AP: CIA recruited Japanese war criminals

[deadparrot]

TOKYO - Col. Masanobu Tsuji was a fanatical Japanese militarist and brutal warrior, hunted after World War II for massacres of Chinese civilians and complicity in the Bataan Death March. And then he became a U.S. spy. Newly declassified CIA records, released by the U.S. National Archives and examined by The Associated Press, document more fully than ever how Tsuji and other suspected Japanese war criminals were recruited by U.S. intelligence in the early days of the Cold War. The documents also show how ineffective the effort was, in the CIA's view.

The records, declassified in 2005 and 2006 under an act of Congress in tandem with Nazi war crime-related files, fill in many of the blanks in the previously spotty documentation of the occupation authority's intelligence arm and its involvement with Japanese ultra-nationalists and war criminals, historians say.

In addition to Tsuji, who escaped Allied prosecution and was elected to parliament in the 1950s, conspicuous figures in U.S.-funded operations included mob boss and war profiteer Yoshio Kodama, and Takushiro Hattori, former private secretary to Hideki Tojo, the wartime prime minister hanged as a war criminal in 1948.

The CIA also cast a harsh eye on its counterparts — and institutional rivals — at G-2, the occupation's intelligence arm, providing evidence for the first time that the Japanese operatives often bilked gullible American patrons, passing on useless intelligence and using their U.S. ties to boost smuggling operations and further their efforts to resurrect a militarist Japan.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070224/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/japan_spies_and_war_crimes

[peacetalksforall]

1. This is disgustingly depressing. This country is so screwed up. Does

anyone think that the CIA doesn't gamble, deal, and steal by deception and using our taxes stupidly.

[Vidar]

2. The nazis in the CIA were apparently lonely.

[Mnemosyne]

3. My first thought also! n/t

[AnOhioan]

4. The CIA has along history employing and sheltering those

whose actions merited a jail cell.

[Turbineguy]

5. There was also some doctor

who made Dr. Mengele seem like a very kind man who would never hurt a fly.

[Canuckistanian]

8. That would be Dr. Shiro Ishii

In 1942, Ishii began field tests of germ warfare and weapons (firearms, bombs etc.) on Chinese soldiers and civilians. Tens of thousands died of bubonic plague, cholera, anthrax and other diseases. His unit also conducted physiological experiments such as vivisections, forced abortions, and simulated strokes and heart attacks.

~snip

In 1946, the U.S. began negotiating a secret deal with Ishii and Unit 731 leaders: immunity from war-crimes prosecution would be offered in exchange for germ warfare data based on human experimentation. The deal was concluded two years later.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiro_Ishii

And yet, to this day, Ishii remains an obscure figure, while Mengele is considered the true monster of WWII.

[MadHound]

6. This is nothing new,

The CIA refused to investigate the Rape of Nanking and other humanitarian disasters perpetrated by the the Japanese, as long as the US got all of their work and notes on biological and chemical warfare, including the experiments on live human. Communism was seen as the biggest threat, therefore the CIA was willing to recruit Nazis and Japanese who were familiar with the territory and who had the contacts. They were willing to forgive and forget all sorts of horrors, and even in the cases where other people, notably the Israelis, started tracking down these war criminals, the US and CIA would help them to safety, usually in Argentina or other friendly country.

Hell, our moon landing is based entirely on the V2 rocket project, one that was made possible by Nazi death camps and slave labor. America became seriously infected with this sort of fascism after WWII, and we've yet to get over it.

[Turbineguy]

9. But as you say,

Communism was the real enemy of the post WWII era. The fact that these crimes were sidelined must be laid at the door of the communists and added to their legacy. It was well known in the west in the 1920's that Stalin was turning Russia into a slaughterhouse and that Communists were spreading their (on the surface attactive) doctrine all over the world.

[MadHound]

11. No, this can't be laid at the door of communism

This was a US initiative, it was our choice. And frankly the fact that we undertook this act actually worked against us in Eastern Europe. I am certain that if there hadn't been the communists, some other excuse would have been found. We were dying to get a European intelligence network, not just for the sake of finding out more about Russia, but more about Europe also. And, after all, communism hasn't existed for over fifteen years now, yet the US intelligence and police state has grown by leaps and bounds.

Besides, by the best known count, the US protected as many, and probably more scientists, academics and other non-intelligence personel as they did German spies.

There is always a choice in such matters, and the US chose to protect war criminals.

[daleo]

12. It's like saying Saddam forced the U.S. to invade Iraq

You can't blame others for the evil you do.

[sg_]

7. Reminds me of the Unit 731 camp near Harbin, China

...the US let the people off the hook in exchange for the information the Japanese gathered from the human experiments they carried out there

more about it at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/correspondent/1796044.stm for anyone who cares

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. This book tells about the connections between war criminals and the

Yakuza gangsters.

The U.S. occupation turned the yakuza loose against the militant labor unions during the Korean War, because they were afraid the unions would refuse to load the ships bound for Korea.

http://www.amazon.com/Yakuza-Japans-Criminal-Underworld-Expanded/dp/0520215613/sr=8-3/qid=1172463110/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3/103-1270580-4105402?ie=UTF8&s=books

[La_Fourmi_Rouge]

13. Is ANYONE surprised??? n/t

[catgirl]

14. The book "Flowering of the Bamboo" tells the story

It's an excellent book written by William Triplett, published
in 1985. He did excellent investigative work-all before
anything was declassified. It's chilling and very disturbing, but
he uncovered some amazing information including coverups
with a direct trail to the CIA. I highly recommend this book.
There are some graphic photos of poisoned bank employees
that may cause nightmares. These people were used as guinea
pigs. The murderers were later hired by the US government to do
"research".