Editorial: Legalizing bribery
Lakeland Ledger
May 30, 1981
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ISGP NOTE: Yoshio Kodama was a Black Dragon Society terrorist and war criminal before World War II, after the war recruited by the CIA. Together with Yoshio Kodama he became a dominant player in the yakuza and the all-powerful (for about 50 years) Liberal Demoratic Party. Kodama also was the key Lockheed lobbyist in Japan.
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Mitsuyasu Maeno donned the headband and uniform of the Japanese Imperial Army, crawled aboard a rented Piper Cherokee, cried out “long live the emperor,” and steered the craft solidly onto the veranda of Yoshio Kodama. …The modern-day kamikaze dive-bomber gave his life to protest, if not to propiate, American corporate sin. But his target, Yoshio Kodama, was not having tea on his veranda that day and escaped death…
This was not the only example of American corporate derringdo with bizarre and tragic results. Some others:
(1) Eli Black, a former rabbinical student, in February of 1975 smashed out the window of his skyscraper office in Manhattan, tossed out his briefcase, and then leaped to his own death. He was president of United Brands, shortly to be exposed for paying $2.5 million in bribes.
(2) Robert N. Waters, treasurer of Lockheed, in mid-1975 was found shot to death – an apparent suicide – on the eve of congressional probe of massive Lockheed bribery.
(3) Mitsuhiro Shimada, head of Japan’s sixth largest trading firm, jumped to his death from his office in central Tokyo in February 1979. He had been questioned for days about payoffs by Grumman to sell aircraft to Japan.
Actor Tries Kamikaze Attack On Lockheed Lobbyist's Home
Observer-Reporter
March 24, 1976
A young actor in a World War II Kamikaze uniform deliberately crashed his light plane into the home of Yoshio Kodama in an attempt to kill the powerful lobbyist named in Lockheed payoffs, police said Tuesday. ...
Police said [Mitsuyasu] Maeno had been critical of Kodama, to whom Lockheed says it paid more than $7 million to promote aircraft sales in Japan...
The [other] eight charged [internationally] included Italy's former air force chief of staff, Gen. Duilio Fanali, millionaire industrialist Camillo Crociani and the Lefevbre brothers, two of Rome's best known lawyers.