"Toppamono" (The Man of Breakthrough)

1 My Family

I was born as a son of a Yakuza chief in Kyoto immeidately after WW II ended in our defeat. Surrounded by a bunch of rough and tough daredevils, I was destined to lead a vulgar, yet thick communal life which could be compared to primitive communism.....

2 Boy Commando

While street fighting was an integral part of my everyday life, one day my father asked me to play a role of a "commando" at an unofficial prior conference on a bidding (Dango) to get his own way against his competing demolishers. So we proceeded to a high-class Japanese inn-restaurant in Osaka, which was the venue for my first mission.....

3 Street Fights and Das Kapital (The Capital)

Following a series of enticements by an ex-leader of the Sanson Kosakutai (a group of underground Communist activists), who happened to be one of my neighbors, I took part in the 1960 movement against the Japan-US Secrutiry Pact. As I had profoundly been moved by the experience, I elected to become a Marxist boy. It was just around that time that a clash occurred between my father's Yakuza family and the Yamaguchi-gumi family (one of the most dominant Yakuza families in Japan), and a "corps of killers" swarmed into my house.....

4 Waseda University and the Internationale

The first thing I did after the enrollment into college was thrust myself into the realm of student movements. One year later, I was in charge of leading mass movements in the Sodai (short for Waseda University in Japanese) campaign which was increasingly getting attention from people outside the school.....

5 Secret Combat Unit

With the outbreak of the "Todai (short for Tokyo University in Japanese) campaign," the Japanese Communist Party clandestinely formed a student combat unit, which was later to be known by its alias, "Daybreak Unit" (Akatsuki Butai in Japanese). I was then assigned its field leader, which was expected to handle all the dirty jobs to be encountered behind the ideology-oriented campaign.....

6 A Horde of Dashing Young Reporters

After giving up the university course halfway, I became a reporter for the then fast-rising weekly magazine, Shukan Gendai. Almost all of the reporters around me were of my kind, that is, down-and-out ex-activist, self-conceited, young reporters who make their business by getting and selling news scoops. And our stock phrase was "we don't give a damn about high-flying journalism".....

PART II FROM 1975 TO 1996

1 Days Of Outlawry

When I came back home to Kyoto to help out my family business (demolition of buildings and facilities), what awaited me there was a desparate need for working funds. To break the deadlock, I ventured to resort to somewhat rough and exorbitant ways of management. I ignored pre-set Dango arrangements and seized competitors' jobs by force.....

2 Danse Macabre In The Middle of Mounting Debts

Being cornered by the aggravating financial situation of my business, I set about dirtying my hands with all sorts of evil ways. Swindling, bilking bills, purloining cash at gambling joints, and you name it. Anything and everything that I could hang on. I was so desparate.....

3 Blackmailing A Major General Contractor

I was named a most wanted criminal by the police in connection with a case in which Yakuza blackmailed one of the major general contractors, and later was arrested. While the Yomiuri Shinbun (a national newspaper) reported the case realtime in a serial running, I carried on war against the Kyoto Prefectural Police, which had spread an extensive dragnet.....

4 Warm and Cold Hearts of Outlaws

As my family business finally went under, troops of Yakuza creditors came marching in. So many outlaws, so many minds. I got almost killed by some of them. Yet some others tried very hard to help me, which really appealed to my tender emotion. Then, I came up to Tokyo again, this time counting on the legendary outlaw, "God of Street Gangsters", for help.....

5 Fox-Eyed Man

In the midst of the Glico-Morinaga affair, I was regarded as one of the culprits whom the police termed "fox-eyed man." After a thorough and prolonged investigation of my immediate circle of acquaintances, police detectives finally showed up before me. In the Kansai area (western part of Japan where big cities such as Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe are located) at that time, guns were firing in the Yama-Ichi Yakuza war, and the fanatic Hanshin Tigers baseball fans were running wild with joy of celebrating the team's first pennant race victory in 21 years.....

6 The Taste of Bullets

At the solicitation of one of my Yakuza friends, I came to put my finger in a land development project in Kyoto. Everything went quite smooth until we started talking about the transfer of money at the end. While the concerned parties were at the negotiation table in a restaurant, two hit men with hand guns barged in.....

7 Tough Guys and Bubble Economy

As things had come to a strange pass, I found myself involved in a land assemblage project for the site of Toyo Cinema (movie theater) in Kanda- Jimbocho, Tokyo. It was in mid-1980's when the bubble economy was at its height. Notorious tough guys were swarming over the bubble, blowing their money, opening hundreds of bottles of Don Perignion every night (and day, perhaps). I was bang in the middle of that bubble.....

8 Yakuza Can't Be Wiped Out

The Anti-gang Law was brought into effect. Young bureaucrats arrogantly blasted that they would "stamp out Yakuza," while superannuated officials were scheming to cut in on the concessions of the Pachinko industry through the consequent elimination of Yakuza. We warn them, we will not tolerate their nonesense of equating "Yakuza" with such a Lilliputian issue.....

Afterword

It may not be too long before East Asis gets thrown into confusion of a turning point in history. Can those of us, who share similar values as mine or outlaws', put our lives at risk to do something about it? Will real men with chivalrous spirits or gallantry, who are a dying breed, be able to have a fair comeback of some social significance, although it may be an abortive flower.....

Profile of MIYAZAKI Manabu, Fox-Eyed Man Of 'Breakthrough'