VLVL2 (9): '78 yakuza street wars

[Tim Strzechowski]

147.29:  "Takeshi kept his hand on the door handle but forgot, each time the cab slowed, to jump out.  It was '78, during a period of epic and bloody street war among all major factions of the yakuza, and no place public was safe from liability."

*Do note in the above the word "liability," considering Takeshi's profession.  Also, note the reference to Boeing, below:

 
"In the years following World War II, yakuza membership increased dramatically to 184,000 members divided into 5,200 gangs throughout the country, making it larger than the Japanese army at the time.  Inevitably these gangs encroached on one another's territories, which resulted in  bitter and bloody gang wars.  The man who brought peace to the warring factions and unified the yakuza was the group's first 20th-century godfather, Yoshio Kodama. [...]

"Kodama was a pivotal figure in the notorious Lockheed scandal that emerged in 1976 when it was revealed that the aircraft giant had paid the godfather more than two million dollars to influence the Japanese market away from McDonnell-Douglas and Boeing and toward Lockheed.  To do this, Kodama sent a gang of sokaiya (shareholders' meeting men) to disrupt a meeting of All Nippon Airways stockholders. [...]

"The other legendary godfather of the yakuza was Kazuo Taoka, oyabun of Japan's largest crime family, the Yamaguchi-gumi.  [...]

"In July 1978, at the age of 65, Taoka survived an attempt on his life.  He was enjoying a limbo performance at the Bel Ami nightclub in historic Kyoto when a young man named Kiyoshi Narumi walked up to the godfather's table, pulled out a .38-caliber pistol, and started shooting.  Despite the presence of five bodyguards, Taoka was hit in the neck, and the assassin managed to escape.  Taoka was rushed to the hospital in his bulletproof black Cadillac. [...]"

http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/gang/yakuza/3.html?sect=25

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