a hedge against Soviet aggression. Akashi eventually established networks through Europe too, that served the Black Dragons. The Black Dragons also formed close contact and even alliances with Buddhist sects throughout Asia. Japanese Official Radio, Radio Tokyo (NHK), sent its foreign transmissions, with some cover messages, to Japanese Doho agents outside Japan. Hiraya Amane – secret agent in Hankow, China. Wrote Zhong-guo Bi-mi She-hui Shi, the first true history of the Triads and other secret societies; this book was a special intelligence handbook. Hiraya also organized Tung Wen College in Shanghai that trained future agents for espionage in China. The Tung Wen would continue to operate until the end of World War II, training agents for operations throughout Asia. Marcelle Tao Kitazawa – agent in Australia, linked with Seita, who led a spy web in New Caledonia. This claim appears to have been debunked in an Axis History Forum entry by Dachhase on 13 October 2012. Agent Umeda – local agent in North Queensland, Australia. Kinoaki Matsuo – member of the ultra-nationalist Black Dragon secret society, and an officer in Japanese intelligence. Mitsuru Toyama – chief of Black Dragon Society, an active agent linked with Japanese Secret Service and Japanese outside agents. Shūmei Ōkawa – ultra-nationalist, agent instructor, and an agent in China and North Asia. [None of the "agent instructor" or "agent" claims are supported by the Wikipedia entry for Okawa dated 11 September 2017.] Yoshio Kodama – Japanese gangster and Yakuza chief, he set up a massive network of Manchurian spies and informants spread across China. Hideki Tojo – the Chief of the Imperial Japanese Army, Prime Minister and chief of the Kodoha Party; for a period chief of Kwantung Army and Kempeitai Intelligence service in Manchukuo. He also maintained during his military life direct control of the Japanese Secret Services (apart from the Emperor's command of such services) and received information first through his direct link with the Black Dragon Society and his own intelligence work with the Imperial Japanese Army during the conflict. Kōki Hirota – former Foreign Minister and head of the Black Dragons (also guided intelligence services in the group), discussed the advantages and consequences of a conflict with the United States with War Minister Hideki Tōjō. In a conference on August 26, 1941, at a session of the Black Dragon Society HQ in Tokyo, the War Minister ordered preparation to be made to