Tokyo Underworld: The fast times and hard life of an American Gangster in Japan by Robert Whiting

Tokyo Underworld: The fast times and hard life of an American Gangster in Japan Reviews

• 
  Krycek

  Quick-- what do gangsters, the U.S. Army, professional wrestling, the CIA, the LDP, the military/industrial complex, TV, pachinko and pizza have in common? If you said, "the post-war Japanese underground economy" then you have either read this book or are an extremely abstract thinker. Robert Whiting's Tokyo Underworld: The Fast Times and Hard Life of an American Gangster in Japan places Japan's post-WWII economic recovery in a whole new light. Witness to this recovery and subsequent reversal in economic power is Nick Zappetti, a former GI and would-be mobster turned pizza restaurateur. While introducing Italian-syle pizza to the Land of the Rising Sun, Zappetti hobnobbed with scores of shady characters who matched his own shady proclivities.
  
  Zappetti lived a colorful life in Japan. First arriving in Japan as part of the US Occupation forces, he took advantage of the thriving black market before opening a pizza joint in Roppongi that became the go-to place for expats and yakuza alike. The fact that Zappetti himself had Mafia ties back in New York (at least he claimed) gave him street-cred. His unceasing shrewdness, cunning and willingness to engage in business ventures for which he had no qualifications or experience (eg., making pizzas, pig farming, etc.) in anticipation of the quick buck eventually paid off, making him one of the wealthiest, if not the wealthiest gaijin in Japan.
  
  But Zappetti's associates and acquaintances were equally as colorful and Whiting sketches these characters with subtle wit. Really, there was little more Whiting had to do to make these guys interesting. Check it out. 
  
  Rikidozan: the former sumo turned professional wrestling superstar who hid his Korean heritage from Japanese prejudice while he painted the town red in booze-and-pill fueled partying binges, shouting insults he had learned in English, like kokkusakka and kommi basutado.
  
  Hisayuki Machii: the 6'2" 200 pound mob boss known for killing two men with his bare hands and who once worked for American intelligence. Like Rikidozan, he also was an ethnic Korean in a Japan that still marginalized Koreans.
  
  John "Gorgeous Mac" MacFarland: the "Wild Bull of Nebraska," a big American lug who played the role of villain in the pro-wrestling circuit and was later involved in an ill-fated diamond heist. He was known for bizarre lapses in sanity and unusual sexual tastes.
  
  See? You can't make this stuff up. Whiting's account of Japanese gangsters bears little resemblance to the slick, stoic, tattooed yakuza we see in American films. These guys had a sense of honor, no doubt, and were super-tough (imagine taking fifty-three stitches sans anesthetic, or facing a sword-wielding opponent while unarmed). These guys were crazy. And they paid the price for their lifestyles.
  

  
  They were all in notoriously bad health, with toneless bodies and wan complexions caused by a steady morning-to-night diet of cheap sake, unfiltered cigarettes, and methamphetamines. Many of them suffered from diabetes and thy talked incessantly of of treatments for tooth cavities and hemorrhoids…
  

  
  Hardly a glamorous picture. The modus operandi of Japanese gangsters changed later, however, to more "white-collar" crime as Japan's economic fortune made a reversal in the '80s. 
  
  While the antics of Zappetti et al feature prominently, the subtitle, The Fast Times and Hard Life of an American Gangster in Japan, is somewhat misleading because the greater narrative is less on Zappetti's life than Japan's post-war economic life and the hidden factors that contributed to its remarkable development. Whiting gives us a view of post-war Japanese  economic development that Japanese leaders are probably not willing to readily admit; that a great deal of the economic development was due in no small part to a lucrative underground economy, the players in which were organized crime groups, the CIA, Japanese big business and the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan's conservative political party, despite its name).
  
  Being one of the Cold War era bulwarks against communism, the CIA heavily funded money to the LDP, who, in turn, utilized its extensive underworld connections (A quote from Jiro Ode, president of a finance company, "the Yakuza are part of the LDP. It is a relationship of mutual help, friendship, cooperation, and support. There are no straight lines, nothing dividing them. Everyone is gray.").
  
  However, despite the fact that corruption played an integral role in post-war development, and it could be said that this corruption is just part of doing business in Japan, it is important to note that Western concepts of "corruption" and customary Japanese practices and concepts of "gift giving" and "harmony" are often at odds as Japan faced inevitable cultural shifts in the latter part of the twentieth century. Neither the US nor Japan were completely free from blame. Tokyo Underworld made it apparent that cultural misunderstandings and ignorance go both ways.
  
  Whiting's history of post-WWII Japan is an eye-opening and entertaining account, well-researched and something that most students of Asia, economics or social sciences are not likely to encounter elsewhere. While casual readers might find some of the bits that focus on the greater political and economic areas tedious, I think Zappetti's story, as well as the others that feature, more than makes up for that.
  
• 
  Katherine 黄爱芬

  Saat awal membaca buku ini, saya hampir tidak merasa bhw buku ini ttg biografi seorang gangster peranakan Italia yg berkebangsaan AS. Tetapi makin dibaca makin lanjut semakin menarik.
  
  Gangster tsb bernama Nicola Zapetti yg saat pertama kalinya menginjak Jepang pd thn 1946 dia msh berusia awal 20-an. Bermula sbg pedagang penyelundup barang-barang dari AS pd Masa Pendudukan, berkolusi utk mencuri berlian yg menyebabkan dirinya masuk penjara, dan setelah keluar dr penjara, Nic sukses mendirikan restoran pizza "Nicola's" yg mutakhir dan dikunjungi para selebritis dunia.
  
  Bagaikan roda berputar, begitu pula jalan kehidupan Nic. Saat di puncak kesuksesannya, Nic yg sudah berteman akrab dgn dunia bawah tanah alias geng-geng kriminal Jepang, sampai Nic sendiri dijuluki Raja Roppongi. Namun menjelang di usia tuanya, Nic terjebak hutang maha besar, yg mengakibatkan dirinya diperdaya oleh perusahaan besar Jepang, kalah sidang berturut-turut, mengakibatkan penurunan kesehatan dirinya. Faktor paling menyakitkan adalah Nic merasa "dirampok" oleh bangsa Jepang dan harga dirinya yg tinggi serta arogansinya yg luar biasa menyebabkan Nic tidak bisa menerima perubahan zaman yg terjadi termasuk pula perubahan fisiknya.
  
  Selain kisah Nicola Zapetti, di buku ini juga banyak diceritakan tokoh-tokoh sentral era pascaperang yg kondang (semacam biografi singkat) seperti Thomas Blackmore, Rikidozan, Kakuei Tanaka, dll. Jadi kita banyak mendapat informasi mengenai keadaan dan situasi masyarakat Jepang setelah Perang Dunia II sampai dengan era pre-Millennium termasuk sikap xenophobia bangsa Jepang terhadap bangsa asing.
  
  Selain itu modus operandi para yakuza dari zaman ke zaman juga diceritakan lumayan detail dan ironis saat perbandingan yakuza era 60-an dgn era 80-an. Skandal politik yg mewarnai sayap kanan partai LDP dari masa ke masa itu juga dikemas apik dari soal skandal suap, korupsi, pembelian jabatan, pemenangan proyek dsb.
  
  Saya puas dan tidak menyesal telah membeli buku ini pd thn 2010 dan baru membacanya 7 thn kemudian. Tidak ada kata terlambat utk membaca buku yg bagus.
• 
  David Bonesteel

  The sub-title of Robert Whiting's fine book is a bit misleading. The American gangster in question often disappears from the narrative for long stretches while Whiting explains the long history of collusion between Japanese politicians and the yakuza. Nevertheless, the result is a fascinating social history with plenty of entertaining anecdotes and colorful character profiles. Chief among the latter are Nick Zapetti himself, the "gangster" who made a fortune with pizza parlors that became the hangout of choice for expatriates, entertainers, and, most significantly, those who make their living on the wrong side of the law, and then lost that fortune through a combination of stubbornness, bad luck, and ignorance. Another highlight is the career of Rikidozan, the former sumo wrestler who became a national hero and single-handedly established professional wrestling in Japan by defeating foreign wrestlers in scripted bouts, all the while hiding his Korean heritage. Often very funny, this book appeals to both a taste for the prurient and seamy and the desire for a serious, even-handed analysis of the role of organized crime, political selfishness, and short-sighted anti-Communism in Japan's rise to power and wealth.
• 
  Kevin Farrell

  Robert Whiting is uniquely qualified to write about this bit of history. He has lived in Japan for years and writes a column for a Japanese language newspaper. He knows the language and the people better than most Gaijan in Japan.
  
  Start this book and you will find yourself falling into an odd recipe of US Occupation forces, ancient Japanese culture, and ex-US Military mobsters who see a profit in this madness called Tokyo. Throw it all in the blender and hit frappe and you get what happened to business and finance in Japan following WWII. The story is amazing and clearly told by Whiting.
  
  To understand the Japanese perspective, Whiting educates us about the need for competing gangs who operate black markets and help businesses out with the occasional blackmail of competitors. Such activities, we are assured, help to eliminate "confusion" in the marketplace. By confusion, the Japanese usually mean any foreign competitor who offers goods or services at a lower prices than the local source. The Japanese business owners go to great lengths to avoid "confusion".
  
  You just have to read this slickly written piece of history to understand how things really work in Japan. And how some outsiders learned to work inside Japan to make millions.
• 
  Joichi Ito

  Amusing and relatively accurate story about how post-war Japan was built by the CIA, gangsters and professional wrestlers.
• 
  Thomas

  I don't really give this book two stars because it's a BAD book, I'm just not convinced that it really concerns a gangster. I may be nitpicking, but this felt more like a garden-variety criminal, really. It's pushing it to put this on my Japanese Mob shelf. It's an interesting enough book, however, and those interested in the American expatriate experience in Japan will no doubt like it. But I was looking for something about "An American Gangster in Japan," and I didn't really feel like this was that.
• 
  Ian Cook Westgate

  This book struggled to hold my interest. A strong focus on the experience of American criminal empires in Japan when I was looking for a book specifically about the Japanese yakuza did not help. That being said, if American crime in Japan since WWII is of interest to you, then this is probably a 4-star book. I am not interested in that subject at this time.
• 
  Laurel

  Organised criminal organisations, the US military, and the LDP come together over pizza, pachinko, and professional wrestling to contribute to the remarkable recovery of the post-war Japanese economy. Definitely fascinating, especially for crime or history nerds, but the title felt misleading in that Nicola Zappetti (the eponymous American Gangster) is frequently not connected to the primary underworld activities, being more a fringe player. Nevertheless, he was enmeshed with other major figures and acts as a great vantage point for the era.
• 
  James

  Those who are avoiding the US election news should skip this book, since, like a rancid cheeto, Trump shows up as a partner or patsy for Japanese mobsters. Other US figures include Nixon and Prescott Bush.
  
  The GR description is pretty complete so I will not add much notes on the content. My first comment is read the acknowledgements an notes in the back, they add depth to the book, don't skip them. The amount of corruption going on in the book seems horrifying if you haven't read much about down and dirty politics, this was going on in the US when I was young. Read up on
  Frank Hague or the
  Tweed Ring as an example of traditional American machine politics. The violence shown by the Japanese gangs may be less than these bad boys. The US still has corruption but not to the extent of 60+ years ago.
  
  For aspiring fiction writers, the bizarre life stories of some of these yahoos might provide some inspiration and help prevent the dreaded villianus mechaniaus, for further fodder along these lines you can read
  Speed Tribes: Days and Night's with Japan's Next Generation among a few others, most of this info doesn't make it to the US, so the online Japanese news sites can provide you with the current payoff scandal of the month. If you a video oriented sort of person Pigs and Battleships is part of the Criterion collection or you can watch one of the countless Takeshi yakuza films.
  
  An engrossing read, don't start it late at night.
• 
  Ben

  Wow
  
  Tokyo Underworld was a thrilling read that transported me straight into the seedy underbelly of Japan's gangster scene.
  
  The author, Robert Whiting, is a master storyteller who weaves together a complex web of crime, politics, and culture with ease. From the rise of notorious gangster Nick Zappetti to the Yakuza's influence over Japan's entertainment industry, every chapter is filled with gripping anecdotes that kept me turning the pages.
  
  What I appreciated most about this book was Whiting's ability to provide a nuanced view of Japan's criminal underworld.
  Rather than simply glorifying or demonizing the gangsters, he delves into their motivations, fears, and contradictions, painting a complex portrait of these larger-than-life characters.
  I also appreciated the historical context that Whiting provides, particularly in terms of post-World War II Japan and its relationship with the United States.
  
  While some readers might find the book a bit dense with information, I found it to be a fascinating deep dive into a world that I knew very little about.
  
  I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Japan's history, culture, or crime stories.
  
  3.9/5
• 
  S.

  one of two English-language Yakuza books to be "accidentally" written; this other is [[book: Confessions of a Yakuza]]; Whiting went to Tokyo to write a general history of organized crime and instead ended up meeting the American Yak, Zappetti, who arrived in Japan with the Occupation forces and chose to stay.
  
  1945 Japan - 1960s being a time of rebuilding, when an adventuruous non-unversity-educated American could make something of himself; and indeed Zappetti built a business empire of sorts, but ending up with only one restaurant.
  
  a piece of historica, a piece of the vernacular. one understands early post-war Japan through this account better.
• 
  Rinja

  From the standpoint of a history nerd (especially one who specialized in Japanese history), this book is simply awesome. Even though it's a historical read bordering on biography, Whiting does a fabulous job of making this read almost like fiction. Great subject matter explored in this book; I'm a huge fan of cultural comparisons, and this is how it should be done. I found this to be a fascinating read, from cover to cover.
• 
  Adam

  Sayonara, Nick-san.
• 
  Iain

  "A fascinating look at some fascinating people who show how democracy advances hand in hand with crime in Japan."--Mario Puzo
  
  Robert Whiting writes a riveting tale of corruption in Tokyo Underworld: The Fast Times and Hard Life of an American Gangster in Japan. Nick Zappetti, a former GI, former black marketer, failed professional wrestler, bungling diamond thief who turned himself into "the Mafia boss of Tokyo and the king of Rappongi,"is the perfect protagonist for a book about Japan to explain Japan to the outside world. From the days of American occupation and a flattened Tokyo to the rise of Japanese bubble economy and a city of skyscrapers with a bursting attitude of arrogant elitism. Zappetti goes through it all. Then you have Rikidozan, the professional wrestler who almost single-handedly revived Japanese pride, but whose own ethnicity had to be kept secret. Another fascinating character is Yoshio Kodama, a pardoned Class-A war criminal, ultra-right wing politician and well-known Yakuza once referred to himself as "the worlds richest fascist." The most famous kuromaku, or behind-the-scenes power broker, of the 20th century, he was active in Japan's political arena and criminal underworld from the 1930s to the 1970s, and became enormously wealthy through his involvement in smuggling operations. In the 1970s, it came to light that Kodama had played a role in the Lockheed L-1011 bribery scandal, which effectively ended his career as a right-wing fixer. This is the story of the intimate relationships shared by Japan's ruling party, its financial combines, its ruthless criminal gangs, the CIA, American Big Business, and perhaps at least one presidential relative. Here is the underside of postwar Japan, which is only now coming to light. It is a brilliant reading of the underside of Japanese society.
• 
  Jacob Markrof

  The Roppongi Social Club, or How to Lose a Billion Dollars
  
  The first one hundred pages of this book read like a Scorsese movie. There were drugs, sex, violence, organized crime, loads of yen, and young entrepreneurs willing to take big risks. But then the book became a hodgepodge of stories, lawsuits, and anecdotes stretching over forty-plus years. I really enjoyed hearing the tale of a New York Italian native making it good in a post-war Tokyo thread through a history of the Yakuza underworld in the Roppongi district of Tokyo, Japan. And I understand it was necessary to hear his complete tale, from enterprising black market upstart to sick old racist downfall, but from the back cover blurb I expected a more focused look into that post-war Tokyo from the late 40's through the early 70's. There was just so much content covered in the 300 pages that I was often re-reading sections because so many new people, places, criminal organizations, etc were being introduced on each page. It was a rapid influx of information, a crash course in Japanese history that often echoed through my day long after I was done reading.
  
  Here in the 2020's we have this stereotyped vision of who the Yakuza are, what they should look like and how they should act by the countless portrayals across many forms of media (and the same could be said for the American/Italian Mafia). This book gave a fresh and insightful look at the real people, the pale amphetamine and pizza addicts with missing pinkies that were pulling fast ones on the public to make quick fistfuls of yen. As the mantra of the book was often repeated, it was a different time.
  
  
• 
  Oz

  I wanted to like this more as I am admittedly Japan-obsessed and a big fan of true crime.
  
  There are some gems here - some wild characters and a few crazy crime stories, but ultimately the book doesn't really deliver on what was advertised (at least not in my opinion).
  
  The parts focusing on the "American Gangster in Tokyo" tend to be entertaining, and there are even a few more "side characters", if you will, that are even more fascinating....but they weave in and out of the book, dropping off often and being replaced with anecdotes of crimes that seem so white collar that they barely deserve the term crime at all. So much are little descriptions of some corporate espionage through information gathering via prostitutes or little side business deals that shortcut past needed certifications...yawn-inducing stuff.
  
  If you really love Japan and are interested in some post WW2 corruption, give this one a read BUT if you are looking for something a little more thrilling, may I suggest the book "Tokyo Vice".
• 
  Nick

  Tokyo Underworld is not written as well as other books on Japan, it sources are questionable and probably not completely reliable, the stories and anecdotes are sensationalized, and the information included is highly selective. However, Whiting's history of Japan from 1945 to 1994 through the eyes of an American (probably not a gangster, but perhaps something of what would be considered an "associate") is one of the better books about this period of Japanese history. Many of the characters and events described by Whiting are glossed over in other histories of Japan, but the weakness of more conventional histories is that they tend to be more balanced and gloss over the fun parts of history to cover major political and economic milestones. In not bothering to achieve any sort of balance, Whiting's history fills in the gaps of professional historians and political scientist.
  
  Tokyo Underworld will be more engaging to people that have visited Tokyo, particularly Roppongi, but with the popularity of Tokyo Vice I hope that people find this book, and perhaps that HBO makes a mini series. Zappetti's story leads directly into the events of Tokyo Vice.
• 
  Josef Komensky

  Our guy in Tokyo
  
  Interesting story about American / Italian soldier who find his Big American dream in the downtown of Tokyo.
  
  It is also kind of social cultural essay about all the important changes that took place in Tokyo after the end of second world war untill the eighties .
  
  This is not so much a book about " American Yakuza rather book about a very special branch of Italian mob setting up a Tokyo connection and reaction of the Yakuza on it in the light of all the political and economical developments that came afterwards.
  
  I love the books of Robert Whiting and his sharp observations about life and culture of the Empire of the rising sun
• 
  Marija S.

  Anecdotal and written as a perfect mix of facts and lively storytelling which is painting a vivid picture of the postwar times in Japan and keeping the reader glued to the text. A must read for anyone interested in recent history of Tokyo and Japan, it did a great job conveying the bustling and chaotic period which were the postwar years and included an encyclopedia of known and less known facts about Japan to boot.
  
  Nick Zapetti was such a fantastic character, his biography reads like wild fiction.
• 
  Timothy Faust

  This book whips. It moves quickly and fluidly through very detailed anecdotes about Japanese underworld figures—so be aware if you're looking for an encyclopedia about the yakuza. Most of the book revolves around one fascinating Italian-American who became a central figure in Japanese postwar crime world. Whiting extensively endnotes his writing, and reading those notes is a hoot and a half.
• 
  Syed Emir

  I’ve always been interested in the history of collaboration between politicians, business magnates, and gangsters in post-war Japan. If you’re looking for that, this book is just right.
  
  It details the extent to which democracy and crime, i.e. the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the various Yakuza gangs, grew hand-in-hand as Japan became economically powerful.
• 
  Roberto

  There's nothing I would like to add to what I've read in the other comments here: a great book, brillianty borderlining between history and biography. I'm both passionate about history and a Japan lover, so this book was a must for me and I really, really enjoyed it. 4.5 stars, Highly recommended.
• 
  Matthew Harwood

  Although this book claims to follow an American gangster in Japan it is more of a history of the Japanese Yakuza and their links with politics. This is a great book for anyone with an interest in true crime and it gives a good understanding of Japan’s underworld.