Tokyo Underworld, Robert Whiting
Tokyo Underworld, Robert Whiting
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Tokyo Underworld
The Fast Times and Hard Life of an American Gangster in Japan

Author: Robert Whiting

Narrator: Oliver Wyman

Unabridged: 12 hr 14 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/07/2020

Synopsis

A riveting account of the role of Americans in the evolution of the Tokyo underworld in the years since 1945.

In the ashes of postwar Japan lay a gold mine for certain opportunistic, expatriate Americans.  Addicted to the volatile energy of Tokyo's freewheeling underworld, they formed ever-shifting but ever-profitable alliances with warring Japanese and Korean gangsters.  At the center of this world was Nick Zappetti, an ex-marine from New York City who arrived in Tokyo in 1945, and whose restaurant soon became the rage throughout the city and the chief watering hole for celebrities, diplomats, sports figures, and mobsters.

Tokyo Underworld chronicles the half-century rise and fall of the fortunes of Zappetti and his comrades, drawing parallels to the great shift of wealth from America to Japan in the late 1980s and the changes in Japanese society and U.S.-Japan relations that resulted.  In doing so, Whiting exposes Japan's extraordinary "underground empire": a web of powerful alliances among crime bosses, corporate chairmen, leading politicians, and public figures.  It is an amazing story told with a galvanizing blend of history and reportage.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Katherine

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.......more

Goodreads review by David

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......more

Goodreads review by Kevin

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......more

Goodreads review by Joichi

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

Quotes

"Among the most important archives in the CIA's vaults are those concerned with how the US rigged Japan's postwar political system and made the place into a docile satellite for America's Cold War foreign policies. Robert Whiting has, on his own, investigated the US government's postwar use of the neo-fascist right and the criminal underworld in its activities (much as it did in postwar Italy). Tokyo Underworld is a powerful glimpse into the real world of the Japanese economic "miracle" and the costs the US government and the American people paid to maintain their empire in East Asia."
---Chalmers Johnson, author of Japan: Who Governs?

"Tokyo Underworld is a fascinating look at some fascinating people who show how democracy advances hand in hand with crime in Japan."
---Mario Puzo, author of The Godfather

"Richard Whiting has delivered a thoroughly engrossing story of Japan's post-war underground empire. Tokyo Underworld is a comprehensive and intriguing expose of the unholy web that consisted of many colorful gangsters, politicians, ex-GI's, and corporate titans. Whiting has presented a riveting slice of history that is little reported or known in the West.
--Gerald Posner, author of Killing the Dream

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