Word: yakuza
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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What turned the heat on the sons of the samurai bandits was an unprecedented outbreak of warfare among the gangs. Six yakuza have been killed and 34 wounded since the first of the year in gun battles that terrorized whole communities. Worse, one innocent bystander and two police officers were wounded in gross violation of the ancient code. According to police undercover agents, the warfare erupted because of the waning health and authority of Crime Czar Kazuo Taoka, 64, leader of the 11,000-member Yamaguchi-gumi, the biggest yakuza gang in the country...
...flourish such illegal activities as gambling, prostitution and extortion. His estimated net revenues last year: $10 million. But Taoka, who is suffering from a heart condition, is no longer strong enough to prevent his fiery young lieutenants from trying to expand Yamaguchi-gumi power into territories held by rival yakuza. As the suspected aggressors in the internecine gangland warfare, Tao-ka's organization has been selected by police as their primary target in the cleanup. Says Seitaro Asanuma, director general of the National Police Agency: "Not until Yamaguchi-gumi is smashed to pieces will the nation accept the sincerity...
...brief periods. "But," admits Masaru Sawada, the policeman who commanded the operation, "kicking them endlessly in the seat of the pants didn't work." The sudden turn-around in public opinion just may. The citizens of Kobe have already held three mass demonstrations, chanting "Down with the yakuza!" Taoka's men, according to police, were stunned by such a massive outburst of hostility after years of public passivity. Some of them have even given up their lives of crime under the rising social pressure. To tempt the yakuza toward rehabilitation, Sawada is asking businessmen to hire repentant mobsters...
...have been summoning gang leaders to appear at the police station for tongue-lashings in an effort to shame them into giving up crime. "We are trying to change the waters the gangsters swim in," said a police officer. Perhaps the most devastating weapon the communities wield against the yakuza is social ostracism. Parents tell their children not to play with those of the gangsters; shop owners and wives snub the families of the yakuza...
...their part, the gangsters still seek to defend themselves as a traditional part of society. Speaking last week in the outskirts of Kobe under the eyes of police guards, one local gang boss out on bail defiantly described the yakuza as "lotus flowers on a sea of mud." Said he: "We're flotsam of society, but we're dedicated to our own code of honor at the cost of our own lives. If I as a boss didn't control my boys, the city would be worse off-call us a necessary social evil." Increasingly, it appears...