Yoshio Kodama

Who was Yoshio Kodama?

Yoshio Kodama was a prominent figure in the rise of organized crime in Japan. The most famous kuromaku, or behind-the-scenes power broker, of the 20th century, he was active in Japan's political arena and criminal underworld from the 1950s to the early 1970s.

Born in Nihonmatsu, Japan, Kodama lived with relatives in Japanese-occupied Korea early in his life, and during that time formed an ultranationalist group with the intent to assassinate various Japanese politicians. He was caught and served a prison term of three and a half years.

After his release, the Japanese government contracted Kodama to help move supplies for the Japanese war effort out of continental Asia and into Japan. He accomplished this through a network of allies he made during his time working in Korea as a youth. Kodama became involved in the drug trade at this time, moving opiates to Japan along with the supplies he was paid by the government to smuggle. He formed a vast network of allies and gained a fortune—more than $175 million U.S.— making him one of the richest men in Asia during this time.

At the end of World War II, Kodama was arrested by the United States as a Class A war criminal. He was held in Sugamo Prison with Ryoichi Sasakawa, where the two formed a long friendship. While locked up, he wrote his Sugamo Diary and I Was Defeated.