Seizo Arisue

Arisue Seizo (1895 – 1992) was a lieutenant general in the Imperial Japanese Army who headed its intelligence department in 1945, and was part of U.S. anticommunist activities after the war. He was considered as a possible war criminal, but was not indicted, possibly due to his support of U.S. postwar programs.

WWII

• Military attache to Italy, 1939
• Chief of Military Affairs Section, Military Affairs Bureau, Ministry of War,1939-1941
• Chief of 4th Section, Northern China Area Army, 1941
• Vice Chief of Staff Northern China Area Army, 1941
• Imperial General Headquarters, 1942-1945
• Intelligence department head, 1945

Postwar

The key individual in the "undergrounds" was Lieutenant General , chief of the intelligence department at Imperial General Headquarters at the end of the war. Shortly before the end of the war, Arisue began collecting intelligence documents to use as a bargaining chip with the Occupation.

SCAP sentiment toward Arisue was mixed, and officers outside G-2 considered indicting Arisue as a Class A war criminal. Willoughby, however, had met and liked Lieutenant General Kawabe Torashiro who had been head of intelligence for the Kwantung Army, military attaché to Berlin, deputy chief of staff for Imperial GHQ, and the leader of the surrender delegation to Manila.

Willoughby asked Arisue, in September 1945, to set up a domestic intelligence network to warn of a potential Communist coup. Ironically, Willoughby was unaware that Arisue and some of his associates, at various times, considered right-wing coups against the Japanese government.