1. he was being watched by Maritomi Mitsukado, a reporter for Juji Shimpo, who would always somehow find him in any bar or at any party and then ask a transparent question like: "Do you think this tyranny will last forever?" (Sorge: "What tyranny?");
   
   
2. his maid and laundryman were frequently questioned and tortured by police;
   
   
3. a woman he slept with (name lost) got up in the middle of the night and went through his pockets, finding nothing;
   
   
4. in bars and restaurants, even at the Imperial Hotel, he was constantly monitored by plainclothesmen of the Thought Police (sticking out of the careless crowd by being too focused on him);
   
   
5. his house was searched and his suitcase examined, during his absences;
   
   
6. most of all, it was a sense that he developed, a sense that someone's gaze was always at the nape of his neck, like a wart.

Sorge: "When you know you're being watched, you assume a role and play it, even when you sleep -- even when you dream. Most of my life I played Richard Sorge, and I was someone else, somewhere else. The ubiquitous surveillance makes everything look differently -- you see things through someone else's eyes. Everything is more present -- more real -- because you see nothing alone."