Japanese Spies over the Border in Tijuana
What we know, what is false, and what is still classified
In 1940, the Molino Rojo was a bar, a dance hall, a whorehouse, and, it seemed, a den of spies.
Many of the customers were Americans, who simply walked across the border at Tijuana and strolled the three blocks down the Avenida Revolución to have a wild night of entertainment. Many of the Americans had heard of the place because they had seen the man leading a donkey with a Molino Rojo logo walking through downtown San Diego. Other advertising was equally effective, such as the one that touted the charms of “the Moulin Rouge of Tijuana.”
The Molino Rojo in Tijuana in the 1920s.
Books and newspaper articles from the early 1940s tell breathless stories about “the Molino Rojo, the Den of Spies.” The owner, a Mexican of Japanese extraction named So Yasuhara, was apparently so important that when a Japanese navy ship came to San Diego, the officers of the ship would “get into their best dress uniforms, cross the border, and pay homage with deep bows.”
The contemporary accounts also discuss that Germans would also frequent the Molino Rojo, where they met various Japanese officers and traded espionage information. The Mexican fascists, the “Gold Shirts,” also attended meetings there. Many of these Mexican fascists had apparently served under Pancho Villa, and knew Villa’s Japanese doctors.
Molino Rojo, being right over the border, was perfectly located for espionage. It was just 15 miles from the San Diego navy base. It was therefore easy for a Japanese agent in the US to cross the border, drop off stolen documents, and then Yasuhara or his men could easily give the documents to a visiting Japanese ship captain to take to Japan. Yasuhara had the customs agents in Tijuana on his bribery payroll, so had no problem at all getting secret information or even cargo on ships.
A sign from the Molino Rojo not long before it was torn down in the 1980s.
Or maybe, none of this is true. The California books and newspapers of the 1940s were full of hysterical accounts of Japanese spies and saboteurs in California and Mexico. Most of these stories ooze racist sentiments, and many are clearly false. For example, there was a story about dozens of Japanese planes, hiding in Baja California, that were about to suicide attack the US fleet in San Diego. I mentioned this story to some Japanese historians who almost fell over with laughter at how ridiculous that idea was.
The source documents I used for my book, Beverly Hills Spy, mention the Molino Rojo a few times. If nothing else, it seems clear it was a place for espionage information to be exchanged. But is there proof there was German espionage there? What exactly happened? You would think, we might never know!
But then, when I checked with the FBI and national archives, guess what? There IS an FBI file. And, three years ago, the kind officer at NARA told me they can declassify it for me. He said that, since the file is under 100 pages, it can be put on their tier 1 schedule, and I will get it as soon as they get through their declassification process, which will take roughly three years.
Since it's been three years, I checked in with them this week. The reply was, “there are approximately 698 cases ahead of yours and we are currently processing requests received in March 2018.” There are lots of reasons why FBI declassification takes a long time; normally the archives prioritize requests from people who need files to prove they are eligible for a pension.
It sounds like it will be another couple of years until this file is actually declassified, so none of it will make it into the book. But, when it's available, I’ll be overjoyed to find out what really was going on at the Molino Rojo.
Ronald Drabkin is the author of Beverly Hills Spy, which will be published by HarperCollins in February 2024.