The Lockheed Corp.Scandal involved With The Japanese Yakuza In mid 70's..

Yoshio Kodama was born in 1911 and grew up in a poor family and spent most of his childhood living with relatives in Korea.At the early age Kodama showed much interest
in politics and at age 21 started his own rightwing ultra nationalist political group,the main objective of his group was to assassinate the Prime minister and top cabinet ministers.Before his group could do this however Kodama's plans were discovered and he was arrested and imprisoned for 3 & half years.

When Kodama got out he strated working for the same Goverment he wanted to kill as an espionage agent.Kodama maintained an extensive network of spies throughout Asia.He saw to it that countless shipments of nikle,cobalt,copper and randium were on their way to Japan,all to strenghten Japan in the War.Kodama did'nt totally play by the rules,along with the normal shipments he shipped heroin.

After his work he was awarded the title of Rear Admiral by the Japanese Goverment and when the war ended Kodama was worth an estimated 175million$...Despite all that money he was in big trouble,after the war he was branded as a war criminal by the Allied Powers and was sentenced to serve another two years in jail.After those two years had passed he was released on a general amnesty

Out of prison he started working for the G-2 section of the Allied forces and The'Yakuza'.Kodama supplied Yakuza muscle to take out orders by the Political Party and allied power to organize a truce between the several warring Yakuza Clans.He made an alliance between the Kazuo Taoka boss of the Yamaguchi Gumi and Hisayaki 'Machii' a Korean boss in charge of the Tosei kai,after the truce was made Kodoma was looked upon as the Underworld's visionary's Godfather and made peace between several other warring Yakuza Clans.


In the mid 70's kodama used his power to give 'Lockheed Martin Corporation' in on the Japanese market.Kodama in return for 2.1million$ bribe,discredited an ANA president who resigned and therfor made way for Lockheed Martin.It became a Big scandal when the truth came out and Kodama's name was dragged through the mud.While awaiting trial He suffered a stroke and in Jan 1984 He died peacefully.He is still looked at as the Big Peacemaker of the Japanese Underworld..

Yoshinori Watanabe,the present day Boss of the Yamaguchi Gumi.When he swept to power in the early 90's the Clan had offices in 39 of Japans prefectures,Today that's up to 43 from the total of 49.At the same time Watanabe added 5000 full time men to the Clan,by 1999 according to police statistics the Yamaguchi Gumi had a staggering '165,000' full time members more than 5 times the number of the entire American Mafia at it's peak in the 1950's.

"If a gang of young thugs turn up and starts causing trouble,the Yakuza will go and sort them out,because it's bad for business" says Ichiro Sendo,a former mid ranking Yamaguchi boss who once worked under Watanabe,"But if the Yakuza are gone who'll be there to make sure punks don't terrorize ordinary people? the Police..?? I wouldnt count on it" he says....in Kobe...