Want to take your gang war to the next level? Try buying a rocket launcher! In this wild episode, we learn about the history of one of the world’s best-known criminal organizations, the split that launched a bloody turf war, and the linguistic complications of saying “yes” to arms dealers.
Featured image: A group of yakuza members show off their tattoos at a festival. Although there are restrictions on when members of the yakuza can do things like display tattoos, the Japanese government has a very different relationship with the yakuza than western countries do with similar criminal organizations. (Image source)
A piece from the early 1900s showing a tattooed yakuza running to help his friend, who’s fighting with the police. (Image source)
A group of gamblers at an illegal casino in 1949. (Image source)
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The daimon (emblem) of the Yamaguchi-gumi. (Image source)
Members of the yakuza show off their tattoos at a special festival. (Image source)
A former member of the yakuza discusses western portrayals of the yakuza in film.
Sources
- Yakuza: Japan’s Criminal Underworld
- Sunny Skies, Shady Characters: Cops, Killers, and Corruption in the Aloha State
- Mulboyne
- TV Funeral for Japan’s Slain Godfather
- Firearm and Sword Possession Control Law
- Japan — Gun Facts, Figures and the Law
- Number of firearm deaths in the United States from 1990 to 2018
- Deaths Due to Injury by Firearms per 100,000 Population
- THE JAPANESE FIREARM AND SWORD POSSESSION CONTROL LAW: TRANSLATOR’S INTRODUCTION
- Major Japanese crime figure arrested in Hawaii
- Reputed Japanese Crime Figures Indicted on Drug, Weapons Charges
- Lawyer claims U.S. agents duped wrestler
- Aizuchi
- Honolulu Advertiser, “Japanese Crime Figures Held Without Bail”, September 11, 1985
- “Yakuza Implicates Four Defendants”, Honolulu Advertiser April 5, 1986
- “Smuggler Gets Six Years”, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, October 7, 1986
- “Last yakuza not convicted; jurors criticize case” Honolulu Advertiser, May 3, 1986