Black Dragon Society: Encyclopedia - Black Dragon Society

Black Dragon Society

The Black Dragon Society (黒竜会, kokuryūkai^?) was a prominent paramilitary, ultra-nationalist right-wing group in Japan. Its name is derived from the Amur River, called Heilongjiang or "Black Dragon River" in Chinese (黑龍江 ^?), read as Kokuryū-kō in Japanese. It was founded in 1901 by Ryohei Uchida, and was descended from the Gen'yōsha, or Dark Ocean Society. (Uchida was a follower of Dark Ocean founder Mitsuru Toyama.)

Prior to World War I and World War II, the Black Dragons were infamous for their espionage, sabotage and assassination practices in Japan, China, Russia, Manchuria and Korea. The group, with others like it, helped set the stage for future yakuza organizations.

The collapse of Japan's democratic government in the 1920s could possibly be attributed to the aggressive approaches practiced by these patriotic societies. Furthermore, some argue that the involvement of the Kokuryūkai was of paramount importance in leading Japan into the Pacific War (1937 - 1945), especially in regard to Second Sino-Japanese War.

See:

• Satokata Takahashi
• Black Dragon's Dojo: Shihan G.J. Torres

Black Dragon Society - External references

• Black Dragon Society
• 1914 Black Dragon statement

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Black Dragon Society", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki