CIA papers reveal 1950s Japan coup plot

By JOSEPH COLEMAN,
Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 18 minutes ago

TOKYO - Declassified documents reveal that Japanese ultranationalists with ties to U.S. military intelligence plotted to overthrow the Japanese government and assassinate the prime minister in 1952.

The scheme — which was abandoned — was concocted by militarists and suspected war criminals who had worked for U.S. occupation authorities after World War II, according to
CIA records reviewed by The Associated Press. The plotters wanted a right-wing government that would rearm Japan.

The CIA files, declassified in 2005 and publicized by the U.S. National Archives in January, detail a plot to oust the pro-U.S. prime minister, Shigeru Yoshida, and install a more hawkish government led by Ichiro Hatoyama.

(snip)

According to the document, Hattori colleague Masanobu Tsuji talked the group out of the coup, urging it to focus instead on countering the Socialist Party. The files say the group then decided it would not stage a coup as long as Yoshida's conservative Liberal Party remained in power.

(more at link)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070228/ap_on_re_as/japan_assassination_plot

New Dealers who genuinely wanted to make Japan democratic and who put through some genuine reforms, such as allowing women to vote and instituting freedom of the press, once the Korean War started, the CIA called upon the war criminals and yakuza gangsters to suppress left-wing movements, especially the labor unions.

by Willim Triplett. He went to Japan in the 80s and connected the dots.
Great look at how our government worked with war criminals during and
after the US occupation.