Sugamo Prison /

Sugamo Prison (Sugamo Kōchi-sho, Kyūjitai: 巢鴨拘置所, Shinjitai: 巣鴨拘置所) was located in the district of Ikebukuro, which is now part of the Toshima ward of Tokyo, Japan Sugamo Prison was originally built in the 1920s for political prisoners, using the prisons of Europe as a model. It housed many communists and other dissenters who fell afoul of the Peace Preservation Laws in the 1930s and 1940s. The Allied spies were also incarcerated there, including Richard Sorge who was hanged in the prison on November 7, 1944. The prison was not damaged during the bombing of Tokyo during World War II, and the Allied occupation forces took it over during the occupation of Japan to house suspected war criminals as they awaited trial before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. After the conclusion of the trials, Sugamo Prison was used to incarcerate some of the convicted and was the site of the execution of seven inmates those sentenced to death by hanging on December 23, 1948. The original compound was only 2.43 hectares (approximately 6 acres) in size. The construction of exterior fencing expanded the facility to double the original size. The facility was operated by the United