29 Facts About Yoshio Kodama

Yoshio Kodama was a Japanese right-wing ultranationalist and a prominent figure in the rise of organized crime in Japan.

Yoshio Kodama was born on February 18,1911, in Nihonmatsu, Fukushima, Japan, to a family formerly of samurai status.

Yoshio Kodama was treated badly, suffered from isolation and had to work in a steel mill.

In 1931, Yoshio Kodama was imprisoned again for his role in the "Diet Pamphlet Distribution Case".

In 1933, Yoshio Kodama formed his own ultranationalist group called the Independent Youth Society, which planned to assassinate various Japanese politicians.

In 1934, Yoshio Kodama was involved in the planning of an assassination attempt on Prime Minister Saito Makoto.

Yoshio Kodama's plot was uncovered, the attack was prevented by the Japanese police and Yoshio Kodama was arrested.

Yoshio Kodama served a prison term of three and half years.

Yoshio Kodama was released from Fuchu prison at the instigation of Doihara, by this time promoted to major general, just prior to the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in April 1937.

Yoshio Kodama is said to have distributed opium and narcotics.

Yoshio Kodama publicly regarded this activity as purely idealistic and patriotic.

Since Yoshio Kodama feared the confiscation of his property by the US occupation authorities, he gave parts of it to the yakuza chief Karoku Tsuji.

In March 1946, Yoshio Kodama was arrested by the United States as a suspected Class A war criminal.

Yoshio Kodama was held in Sugamo Prison with Ryoichi Sasakawa, where the two formed a long friendship.

Yoshio Kodama formed a close relationship with fellow suspected Class-A war criminal Nobusuke Kishi.

Since he had a lot of time, Yoshio Kodama was able to keep himself up to date on current events and far-reaching political changes in East Asia in all available daily newspapers.

Yoshio Kodama spent a total of six and a half years of his life in prisons.

Yoshio Kodama, being a right-wing ultranationalist, eagerly fulfilled his end of the bargain, using his fortune and network of contacts to quell labor disputes, root out Communist sympathizers and otherwise fight socialist activities in Japan.

In 1949 Yoshio Kodama led the Meiraki-gumi gang against labor unions at the Hokutan coal mine.

Yoshio Kodama began to use the fortune he had accumulated in China and subsequently hidden, which supposedly amounted to 70 million yen, to covertly influence electoral politics in postwar Japan.

Yoshio Kodama obliged, using his right-wing connections to prepare a "Welcoming Ike to Japan Mobilization Plan" which he claimed would be able to put nearly 150,000 young rightists on the streets in order to "protect" President Eisenhower from left-wing protesters.

In 1963, Yoshio Kodama attempted to form a coalition of Japan's organized crime groups.

Yoshio Kodama was able to grow his fortune until the mid-1970s.

Yoshio Kodama owned shares in Hisayuki Machii's Ginza nightclub empire, a shipping company, a baseball team, a film studio, and several sports magazines.

Yoshio Kodama maintained close relations with LDP politicians, such as the yakuza-connected LDP Vice President Banboku Ono, and his influence did not suffer until he was identified as the key kuromaku in the Lockheed Corporation bribery scandal.

Yoshio Kodama had been a paid agent of Lockheed since 1958 and received $US7 million for his help in arranging the TriStar aircraft deal.

Yoshio Kodama was recovering from a stroke at the time.

Yoshio Kodama died in his sleep of a stroke in Tokyo on January 17,1984.

In 1940, Yoshio Kodama married his second wife, Sayoko, with whom he had two children, a son and a daughter.