Some of the most interesting persons in history are often forgotten. One of them was Harukichi Shimoi. A Japanese national born on October 20, 1883. He was born in to the noble Samurai Inoue Clan, but for some reason took his wifes surname when they got married in 1907. A few years later Shimoi moved to Naples to study Dante, and eventually became a teacher in the Naples Eastern University. In 1917 he decided to join the Royal Italian Army and fight in the war, eventually joining the Arditi, an elite trench raiding unit. During his service in the Italian Army, he was very well liked by his Italian comrades, and taught some of them the art of Karate. He participated in the Second Battle of the Piave River and in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto, where the Italian forces were victorious.
He became involved in intelligence work after the war and lived briefly in Fiume. He had met the poet and ruler of the Impresa di Fiume, Gabriele D’Annunzio, during the summer of 1918. During this time he was also introduced to Benito Mussolini, and acted as a liason and a courier between Mussolini and D’Annunzio. During his stay in the short lived city-state, he was nicknamed “the Samurai of Fiume”, by his friend D’Annunzio. In February of 1920, he helped D’Annunzio to organize a flight expedition from Rome to Tokyo, which was completed in the end of May the same year.…
