to the U.S. in the unlikely “spymaster of Hawaii,” Cecil Coggins. He helped draft a statement that declared, “To deprive us (Nisei) of the sacred rights to bear arms is contrary to the principles upon which American democracy is founded.”

What is it about a Jefferson education in the late 1920s (and even now) that allows a graduate such as Lt. Coggins to effortlessly transition from postgraduate residency training to being a skilled and highly valued naval intelligence officer

Keen observational skills and data interpretation skills are common to both medicine and naval intelligence. In medicine, such skills frequently lead to an accurate diagnosis, and in the clash of naval armadas, they may give one side a clear advantage. No better example exists than the “miracle” of the Battle of Midway in June 1942, when Cmdr. J.J. Rochefort and his staff broke the Japanese naval code and predicted a battle at Midway Island. The ensuing battle led to a decisive victory for the U.S. Navy that turned the tide of the war in the Pacific.

An ONI historian lauded Coggins as “a man who is considered one of the most colorful and unique personalities in the history of the Office of Naval Intelligence.” Yet although Coggins left an oral history, his definitive biography was never written.

A number of sources were of value in the writing of this article. “Ghosts of Honolulu,” a recently published book written by Mark Harmon and Leon Carroll, tells of the spies and counterspies present in Hawaii before and after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Two articles deserve mention: “Cecil Coggins and the War in the Shadows,” by Eugene Laforet, MD, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on April 25, 1980, and Coggins’ June 1943 article in Harper’s Magazine.

I did not have access to Cecil Coggins’ papers and correspondence; however, five boxes are kept at the Archives Branch, Naval History and Heritage Command.

I owe a special thanks to Fritz Ruccius, former senior vice president for development at Thomas Jefferson University, for his editing skills and encouragement. His idea was the impetus for this article.

James F. Lally, MD ’65, served as a Navy medical officer during the Vietnam War with the Marine Corps’ 3rd Medical Battalion and 9th Marine Regiment.