CAPITALISM'S ACHILLES HEEL Dirty Money and How to

114 CAPITALISM’S ACHILLES HEEL
became merchants and bureaucrats, but others resorted to roving banditry as
masterless samurai, or ronin, ennobled in the movie Seven Samurai. To defend
against them, other groups of toughs formed, called machi-yakko, or
servants of the town. Glorified in legend as chivalrous defenders of the weak,
they eventually descended into subgroups of gamblers and street peddlers
and, later, collections regarded simply as hoodlums. Living on the edges of
society, the term yakuza became attached to such gangs, referring to the
numbers eight, nine, and three, which is a hand held by losers in a popular
card game.
Ultranationalists began to capture the imagination of Japan in the late
1800s, advocating militarization and foreign expansion. They found natural
allies in secret criminal societies, which soon played important roles as intelligence
gatherers, provocateurs, and assassins in the occupation of Korea, in
the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, and later in the conquest and plunder
of Manchuria and China. Bonds between far right-wing politicians and
yakuza thugs solidified, while at the same time factions of radicals and conservatives
developed within the military. By the outset of World War II,
these two tracks were still evident in the Japanese armed forces, and a third
force, an independent yakuza with rightist political links, was no longer tolerable.
Many gang members found themselves either in uniform or in jail.
The U.S. occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1952 contributed to rebuilding
yakuza strength. From black-market distribution of rationed
goods, to control of docks, trucking, and massive new construction projects,
to blunting the ambitions of immigrated Chinese and Koreans, yakuza
gangs reasserted their might. As Mao’s communists took over China and
Japanese leftists threatened the democratic transition, U.S. occupiers, cooperating
Japanese politicians, and both sides’ intelligence and police services
found yakuza thugs especially useful in putting down Red sympathizers.
Long-time yakuza observers David Kaplan and Alec Dubro noted: “The
money, the favored treatment, and the privileged relationships accorded to
rightists and their gangster allies by U.S. officials created a corrupt power
structure that would last for decades. The yakuza now resumed their role in
Japanese politics—providing money and muscle—in a stronger position
than ever.” 127
A pivotal figure in yakuza resurgence was Yoshio Kodama, ex-spy and
profiteer in China. After the war, while held as a suspected war criminal in
Tokyo, he entrusted his considerable fortune to a right-wing cohort, who fi-