"Hi, Manabu, How's it going? Why don't you come around here? Well, I called to ask you to do me a little favor. As a matter of fact ...."
It was several days into the new year that followed the year 1985 when I got suspected of being a fox-eyed man that I had a phone call from Iwamaru Yukio when I was at my house in Tokyo.
Iwamaru was the head of Iwamaru-gumi affiliated with Yaizukotetsu-gumi, the largest gangster organization.
He was a subordinate to Maruoka Testsutaro who had succeeded my father as the second head of Teramura-gumi. He was the head of young samurai group for the second head of Teramura-gumi. We had known each other quite long but just as two people who happened to be in the same business of construction. So our relationship did not go any further except for one relative of mine who was working for Iwamaru-gumi. Iwamaru was a fine looking man, living a rich man's life with a lot of money he could spend.
"It's about my company's project to buy a forest up in Kyoto's Iwakura and develop it into a residential area. Well, we've been working on it and with the purchased land designated as an urban area, and with \230 million offered to finance the project, everything has gone so well, But just as we were about to get down to work on the land, the Communist came in and started a campaign against us.
"Communists? What for?"
"They are talking about a possible landslide. You see I am really into this development project. And I'm sure I'm not gonna let such an embarrassing thing, like landslide to happen."
He continued, growing more furious, "But they won't listen. There's nothing we can do about the Communists, isn't there? They are too much for us, yakuza. So I came here to ask you for help." Iwamaru was at a loss, too used to dealing with yakuza and rough and gaudy business men to deal with rather intellectual communists including some professors of Ritsumei University. A little excited about the prospect for a confrontation with those party men, and feeling a little obliged for the care he took of my relative, I accepted his request although I was quite tied up in Tokyo. I said to him, "I got it. I'll be there shortly." But never did I dream that this casual reply would result in two men shot dead right in front of my eyes, and myself being shot, too. Only God knew that.
A little afterward. I went back to Kyoto to see Iwamaru for more about what he had said over the phone. Iwamaru was then developing of 21,500 x 3.3m2 of land named "Iwakura Green Town" at a hillside. The land was first purchased by Kosei-kensetsu, the company Iwamaru was practically running, then was to be developed jointly with Nara-real estate in Yokohama. By the spring of 1985, the project had been financed with \2.3 billion Of this land, about 9,000 x 3.3 m2 had changed its status from urbanization adjustment district to urban area as a result of the revised zoning policy. So, Iwamaru was just about ready to get down to the actual development work with the permission to develop land from already obtained from the municipality of Kyoto.
But at the briefing to the local communities union and the inhabitants, the local communities union raised their opposition to our plan. Our plan was to carve out a landmass from one hillside and put it on the adjacent hillside. So the inhabitants at the foot of the adjacent hill opposed our plan that they said would likely cause the landmass to give way, and launched a campaign against the development. With the Communist Party sending their activists or professors from Ritsumeikan University to support this campaign, the development plan screeched to a halt. What Iwamaru wanted me to do was to act as his spokesman to settle the matter with the inhabitants.
Next six months were spent on as many as negotiation meetings with the locals. There is nothing we can do in a negotiation like this but to persuade with patience. But it takes too long. It was sometimes necessary to engage ourselves in a heated debate with them to outsmart them since it was Communist activists we were up against. We often found ourselves debating but the negotiation itself went like a gentlemen's negotiation.
It was a pretty hard job for me to be on my own all the time but I had come all the way down to the point where an agreement on the work was finally worked out and signed between the local inhabitants and those expected to be involved in the work. We both agreed that some 1000 x 3.3m2 of the adjacent forest would be purchased so that the land mass causing concern among the inhabitants would be filled in there. It turned out to be a successful negotiation. It wasn't actually only the Communist Party and inhabitants that opposed the development project. Pseudo-anti-discrimination people and semi-yakuza joined the opposition for money. In striking contrast with the tactic I used against the Communist Party and the locals, the tactic I used against those people throughout the negotiation was that of bullying.
I pushed ahead with this tactic. In dealing with those rascals, nothing is more likely to get you into trouble than equivocal answers that are only to confuse things unnecessarily. We didn't have to pay them a penny in the first place. "Do I have to remind you that I am the mediator? You wanna go home badly wounded or support us. Which?"
"I support it."
"Then why not sign it?"
That's how it went and how it got settled.
Just I was about to return to Tokyo having accomplished what Iwamaru had asked me to do when Fukuda of Iwamaru's office came to see me and said "Of the purchased land, 11,000 x 3.3 m2 has not been designated as urban area. There is no point of holding something that can't be put to any use no matter how much was paid for it. Is there anything you can do about this?"
To prevent unbridled land development and degradation of environment such development would bring on, the suburban areas are now subject to the zoning act of the local government so that the surrounding area can be zoned into two categories, one being urbanization adjustment zone, the other urbanized area. So the land development came under this regulation. Development of the 11,000 x 3.3 m2 then designated, as urbanization adjustment zone was not permitted.
For the land to be developed into a housing lot, the municipality of Kyoto should be prodded into reviewing its zoning act so that the land would be designated as urbanization zone. But it's least likely for civil servants to review the zoning policy out of their own will. There is only way to get them to review it. That is, to put pressure on them. So Fukuda came and ask me if I knew anybody tough enough to do the job.
"If you know anybody who could do the job well, put him in touch with me. We are ready to pay handsomely", Fukuda said. I didn't know why but what hopped into my mind on hearing Fukuda say that was Kitamoto Testsuya. He was 3 years my senior at junior high school and he regarded Kobata often mentioned in this book as his mentor. His father was a menial laborer from one job to another but was uncontrollable drunkard drinking and lashing about all day. Unable to stand his behavior, his wife walked out on him. And after that he walked out on his son, Kitamoto Tetsuya, and went missing. This happened when Testsu was at primary school, which was a typical case of disintegration of a family.
Left alone with his sister with nobody offering to adopt or take care of them, he had to find a way to earn himself a living. But there was nothing a little kid like him could do to support himself. At lunchtime, he sneaked out of the classroom and huddled himself in the corner of school ground with his knees onto his bosom. What young Testsu found to extricate himself out of this predicament was to scare other school kids for money. He first snatched some little money, say \5 or \10 from his fellow primary school kids. He was desperate because it's a matter of life or death for him. But, with not so many primary school kids given much allowance in those days, it didn't actually help him out. So he eventually targeted junior high school kids older than him. With what little money he had, he bought himself a switchblade knife. And it worked rather well. But the odds were in many cases against him when he had to confront his senior. So he often ended up being beaten up. But, unflinched, he went on scaring and bullying those older kids who looked weak. That's the only way left for a kid like him to stay alive. It was just around the time when he, himself was to become a junior high school student that I first met him. By the look of his face, he was by then a full-fledged juvenile outlaw. Then of course, it shouldn't have been so surprising if you knew that he had been bullying and scaring his way through his life as the sole way to support not only himself but his sister as well. The way he looked out of the corner of his eyes was stern and gloomy. It was typical of the way the childhood of a would-be-yakuza was spent.
Afterwards, he was sent to a reformatory, juvenile prison like most other likes of him, and ended up as yakuza as a logical conclusion. He was once with a gangster organization based in Kanto, then had ten years in total in prison. Accepted 4 or 5 years ago, by the head of "M"-gumi within a larger yakuza organization, Kamoda-gumi affiliated with giant Yamaguch-gumi, he became a young samurai for "M"-gumi. The head of Kamoda-gumi above "M" -gumi in the hierarchy, His good parentage (his family is related to the Yamaguchi from his father's generation) enhanced by his large-mindedness, Kamoda Shigemasa was among the most prominent heads of Yamaguchi-gumi-affiliated organizations. Kamoda-gumi was also known as militant with its membership having reached nearly 3,000 at its peak. Kamoda himself was once rumored to be the successor to Taoka, the 3rd godfather of Yamaguchi-gumi. Kamoda-gumi was headquartered in Nagata-ku of Kobe, a district hardest-hit by the great Hanshin Earth Quake.
Tetsu was a Kyoto branch manager for "M"-gumi, which is one of the best organizations within Yamaguchi-gumi. Manager as he was, he had no more than ten people working for him. It's a small family but he thought he had a good career prospect for him as a yakuza man. Tetsu was then 37, at the prime of his life.
But his life took a sudden turn for worse as the great hostility broke out between Yamaguchi-gumi and Ichiwakai one year before Iwamaru approached me for help. Tetsu came under Ichiwakai- as a result of Kamoda-gumi's having broken away from Yamaguchi-gumi to become the No.2 organization of Ichiwakai. But Ichiwakai was driven to the wall by the huge offensive waves of Yamaguchi-gumi. He was targeted twice by Yamaguchi-gumi's hit man. In 1986 when I was engaged in negotiations with the locals in Iwakura district of Kyoto, the Yama-ichi war was at its fiercest. Tetsu, with his office under the surveillance, could not get out, deprived of any means of scraping out his living. And I heard those yakuza in Kyoto saying he was hard pressed for money. So that may have been why Testsu popped to my mind. Had I turned own Fukuda's plea and left for Tokyo, or had I not thought of Tetsu, he wouldn't have died the way he did. It's me who killed Testsu.
"Let me take on that job. I know somebody who could get it done well. Better trust me", Tetsu said to me right after I outlined him the Fukuda's job over the telephone. He sounded so desperate. He must have been so hard pressed.
We arranged to meet at an obscure restaurant. He showed up, accompanied by a few bodyguards. After all he was a target. Tetsu stood about 185cm, a good-looking man with an exotic look of Clint Eastwood that drove women crazy. As he walked down the street of Kawaramachi or Gion in Kyoto, with a trench coat slung over his slim and tall body, all the women passing him by would stop and turn around. He was a skinny man but looked more skinny, with his cheeks sunken, worn out by the effect of the on-going warfare, giving him a so stern a look. The bodyguards were also looking menace with their eyes all bloodshot. I could see from their bulging bosoms or abdomens that they were carrying guns. As Testsu and I sat down and faced each other across the table, the bodyguards sat down on the nearby chairs as if to surround me and started looking around the restaurant, at the entrance and exits with their stern eyes.
"I got it. We got a man by the name of Yajima. He is the chairman of Anti-discrimination Service Union and also the president of Yajima Trading. He is very good at this line of job."
"Ok, with your recommendation, I'll leave this job with Yajima. How much do you and Yajima want for this?"
"About \5,000 to \10,000 per tsubo (3.3m2) is what they normally charge for this kind of job."
"All right, I will get down to negotiation to settle at \10,000 per tsubo. So you'll get \110 million. Good job, huh? "
"But how much do you want?"
"It's up to you as long as I get some."
The talk with Testsu ended on such a note. A few days later, Fukuda asked Testsu and Yajima to maneuver on the local authorities to designate the land as urban zone. He paid them \10 million as down payment. It was decided that the rest of the \110 million as promised them would be paid when they got the pledge from the local authority of Kyoto municipality, witnessed by Kosei General Construction, and Nara Real Estate that they would review the zoning act and designate the land as urban land. I handed the down payment directly to Tetsu.
Right after this, a fierce offensive to put a pressure on the local authority was launched by Tetsu, Yajima, and Takita who was deputizing Yajima for Yajima's Anti-Discrimination Service Union. I should remind the readers that the anti-discrimination organization Yajima and Takita were involved with has nothing to do with Buraku Liberation League. It's a private organization totally unrelated to the anti-discrimination movements. Takita was an ex-yakuza man. It's one of those we call pseudo-anti-discrimination associations.
It was Takita at the negotiating table most of the time. He frequently visited the local government sections concerned such as the landscape section, or urban planning section to tell them, "We are thinking of developing the land in Iwakura to provide cheaper housing for those discriminated against. I want you to work more positively to have that area designated as urban zone." Sitting across the negotiating table from Takita usually were the chiefs of the three sections in charge. They were as uptight as they could get in dealing with Takita and talk as little as possible for fear of what they said being used as evidence later. They would only repeat "No, it's impossible." To which, Takita responded by point out the fact that 9000 x 3.3 m2 of the Iwakura's forest land purchased had already been designated as urban zone, and calling on the person responsible for the decision to sit at the negotiating table. He then pressed on, asking this person, "How could you possibly explain their development was approved and ours will not be approved? Or was it a mistake or an exception?"
Actually there are many exceptions. But they are supposed not to exist according to the principle of fairness of the clerical process. So they could admit it was an exception. They person responsible for the exception would be punished duly. All the section chiefs, stuck for an answer, went quite. Takita stuck to the power of logic and pressed hard on them for a satisfactory answer. In any negotiation, nothing is more overwhelming than the power of logic used by a composed man. Roaring and howling is for rank-and files. No clever man would roar and howl. Well sometimes you've got to look them hard in the eyes or say with a deep voice, "Are you making a fool of me?" Being an ex-yakuza man, Takita knew what to do in negotiation. The section chiefs were getting cornered by his soft and hard negotiating tactic. And at last in September, 3 to 4 months into the negotiation, one of them under the pressure of persistent Takita made a slip of tongue saying, "The preserved forest land is out of question but we will consider rezoning the rest of the land the next time we review the current zoning act." With this pledge from the authority, Tetsu and Takita got down to the final negotiation witnessed by Kosei General Construction and Nara Real Estate to obtain a statement from the three section chiefs that the land would be designated as urban zone at the next revision of the zoning act. Takita, without wasting any time, confirmed with them saying, "Are you sure?" to get a replay "Yes". So it was decided that the land in Iwakura would be designated as urban zone. Testsu was rejoiced saying, "Thanks for offering such a good way of tiding over the difficulties."
Needless to say, pressuring a local government this way to get what they want is not a monopoly of such pseudo-anti-discrimination organizations have monopoly. It's something politicians, political organizations, and other organizations are doing almost on daily basis. Takita seems to have cited specific examples in his negotiation to put a pressure on. One of the examples he cited was the 3 hector of forest land in Fushimi's Daigo that the local authority was forced to designate as urban zone pressured by a notorious man called Ozaki better known as the "Emperor of Pseudo-anti-discrimination movement", I think Ozaki was one of the most typical scoundrels in the 50 years of post-war period. Let me leave the main subject here and talk about Ozaki. After all he had a lot to do with the phenomenon of pseudo-anti-discriminations.
Born in the island of Shikoku, he has been reckless from his childhood, arrested 17 times for bullying and assaulting. It was through his job he was asked to do around 1970 of recollecting close to \500 million worth of drafts a Lower House member Saigo Kichinosuke had issued excessively that he began to approach political figures. He set up a pseudo-anti-discrimination organization, "Nippon Anti-discrimination Seiko-kai". Since then disguised as an anti-discrimination movement leader, he had been bullying and extorting high-ranking officials of local governments. So he was hated and dreaded like a serpent by bureaucrats and civil servants. I have seen him several times in some entertainment quarters. Every time he walked by me, I couldn't help being overwhelmed by his strong something he was giving off from his steeled well-built physique like a ferocious wild animal. Plus the way he decorated himself was nowhere near ordinary. With diamond-studded wrist watch worth \120 million on one hand, and a \80 million bracelet around the wrist of the other, he was dressed in the highest quality suits and shoes all tailor-made, course. He owned two limousines, each worth \30 million, one black and the other white. He was known in the world of media disdainfully as "a walking \300 million".
The office of Nippon Anti-discrimination Senko-kai, I am told, was stunningly extravagant. Occupying the entire one floor of Palais Royale in Nagato-cho where Liberal Democratic Party's ex-kingmaker, Kanamaru Shin had his office , the office had in the middle of he room a garden of the highest extravagancy. The office was extravagantly furnished not only with the most expensive pieces of furniture, but also many secretaries as gorgeous and devastating as any beauty you see on the screen. It wouldn't have been so surprising to hear the stories of visiting local government's parliament members going on all four, dazzled by what they saw.
What was so extraordinary about Ozaki was that he targeted only high ranking bureaucrats and officials as his victims, such as bureau chiefs, prefecture governors, or ministers. He completely ignored section managers and the like. Without going through any official channel, he would storm into the private room of a bureau chief in Kasumigaseki, turn over the desks and chairs and holler, "What's the story of this? I've heard nothing on that. Hey, what do you think I am?" That's the way he would go about his job. Here's an episode when he went down to Shikoku island to do the job of negotiation he was asked to do by someone he was obliged to.
As soon as he got briefed on the job he was asked to do when he arrived in Tokushima on Shikoku Island in his limousine, he rang up the Prefecture office to find out where the governor was.
On finding that he was at Shikoku's governors' meeting or something, he made off to the hotel where the meeting was under way, and burst into the meeting, pushing the guardsmen and the like aside and hollered, "Which one is the governor here?" looking around the room and up and down all of them there. There was nobody to stop him from doing as he pleased until someone, perhaps, a general affairs bureau manager or something, his face drawn with tension, inched his way up to Ozaki, and implored him, "We'll do whatever you want us to do. But please don't disrupt what we are doing for now", thus restoring the semblance of order.
With no exposure to violence at all, and too much concerned about saving their face, elite bureaucrats were vulnerable to such a violent way as used by Ozaki. But that doesn't mean that they simply succumbed to the Ozaki's show of violence. They shouldn't be as weak-kneed. They could have relied on their most powerful protector of all, the state authority, for protection. What made it possible for Ozaki to be so rampantly effective was that he struck at those intellectuals where they were most vulnerable.
Advocating human rights was very useful for him because it would never occur to those bureaucrats that the concept of "human rights" is something that could be called into question as much as the idea of post-war democracy they would never call into question. Bound by the post-war democracy, and unaware that they are so, they couldn't come up with any alternative solution that would deny or contradict what the concept of human rights, or its synonym, the post-war democracy seems to represent. On the other hand, they succumb to violence so easily. And he was so aware that they would so easily succumb to any specific fact if presented with some precise logics. What made Ozaki the Emperor was that he was so good at using the power of logic at the negotiating table. Indeed, he would do a lot of vigorous research to find out specific facts that he could use against the bureaucrats he was to confront. He had many assistants working for him all proficient in the actual job. He hunted those people from government agencies or local governments. He had a good access to leaked classified information on political figures or businessmen. And Ozaki was a maniac himself when it came to gathering information. Whenever he got some information from a politician on an upcoming sale of the state-owned land off to the private sector, or on a large public work project, he would collect all the related registration documents and official drawings and confine himself to his study where he checked them thoroughly for any faults or discrepancies. Of course, this process would often take him to the actual location where he would do the land surveyor's job himself.
If, for example, there comes up a land development project for a discriminated buraku district with a JR (Japan Railway) shunt line, Ozaki would check thoroughly the official drawings against the actual measurements of the land for any discrepancies. Well, official drawings are not as precise as you might think. It's quite often that the actual measurements differ from those officially registered. Those differences are known as "Nawayurumi" (loosened rope) or "Nawachijimi" (shrank rope). Such differences may be due to some unregistered pieces of land. When Ozaki spots such a vacuum, he would quickly register it under his name and wait. No matter how long it would take, he waits and waits until the development project gets under way. So when it gets under way, he will charge into the office of a highest ranking official of JR or a relevant government agency and lashed out on him, bullying, threatening and hollering; "What the hell do you think you are doing, going ahead with your fucking development thing? Why didn't you tell me about it before you went ahead? Is it because you discriminate against me and make light of me? Do you think you can get away with this? " Then he throws chairs across the room. But the next moment this man is not a violent man he was a moment ago. He is now a calculating businessman armed only with a power of logic, getting down to the business of negotiation. So JR would end up being forced to pay Ozaki an exorbitant amount of money for this piece of land.
Ozaki was a born bullyboy. He was a genius of bullying kind. Bullying was, it seemed to me, what he could enjoy himself doing more than anything else. I was really struck dumbfounded when I heard the story of his bullying a golf course.
There are various regulations that govern the building and maintenance of golf courses. Among them is the one that does not permit a tree taller than 3m to be planted within special designated areas. On becoming aware of this regulation, he had a tree about 2m tall planted in one of those areas of a certain golf course with nobody knowing he was doing it, much less what he was up to. And he waited and waited patiently until the tree grew to be taller than 3m. Confirming that the regulation was violated, he rushed into the golf course and tightened the screw on the owner ever so brutally. He walked away with a huge amount of money of course. Nobody would have come up with such an idea and shown such patience as he exhibited in waiting so long for the tree to grow unless he was doing it for fun, unless it's what he really enjoy himself doing.
Ozaki bullied authorities into giving up state-owned land or de-regulating the statues prohibiting urbanization control zones from being developed. That means there were many high-ranking officials everywhere across the nation who were bullied and abused by Ozaki. Nobody was as much hated as Ozaki by the upper echelon of this country. In a country where people are powerless before all powerful bureaucracy, I couldn't think of anybody who has ventured to put himself in direct contact and confrontation with those in power as fearlessly and fiercely, and has brought them down on their knees as successfully as Ozaki did.
And the way he ended his life really fits the person he was. On the night of January 30th, 1984, at about 10 at night, Ozaki, hospitalized in Tokyo Women's Medical College Hospital, in a special room, was mobbed by a trio of assassins, each capped and white-masked. The three bodyguards hired by Ozaki were not on the scene for God knows why. On entering the room, the assassins shot him in the back of the head and the back, and stabbed him down the spine to finish him off. They walked off out the hospital leaving nobody wondering. They took no more than 30 seconds to get the job done. Something nobody could have done but professionals. Ozaki was 48.
The assassins stormed their way into the room when Ozaki was counting money, about \5 million. Spattered with profuse of his own spurt of blood and wallowing in bills of money daubed with his own blood, he died the way that befit a man who had seen the hell of this world for himself in his struggle for life. By the way, this murder case remains unsolved to this day.
It's my personal observation but it was around late 1970s when pseudo-anti-discrimination organizations popped up on the scene and made their presence felt. It was also around the time that saw the nation's political left becoming on a par with the political right as the progressive were getting elected to the offices of local governor or major. The driving force behind this political climate was the JSP (Japan Socialist Party) and JCP (Japan Communist Party, especially JSP. And it was those buraku-people-inhabited districts formed around the Buraku Liberation League that served as a close-knit action group. Threatened by the dismal prospect, the ruling LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) set out to undermine those buraku-districts. The operation was spearheaded by Tanaka Kakuei.
I know quite a few of those Liberation League activists since my childhood. And they are tough and resilient both as individuals and an organized group. So the LDP could have found nobody capable of break such a tough organization but Tanaka. Tanaka passed the time-limited anti-discrimination act through the parliament and dumped the largest ever chunk of the budget into those buraku-districts as authorized by the new law. All the roads in those areas got paved and modern looking condos went up as their inhabitants were offered legal privileges. This resulted in an increase in the number of LDP supporters among the inhabitants, dividing the once monolithic alliance into left and right. It could bee seen that Tanaka's real politik had achieved a certain degree of success.
But, as turned out soon, the price the government has to pay for allowing the power of money or political maneuver to settle such issues as discrimination or racial problems was so enormous. The so-called reverse discrimination may be one such price to pay. And those pseudo-anti-discrimination organizations I am talking about here are none other than one such a price to pay. The relationship between pseudo-anti-discrimination groups and the bureaucracy/government agencies only represents a clash of venal interests with no higher cause or principle being committed to. Neither does the government nor the public agencies have any principle that would negate the existence of the pseudo-anti-discrimination organizations. It is in this sense that the pseudo-anti-discrimination phenomenon is not only an unwanted devil born of, but also the very symbol of the 50 years of the post-war democracy in the guise of which, the entire nation was hell-bent on achieving economic success only guided by the principle "Money is everything."
There seems to be a greater emphasis in the government policy on money as the effective means to solve the discrimination problem rather than on helping to change the consciousness underlying the discrimination. It's the same approach as they use in securing a greater majority in their political games. Maneuver to win over people to secure a greater majority is something that our post-war democracy would not work without. This is the essence of it. But all that works well tastes bitter or has poison in it. Using political tricks and buying influence could serve as a sweetener. But it's a sweet poison.
The world of pseudo-anti-discrimination where the stars of stellar world swarm around like bandits in the middle Ages is really a world of poison, flooded with naked lust and violence. That's all the more the reason why it's where you can witness the sad human nature, something you couldn't possibly see in your ordinary life. But the fact is that every ordinary citizen more or less possesses this nature. Wrapped in a sweet coat of "democracy" and rendered less naked, it is less noticeable. The coat of democracy is a little bit thicker than the thinnest ever coat wrapping the world of pseudo-anti-discrimination. In this sense, the pseudo-anti-discrimination may be the most authentic heir to the post-war democracy.
Now, let's go back to what happened to Tetsu and Takita who got the job done to get the land designated as urbanization zone.
On the next day, September 17 or 18, if I remember correct, I asked Kosho General Construction's Fukuda for the payment of \100 million as the rest of the reward for what I had done as a mediator for Iwamaru, Testsu and others. But Fukuda said, "We haven't got that kind of cash at hand at the moment. So I'll talk to Mr. Iwamaru about this." I told Tetsu and others about this. And a few days later, Yajima negotiated directly with Iwamaru to get a reply from Iwamaru, "Of course, I'll pay. But can you wait a little while?" Well, deferment of payment is not unusual in the world of Yakuza.
But things took a turn for worse when, Tetsu, running out of patience, charged into the office of Kosho Genial Construction, accompanied by Takita and his men. On that day at about 3 o'clock, Tetsu called me to say, "I'll go to see Kosho to settle the matter with Iwamaru." Upset, I said to him, "No, don't you ever do that. That's the last thing you should do." I had no idea what Tetsu was up to or how he was feeling at that time, but it was apparent that charging into another's office accompanied by his men was to ask for a trouble, an act little too hasty. In the world of yakuza, they have a long clause on the formalities to go through for saving face. Their headquarters offices are a sacred place. Bursting into the office, or the company that the boss is running, and seeking to directly negotiate with him would be regarded as an act of provocation intended to humiliate the counterpart. So it was highly likely that hostility would break out between the yakuza organizations.
"You should know better. You've been in this world long enough. Are you gonna confront Iwamaru?"
"I don't care what would happen. I would be losing my face unless I talk this out with Iwamaru."
"Hold on, Tetsu. Where are you now? I'll be on my way. I want you be where you are now. OK?"
I met Testsu at a coffee shop near Kosei. Rushing into the shop, I found Testsu sitting, looking resentful, with his feet thrown up on the table, surrounded by his men and Takita's men. I tried so hard to talk him out of that only to hear him saying, "Whatever you say, I'll do it." It was only a recap of what we had had on the phone with nothing likely to give. So I finally gave up to say "All right. Do as you like. But let me come with you." thinking that I would wedge myself in to pull them apart if quarreling Testsu and Iwamaru were likely to get into a physical fight.
There were only Fukuda and a few others in the Kosei's office, with Iwamaru away on holiday in Yamashiro hot spa up in Hokuriku, Testsu, though looking dispirited for a while, started blasting on Fukuda with his forceful argument. The Iwamaru-gumi men were staring at them as if they were about to pounce at the slightest provocation. The members of the both parties were looking on with their angry eyes laid upon Fukuda who was trying hard to explain his way out of this. He was the president of Kosei but not a member of Iwamaru-gumi. The Tetsu's men and Iwamaru's eventually found themselves staring at each other as tension built up between them to such a degree that any provocation would trigger a real physical battle.
Fortunately, the worst scenario could be avoided with both the parties agreeing to meet again in the same office at 10 o'clock the following morning. But it was also agreed that the meeting would be without the Tetsu's men as they were likely to be confrontational and would trigger a battle involving the two gangster organizations. It was at my suggestion.
But, there still remained a dismal prospect if Iwamaru continued on his spa holiday without realizing the gravity of the situation. So, I hit it to Yamashiro spa to see Iwamaru who was there at a meeting. I told him what was happening. And he agreed to get back to Kyoto. On the way back to Kyoto, I complained to him, "It's your responsibility to work this out." Iwamaru said, "Manabu-san, I'm terribly sorry for being away to cause you such a trouble. I'll pay what I have to pay." Looking back, I still believe he said what he meant.
It was about 4 o'clock in the morning of the following day, the 25th when we arrived back in Kyoto. I was going to bed to snatch a little nap when a telephone rang. It was about 5:30 and it was Fukuda on the other end of the line. Fukuda wanted to see Yajima, Takita and others at "Restaurant Fushimi" at noon, instead of at the place and the time we had previously arranged to meet. He also requested the attendance of Kitamoto Tetsuya. Having talked with Iwamaru, I jumped to an optimistic conclusion that they were willing to work out the problem together with Tetsu. I replied, "I got it. I'll tell everyone."
I went back into bed. But there's something disturbing about all this I was going through. My mind was willing to sleep, but my body was not. Something remained awake, deep inside my body, refusing to be put to rest. Turning over in the bed, I recalled the hard time I had trying to put myself asleep on the Waseda University's campus on the eve of the expected mobilization of the riot police as expediency to put an end to our struggle against tuition-hike and the like. So, it was around 7 o'clock the next morning that I got out of bed, having no sleep after all. It was, I believe, because of the ability to predict that human beings are all endowed with to some extent. Well, the only thing about this extraordinary human faculty is that we have no control over the predicted events. Actually this is what makes life worth living.
At noon sharp, I arrived at the restaurant in Fushimi as did Fukuda and one man from Kosei. We went upstairs and got seated at a large table. Looking around the room with about 20 tables, I saw about 20 guests enjoying the food, or lunch considering the time of the day. 20 minutes later Yajima, and Takita showed up, in a foreign car accompanied by two men from their company. Fukuda and I, sitting next to each other across the long and narrow table from Yajima and Takita with a wall right behind them, and Tetsu, eating himself on the narrowed side of the table so that he could look on both sides as if a presiding judge. Behind Tetsu was a corridor leading to a washing room. But the curtain hanging down was hiding both the corridor and the washing room.
The talk resumed. It was already well past 12:30 because one of us had been on the phone, leaving us waiting.
Before we went into talk, I saw a familiar face of one of the Iwamaru men twice side the restaurant. On both the occasions, he was seen at the bottom of the staircase, looking this was and that, as if searching for some one. And he just looked away when he saw me looking at him. Whether he didn't notice, or he pretended not to notice, I didn't know. "This son of a bitch, what the hell does he think he is doing here? Seeing his woman, or something?" I just dismissed that as one of those stupid things these people do.
But this guy turned out to be one of the shooting squad members, doing what he was doing as a reconnaissance man guiding a hit man. He was signaling to the shooting squad about our move, especially whether Tetsu was seated or not, or whether he was seated where he was supposed to be. Sitting with my back to the other guests, I did not notice at all that two hit men, guided by the reconnaissance man, got themselves seated at a table about 10 m away.
It happened all of a sudden. Three dry-sounding gunshots were heard behind the curtain. With each of these shots, the torso of Tetsu sitting next to me heaved as a big convulsive staccato wave. The curtain behind Testsu fluttered and a young man in a dark blue combat uniform, appeared, ready to shoot with a gun. His eyes wide open, and lifted.
On seeing him, I knew what it was that had happened. The young man was a member of Iwamaru-gumi, Kuniba Koichi. He was then 27. But I had known him since he was an apostle with Iwamaru-gumi. It wasn't long after he came from Okinawa when I first met him. He was a typical rough and simple man from the south. He was one of the many yakuza making their way through the world of yakuza by making a shooting target out of themselves as evidenced by the fact that most of the hit men involved in yakuza battles in Kansai were from Okinawa. That's the only way left for "foreign" Okinawanians to make their way up in the world of Kansai yakuza run and dominated by those from Kansai and Shikoku. Indeed, Kuniba was then only two months fresh out of jail, after serving 5 years in prison.
It's funny, however, the way humans behave or think. Even at such a critical moment, they are still capable of wandering off into a world of carefree and luxurious abstract thinking. I remember that what crossed my mind as I was looking at Kuniba was "Poor Kuniba, poor Okinawa yakuza, he's going back to jail."
I came back to myself when I felt someone behind my back. Turning around, I saw another young man rushing toward me in the same blue combat uniform, with a gun in his clasped hands thrust out in his front. He was Murakami Akihiro, a member of Iwamaru-gumi. He was also what we call a "bullet", hailing from Fukuoka, Kyushu. I got to my feet on reflex and roared at him "Cut it out. Bastard!" The next moment, I saw a fire and smoke spewing out from the gun and felt something far hotter than anything hot I had ever known stuck into my right abdomen.
Getting shredded apart or burnt was how I felt when I got shot. It's like a red-hot solid Chinese kitchen knife shoved into the stomach. It felt too hot for me to breathe. Instinctively I put both my hands over the burning to cover it. My feet giving way, I collapsed on the sofa, blood spurting out through my fingers.
But the blood did not upset me at all. "Ah, now I can tell what it's like to get shot." "Well, Here I am dying now at last." That's what flicked through my mind. All human beings, when cornered to the brink, may feel this way, not clinging to life at all, accepting the reality as it is. Then, the entire restaurant resounded again with another dry-sounding shot. I looked in the direction of the gun shot, to see Murakami closing in on Tetsu, only 2m to him with a gun thrust up in his front in his clasped hands, ready to fire. Then halted his advance. His eyes burst open, another gun shot was heard.
My eyes were being fixed on the muzzle of the gun when this happened. What I saw was some blackish stuff shot out of the gun with gun smoke. Well, it should only be "what I thought I saw" rather than "What I saw". But I did see it clearly, at least I felt that way. Murakami got closer to Tetsu, and blasted another shot into his body. The bullet bounced off as Tetsu got pounded down on the couch on his back. Seeing this, Takita who had been sitting next to me, leaped to his feet and tried to run away from Murakami, with an incomprehensible roar. This turned out to be the fatal move for Takita. Spontaneously responding to this roar, Murakami turned around and shot Takita in the abdomen. Two dry-sounding gunshots were heard, one after the other. Takita got bounced back and fell over backward.
Confirming what had been accomplished, the two hit men hurried off toward the staircase. I heard them shouting "Get hell out of my way" to the milling crowd of guests. And at this moment, Takita suddenly got to his feet, looking furious and ran after Kuniba with a warring shout as if squeezed out of his guts. It might be his animalistic instinct for revenge. He staggered after them, but dropped to the floor near the staircase.
On Sept. 26 the Kyoto Shinbun newspaper reported this incident with a headline in the social affairs section, "Shooting out at a Fushimi restaurant, throwing some 20 dining people into panic, and putting the police on alert to gangster battles" It reported in detail that Kitamoto and Takita were shot by two men who walked up to them from another table, and that some twenty dining people fled from the restaurant in panic. The two hit men were described as in their early twenties, clad in blue combat uniform. It also said that the two got into the restaurant with another man before noon, and they left the restaurant once. It was when we, including Testsu and me, were discussing the matter that they returned to sit at a table some 10 m away from us. And on having the order taken by the waiter, they suddenly got up and walked up to our table, and shot at us some 1.5 m away from us. The description was followed by the chief of the restaurant's account.
Mr. Hirata, the chief said "I heard "pang, pang" as if balloons were bursting. So I headed for the dining room. On the way, two men came rushing toward me and passed me by yelling "Get hell out of my way", who were followed by a man with blood all over his abdomen, who finally crouched down. The dining guests all stood up to see what was going on. I yelled, "It's all right. Please remain seated", but to no avail. All of them fled from the restaurant. It's regrettable that such incident has happened by the broad daylight. It makes me shudder at the thought of what would have happened to the group of eight female customers seated close to where it happened, I mean stray bullets or..... Please, don't let them get away with it." he bites his lips.
All that happened happened like slow motion playback of a film. There was no realty to it at all. I was shot myself but I didn't feel that way. It felt as if it happened to somebody else. But the acute pain in my stomach suddenly brought me back to the reality. I looked at Tetsu on the couch, to find that he was in a convulsive fit, seized with paralysis all over, half his body slipped off the couch.
Tetsu had tattoo almost all over. So he had to wear long-sleeved cloth even on a hottest summer day to hide his forearms tattooed down to the wrists. On that day he was wearing a long-sleeved cotton sweater with a dark pair of pants, making it obvious he was the kind of man he was. I saw that sweater stained blackish red with his blood, and looking shining wet. The floor was a pool of blood.
"Tetsu, come on, come on, Tetsu" I cried to him. But he made no response to my voice, probably he couldn't hear any more. He remained paralyzed and seized with fit. It was apparent that he was dying.
When I looked around to see Fukuda, Yajima, and other young members, they were hiding themselves under a table, lying face-down on the couch, or standing upright petrified, but their faces pale and distorted. Looking at those faces, I knew I had to leave the place, taking them with me. We had to get out before the police came. "Get up" I said to Fukuda and others, grabbing them by the collar and drive them on to the staircase. My wound hurt with every step. Some were still in stupor, unable to come to terms with what had happened while some, having realized the gravity of what took place, rushing downstairs. Takita lying by the staircase had no sign of life left in him as I glanced at him when I rushed past him.
Shoving Fukuda and others into the car I had parked in the restaurant's parking lot, I jump-started the car. Dropping Fukuda and others near Kosei General Construction, I headed for Tokyo as leaving Kyoto as soon as I could was all I had to do. I got on the Meishin Expressway at Kyoto South Interchange, and drove on toward Tokyo, keeping in the lane for overtaking, with the car violently shaking as I was doing over 150km/h. Still confused, I tried to repeat to myself what had happened wondering whether I got hit by a stray bullet or the hit man just blundered. I couldn't image Iwamaru-gumi trying to kill me. "Can I rule out the possibility?" I kept wondering about this as I drove on.
As I was approaching Tokyo, the wound in my abdomen began to hurt so unbearably that I had to pull over to check the wound. The bullet was shot through my body at the right abdomen. It's not much of a wound, but it really hurt. The pain it caused could not compare with any pain I had ever had when I got stabbed or slashed. Just a mere thought of the bullet that might have penetrated me right through the center of my stomach made me shudder. I was also bleeding so much. I made a bandage out of the dry-cleaned shirt I had kept in the car, and tied it tight around the wound, but to no avail as far as alleviating the pain was concerned. The pain exacerbated as I got closer to Tokyo. Greasy sweat broke out on my face and back as I was getting fuzzy and hazy.
In an effort to get myself distracted from the pain, I switched the radio on. Soon the news was on the air, beginning with the report on the shooting incident at the Fushimi restaurant. I learned that Takita, taken to a hospital, had died. The incident was described as a Yamaguchi-gumi's shooting raid against Ichiwakai as part of the continuing battle between them. Hearing such a version of what had happened, I couldn't but force a wry smile, almost forgetting that I was in pain. Journalists these days are always like that, being to lazy to cover what they have to cover themselves, counting on the police-supplied information, and what's worse, never calling this practice into question. "No, it's not Hishi (Yamaguchi-gumi) that did that. It's Kyoto's Iwamaru. I hollered at the radio.
Probably because I was getting faint, I was indulging in vagrant thought such as "How may times have I left for Tokyo?" My first one took place in the spring when I was 19 years old, aspiring to become a revolutionary, carrying a Boston bag stuffed with as much as \500,000. The second one was when my company went bankrupt, carrying only \20,000 in my pocket. And this time, I am fleeing, bullet-wounded. What am I doing? Such a reflection as rarely had come to me before came to me. And my thought, increasingly getting hazy, came upon Tetsu. Looking back, he was a sad man, always pressed for money since he was a kid, and ended up getting killed because of money. His 37-year long life was spent on revenging himself on money. But to give this a more philosophical thought, his life in which his entire being was converted into money, epitomized the principle and fate of capitalism more than anything.
"Tetsu, you have already pained, struggled and enjoyed a lot more than ordinary mortals in this money world of capitalism. You have lived enough to be killed, haven't you? Why don't you start over a new life out there on the other side of this world, going through the carnage of life for money as you have done in this world."
In and out of my mind was Tetsu's face. But all the faces I saw were those of his childhood.
Let me tell you a little bit more about the aftermath of the incident. I drove on toward Tokyo, but found myself unable to go on any more on the way. So I stayed at a hotel in Yokohama. It was already late at night. I called one of my friend I had known from my college days at Waseda University. He was my junior, and was busy man traveling around the world as a businessman. But he rushed to my hotel, followed by many others from different walks of life he had informed about my plight, setting their jobs aside.
As it was a gun-shot wound, I couldn't get myself treated by a doctor. After all, it was only a wound inflicted by a bullet that penetrated me through the side, not serious enough for professional medical treatment. But my friends went out to knock on the door of a pharmacy already closed for the day, and bought me medicines. To the extent I got overcome with this kindness, I tried to appear stylish saying "All I need is Oronine Ointment" That's all I could do to reciprocate their kindness.
Four days after the incidence, Kuniba Koichi and Murakami Akihiro surrendered themselves to Fushimi Police Station with the .38 caliber revolver guns they used in the shooting, and confessed that they killed Kitamoto Tetsuya and others. Throughout the investigation at the police and trials, they insisted persistently that the shooting was accidental and had nothing to do with Iwamaru-gumi at all. The judge was said to show some sympathy with the two but they were sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment. They are still in prison. Killing or killed, yakuza is a sad being, indeed.
Around the time they turned themselves in, I had a call from a detective in Kyoto Prefecture Police, telling me to come to Kyoto as they had some questions to ask me.
"Restaurant, Fushimi? What happened?" I said, pretending to know nothing about it. Of course, I didn't expect him to back down.
"Come clean. We know that you were there from the testimonies by those involved."
"So what. It was true that I was there. But I had nothing to do with it. I was a victim. I am busy now. If you need to see me, come over here."
So Kyoto Prefecture Police sent two detectives over to Tokyo to see me at Keio Plaza Hotel. I told them almost everything I knew about the incident as I had nothing to do with it. I was never to get involved in this incident again after this investigation. Nor was the death of Kitamoto Tetsuya to escalate into a battle between M-gumi and Iwamaru-gumi. The matter was settled once for all at the summit talk between Yaizukotetsu and Kamoda with condolence money sent from Iwamaru-gumi to the individual victims and the organization. It was only a few days after the incident.
One thing I want to add. I don't know why, but Tetsu had taken out a \300 million life insurance policy. Probably he wasn't so serious about it and it might have been something his mistress or something asked him for. Tetsu, pressed for money since he was a kid, could at last get hold of a lot of money in return for his life. Tetsu has rushed his way through his short 37 years of his life and fell that way.