Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-09-16
By ROBERT BRUSKIN.

lbS name was lOkyO CiuD ana
the pay-off from its dice games
attracted thousands of the poor and
wealthy along the American Pacific
Coast.
But the name might just as well
have been Spies, Inc"
Gambling was the largest facet
of the manifold activities which
served as a cover for Japanese es-
pionage, sabotage and fifth column
activities in the United States be-
fore Pearl Harbor, a Government
source has told The Star.
The Tokyo Club syndicate, with
headquarters in Los Angeles, also
operated or controlled fishing fleets,
canneries, japanese labor organiza-
tons and clubs, legitimate and
illegitimate business of every kind
and description. 1t operated through
a maze of interlocking directorships.
Fatherland Society Active.
Another japanese organization
operat ting in the United States was
the SokakuKai (The Fatherland
Society. 1t was most concerned
about the welfare of japanese in
this country. particularly those
whose enthusiasm for the father
land Jagged. Sokaku-Kai saw to
it that the American japanese
were properly oriented with the
Tokyo point of view.
The foremost sponsor of Sokaku-
Kai was Mitsuru Toyama, one of
the founders of the Black Dragon
Society which was ordered abolished
last week by Gen. Macarthur
Toyama died last October. He had
spent most of his SO years urging
and preparing Japanese militarists
for expansion and he was frequently
involved in the assassination of
japanese liberal statesmen.
A second sponsor listed in the
organizations magazine, Home
land" was Yosuke Matsuoka, head
of the Japanese delegation to the
League of Nations before It walked
out, former Foreign Minister and
credited with being chiefly RESPONSE
BILE for Japanese adherence to the
tri-partite pact with Germany anG
Italy.
Message to Mussolini.
Five months before Pearl Harbor
MatSuoka was quoted in newspaper
dispatches as having informed Mus
solini that Japan would not remain
Indifferent in the face of American
aggression against the Axis"
Suspected of being a third sponsor
was Rychei Uchida, one of the orig
inal founders Of the Black Dragon
Society in 1901 with Toyama. He
was known to have specialized in
espionage against Siberia and Man
churia. Uchida was ordered ar
rected last week by Gen. Macarthur
as war criminal.
Both the Tokyo Club syndicate
and Sokaku-Kai operated in the
same manner as other espionage
fronts" established by the Black
Dragon Society, the source declared
with the said and connivery of JAP
anese Army and Navy officers anc
lnduStriallsts in areas marked fol-
Japanese aggression.
They were no different, he said
in their operation than the South
Seas Development Co. which boldly
conducted the business front fol
japanese espionage and fifth col.
umns in the Netherlands East Indies
Nor was it different from the NORTH
Chine Development Co. which pre-
pared the way for the conquest o
Manchuria, or the Central and South
Chine Development companies which
spied, bribed and corrupted to cas-
the path of conquest.
Ramifications Recognized.
So widely spread were the activi
ties of the Tokyo Club syndicat
and Sokaku-Kai along the Pacifi
Coast from Mexico to Alaska tina
1t may have been a determinin,
factor in the removal of all Japa
nese from the coast. The Govern
ment official declared that becaus
OF the ramifications of the two or
CARNATIONS it could only be assume,
that all Japanese clubs, citizens
leagues, labor organizations, bust
nesses, judo and gambling club
were being used for clandestine &C
| tivities.
Many of them, The Stars in
formant added, may have acted ii
the role of innocent bystanders
while their activities were bein
manipulated by members of tn
Black Dragon Society and Japanes
military or naval espionage agents
many of whom, he said, were know