On January 15, 1975, he finally made his professional wrestling debut, working under his real name early on in his career.

[8] On June 5, 1985, Magic Dragon was unmasked after he lost a match to Kuniaki Kobayashi, allowing him to work as "Haru Sonoda" after the mask loss.

Sonada and his wife were passengers on the South African Airways Flight 295 that crashed near the island of Mauritius after a fire on board the plane.

Giant Baba has said he regretted sending Sonoda to South Africa for the rest of his life, and visibly cried in the ring during his memorial show.

In November 2016, Atsushi Onita and Masanobu Fuchi dedicated their All Asia Tag Team Championship win to Sonoda, whom they trained together in the AJPW Dojo in the 1970s.