(TAPE 12) Nicola Interview Nov 16, 1989)
(Includes: Narcotics, Black Market Liquor Etc., Ginza Machii, Pimping-Hotel New York, Ginza Machii, Yokota Gang & TSK, King of Korea, Roppongi, Trade-D. Trump)
SIDE A
(Counter 000)
(NARCOTICS)
Q: Was there a lot of hard drugs back in the immediate postwar era or the 50’s
A: Before I opened my restaurant, there was this friend of mine, his name was William Kayes. He’s probably dead by now, but anyway, Frank Nomura was a little bit close to that. We used to go to a coffee shop on then Ginza. Something like a coffee shop or a half-assed coffee shop and a bar…And I remember the medical doctor from the U.S. Army hospital would come over and give him benzedrine shots. But he was not a eater. He was strictly a drinker..And I think that the doctor might have been making a little money on the side.. But I think he was charging 50 yen a shot, which wasn’t much money in those days. But there was no stampede or anything like that. To me, I’d say. What’s you’re talking about. I doubt that there was even more than 10 people in the whole city who even thought about it. It was out of my knowledge. I know they were fooling around with benzedrine shots.
Q: I thought all the workers were those, the benzedrine. There was a big problem. In fact the government had to establish a policy towards that.,
A: It’s possible, but like I say it’s not in my realm of things if that’s the way you say it. Why? Why would they take it? They’re tired and all this and all that. Basically they’re tired. To give them energy. That’s what benzedrine does. But I think you might equate that with the fact that it’s very very hard to get a job. Day laborers….Possibly, they had to go there and look like they were hustle and bustle and maybe they took the shots just to impress the foreman who’s gonna hire them. So it might be a certain segment of the population that’s doing that. Day laborers. And people that get a one day job. Construction. Or anything. But the society in Japan is generally not drug related. In all my years here, in all my drinking and playing around, I never seen a drug. I know my friend Kenny Pearce used to take uppers….I took one one day. And fuck I went in the police station and I was looking to fight with the police. When that son-of-a bitch wore off I had to question myself “you gotta be crazy to do that.”
Q: Tell me about that. Going to the police station.
A: I was looking for trouble. With the Azabu police station. I tell you.
Q: When was this?
A: 1960.
Q: When did this guy William Kayes get his shots?
A: Probably 1950. I was already out of the military in 1950, so it had to be after that. It was my free days between 1950 and 1956.
Q: The doctor came over and gave him a shot in the coffee shop?
A: Well, he used to go behind a curtain. But, it was right there. And of course, the guy was still in a military uniform. Bill was civilian clothes. He was just another loser. …It must have been very close to 1956. Cuz when I opened my restaurant, I used to feed him free. So would be 55, 54, 56.57.
Q: What about other drugs? Grass?
A: Naw, to me, like I told you, I was not involved in those things. Kenny would take something, I know. Course, he’d hide it. But he never ate. He never drank whiskey. He was an American Indian from Hood River Oregon. And then he was some sort of an entertainer. He was a comedian. He worked the military circuit. Telling jokes. He worked at Club 88 telling jokes. He was a very funny guy. So I guess in his trade, they were used to that kind of stuff.
This fucking place is cold.
Q: But in that whole period from 46 to the…let’s say they got their act together by the late 50’s…Japan by then was fairly well organized. They were poor and all that. The real rough and tumble years were 46 to the mid-50’s.
A: Well yes. I’d say the rough years were 1946 to 1952 when Japan signed the peace treaty. I worked in the military until 1950. So I’d say I opened my restaurant in 1956, so 1955, I got arrested in 1956. January. So, to me they were very rough years up until 1956.
Q: Economically
A: Economically, for everybody. There was no such thing as money. A thousand yen, you were a rich man. Because I remember when I got in trouble in 1956, when this friend of mine stole the Imperial Hotel Diamonds, I asked for $500 from the States. And My father sent me $500. And I think that was 180,000 yen or something.like that. 360 to 1 right? And that was a tremendous amount of money. 180,000 yen in those days was monster money. And the police didn’t believe me. And I told you I did it another time. I did it 2 or 3 times. And finally they sez “Ah, this guy’s got too much money to be a thief.” But then I guess all thieves are rich. That’s why they’re thieves.
But when I opened my first restaurant, I think salaries were like 2,000 yen a month, or 3,000 yen, at the most. Probably 2,000 a month.
Q: So this Army doctor was giving shots on the side, then.
A: Yeah.
Q: Was Kayes out of the army then.
A: Oh, yeah. Shall we say “free enterprisers.” But Kayes was not a businessman. He was not in my category. I would think about how to make money. And I had no scruples how I made money.I have to live. I had a wife and 2 kids and I had a mistress. I had to support myself and three or four other people. And this guy I just spoke to in Moscow, he used to work for me. He was 18 years old. He was a Russian.
And this guy, his name is Baborov as you heard. And we had another one, Leo Yuskoff. And another one, George Trentioff. And these 3 White Russians, they didn’t have citizenship. They were allowed to do anything they wanted, break any law, and the Russian Embassy would protect them. But they were not allowed to get caught for illegal parking. Shall we say social crimes. Economic crimes. They could do anything they wanted economically. So we used to sell dollars and black market canned goods. You name it. All that kind of shit. So this kid..
Q: What’d you sell?
A: Anything. Anything. Anything we could get our hands on.
Q: Any drugs at all.
A: No drugs. We never dealt in drugs.
Q: Any medication at all. Pharmaceutical?
A: Nothing. Nothing like that. Now I know one prick. William Cheney who lives in Birmingham Alabama today. You can write his name. Why that son of a bitch. Wallace Cheney. Warren Cheney. Wallace Cheney something like that. Now this guy was in the MP’s at Tachikawa and he used to steal penicillin. You know the liquid. And he used to siphon out some of the penicillin and put water in it. And make like 3 bottles out of one.And he used to peddle it.
To me that was unscrupulous.Terrible son of a bitching thing.
Q: What do you call those things? Bottles? Tubes?
A: No they’re bottles. Little bottles with a rubber cap. And they can stick the needle in through the cap and draw it out. But I know he used to sell them….But you know in those days, everybody had a little deal that they were doing. And generally, they would never tell you what they were doing. /Cuz then you’d do what they’re doing. So they don’t want to invite competitions…so they had little gimmicks. So this guy’s forte was penicillin.
That other doctor was selling fucking “Hiropon” …they called it Hiropon (Philopon).
Nick: Anata, hiropon wakaru? (You know what hiropon is?)
Waiter: Hiropon wakarimasu. (I know Hiropon)
Nick: Itsu hajimete no…hiropon. (When did hiropon start?)
Waiter: Ah, boku wakaran. (I don’t know)
Nick: Kore wa yaku (it’s a drug)
Waiter: So.(yes)
Nick: Daoitai ippatsu, ikura. (About how much was one hit)
Waiter: (laughing) Sore wa wakaranai. (I don’t know that.)
See. It was that big, he knew about it.
So the problem was here. But Hiropon is what …You know what Hiropon is?
Q: No.
A: It’s a drug. It could be the Japanese word for benezedrine. (philopon–a kind of metha amphetamine)
Xxxx He’s not so old. You gotta get a guy about 50 or 55 and ask him what hiropon is. But I know that this is probably benzedrine. But like I told you when I decided I was going to commit suicide, you could just go to the store and buy fucking anything you want.
Q: You could buy hiropon?
A: I don’t know if you could buy hiropon (yes, you could until 1949) I imagine you probably could. Cuz I bought sleeping pills. Forgot the name of the sleeping pills. But like I said, it’s an element of people that I was not affiliated with.
Q: Back then, did you know what coacaine was? And heroin?
A: No. No there was none…you might call that a hard drug. There was no such thing here. I don’t think…I don’t think marijuana or opium or cocaine, now I know…you can mention the guy’s name because he’s dead now, Scotty De La Roche. He used to be King Kong in the entertainment world. He’d wear a gorilla uniform. And I know he told me that he would take this black paste in the gorilla uniform and take it to Tokyo. But that black paste is cocaine. But he brought it up from S.E. Asia somewhere, but …because, cocaine, to us it’s white, right?…But he says black paste. I’m under the impression that he was bringing in cocaine. But what they called it at that time. That’s a long time ago. 15-20 years ago. So there must have been a market. But it must have been a very, very quiet market. There was no police percussion. There was nobody getting in trouble in the streets or anything like that. So it was a very, shall we say, it might have been in society, but it was extremely low key. Because in all my days…we served 20,000 people a month in this restaurant, you know my 5 restaurants, in those days I imagine I probably did more. But we never had any incident where somebody was under the influence of drugs. And my place was the in place. You had to go to my place if you were anybody..
(BLACK MARKET LIQUOUR, Etc. )
Q: How about whiskey? Selling that on the black market?
A: Well, there was always that business. Whiskey was a very good business. You get it from the military. Like in my particular position, we used to buy black market whiskey, we used to buy Chianti black market, we used to buy all this crap on the black market because you couldn’t get it legally. The Japanese wouldn’t let it come in. So you go and you take a bottle of Johnny Walker, whichever, any name you want, and it had the stamp on it that it had been imported, you’ve seen these stamps, even today they’ve got them, then you use the bottle, you finish it, then you go get another one from the military and you fill it up again. And you’re serving legitimate Canadian Club or V.O. or whatever you want to call it, but the bottle that it comes in, you have to throw it away, because that bottle don’t have a stamp. And when the tax man comes in, he goes behind the bar and he starts looking at all these bottles to see if they got stamps on them.
Then he’d say to you, “This bottle here has been a long, long time. Look how old it is.” You know. And of course, you can’t say I filled it up 20 times. Like in my case I say “We’re in the restaurant business. We sell pizza and beer. We don’t sell much whiskey. That’s why the bottle is old.”
The Japanese were rotgut drinkers. They were not…there was no high class shit in Japan. They couldn’t afford Johnny Walker. They couldn’t afford even crap liquour. They had what they called .45. Which was rotgut. I mean all the refinement that you see about the Japanese today, hey, he acquired that after the 1950’s. After the 1960’s. Before that, he was just an ordinary bum.
Q: What about antibiotics in those days. You could buy them over the counter in Japan. At a drugstore?
A:No, I doubt it. I think even doctors would have a hard job buying penicillin, or what’s the other one, begins with a T. Tetracyclin. They were hard to get. That’s what I was saying Cheney was doing. Because if they were easy to get, there would be no black market. But in those days, 1955-56, there was a black market for everything.
Q:They get the antibiotics from the base and sell them.
A: Sure. There was always somebody willing to make a few bucks who had access to the dispensary.
Q: Was there any kind of medicine at all, like you would sell black market, that was expensive, like Contac, stuff like that.
A: No….They only way you get these things is you have to know somebody in the military.
Q: It’s all stuff you can buy over the counter in the military.
A: But you can’t bring that into Japan, see. There was no imports. You couldn ‘t bring it in. The only way you could do anything like that, you’d have to go through the base drugstore and buy it, or the commisary or the px. There was no way you could import anything. They don’t let nothing come in the country. Like I remember I bought a 1946 Ford to Japan which would be 1947 probably, and I don’t how many pounds or how many pounds or tens of pounds I bought those cigarette lighter flints. Because those days lighter flints were hard to come by. And I brought them into Japan and I think I sold them for more money than the car cost. I bought a convertible 46 Ford.
So today the market might be cocaine, but in those days, they were not that affluent that they could buy cocaine to get a high. They were looking to eat. They were looking for medicine to cure themselves of whatever they got. They were not looking for drugs for the sake of enjoyment.
You know, it was not an affluent society.
Today the guy’s got money. He don’t care. He goes out and gets himself a fix or whatever they call that shit, crack and what not. He doesn’t care. $50 or $100. He’s got that money. But in Japan in those days they didn ‘t have no money. If they could buy bread, they were very grateful.
It’s same as if you go to a country like Pakistan and you want to sell the guy a tv. And he says, “What’s that?” You say, “You plug it into electricity.” And you say, “What’s electricity?” Eh?
Q: What are the other things you sold in your black market operation.
A: Anything and everything. Materials. Canned Goods.
Q: Materials like what?
A: Silks.Woolen materials. Imported London Tweeds. I had a store on the Ginza that was selling all canned goods. If anybody bought the canned goods, I’d get mad because they’d ruin my fucking display on the shelf. You sell the by the cases, you know And that was all military payment certificates. They weren’t allowed to buy with Japanese yen. They were using MPC’s in those days. But I think after 1952, the MPC’s went out of the…Of course, there was always the military, but they used MPC’s. Military Payment Certificates printed by the military. Convertible to dollars. But not convertible back. Or you can buy, with dollars you can buy MPC’s, but you can not buy dollars with MPC’s. It’s a one way street.
Q: What else? Materials. Canned goods.
A: Daily necessities. But you can’t buy, not milk butter or things like that. Just things that can be imported and preserved, properly without refrigeration and w/o freezing, because they didn’t have those facilities here.
Okinawa was a different land. Okinawa was more. You can buy anything in Okinawa. Guys sell you a side of beef. Steal from the commisary. But up here, there was, you couldn’t get that….
I used to black market beer. I got court martialed for that.
Q: You told me that story. Where’d you get the beer…from the base?
A: You get the tickets to buy beer from the PX. And you take it to the beer warehouse, and you take it to the beer factory and you give’em the tickets and you…cuz the tickets are already paid for. And they loaded your vehicle or your truck or whatever you wanted with…we used to do it in truckloads.
In those days when I was in the military, they’d give you 20 bottles of liquor for 20 dollars. It was assorted liquours. You’d get a liquer. You’d get scotch. You’d get wine. You get everything. And I tell you we used to throw it into the (garbed) can…the whole 20 bottles and get a big chunk of ice, and that was our drinking. Boy, that used to knock you on your butt.
Q: What kind of profit could you make on beer? Double the price?
A: Ah, no. You made a lot of money on beer. I think beer was 160 yen a bottle. About 40 cents. And I imagine we bought it very cheap. But you see, the Japanese, beer was a good business, because they don’t drink water. Water in those days was not pure. So everybody who wanted something to drink, they drank beer. And because water was no good, you got the same problem, nobody drinks “mizuwari” (whiskey water). Unless at home you got a bottle and you boil the water.
(GINZA MACHII)
Q: How did …yakuza wars & fights…You told me about that guy Ginza Machii….But you were never involved in any of that, till guy stuck a gun in your head?
A: Oh, yeah. That was the Ikeda. He stuck a gun to me and I stuck a knife to him. I told you that right…Well, the Roppongi Zoku (Roppongi Tribe), that was over here. What you call today, the Yakuza. They didn’t call them Yakuza in those days. I don’t think they did. But they terrorized Roppongi. They terrorized the Ginza. They terrorized everyplace.
Q: How’d they do that?
A: “Volume.” Wise guys. A lot of noise. Konedo (?)…They go in your place and you ain’t gonna get rid of them unless you play the game or givin’ them something. Then after a while, it becomes a regular collection system. I never had that trouble. Because I was a foreigner. Then can bullshit Japanese, but it’s very hard to fool around with a foreigner, especially if the foreigner was big like me. I’m 220. I don’t give a fuck who the guy is. Or how many they are. It don’t mean shit. But, of course, there’s a lot of Japanese.
But that’s how Ginza Machii…I told you how he got big. He just opened a Korean Restaurant and sent his boys out to get customers. The food could have been terrible. They could have got sick. But they paid a high bill. And he became a multi-millionaire. Legitimately. He didn’t need crime.
Of course, today’s crime and those days crime is very different.
Q: You mean they just go walk down the street and grab somebody and bring’em to the restaurant?
A: Yeah. They come up to the guy…let’s say you got a place on the Ginza, you got a bar or something and they go with you and you say “Come on let’s go over to Ginza Machii’s Korean restaurant.” The guy says, “I don’t like Korean food.” He says, “Come on, let’s go.” You say, “Yes.” See.
And he had like 4,000 “policeman” on the Ginza. All little yakuza’s. So it’s very easy for them to bring in two or three hundred customers a day. That’s no trouble.
But you see in those days, you couldn’t sell broads. Today the pimp is making money and ….in those days the girls were plentiful. All you had to do is smile and no trouble with a girl. No, of course, the yakuza makes money on whoring. And supply girls to clubs. And all that other crap. But those days, there’s no such thing. There were more girls willing to say yes than guys to ask them.
(PIMPING: HOTEL NEW YORK)
Q: Why was that?
A: Because the girls came up to Tokyo to make money….
I believe if you check your history, the Japanese used to have their whores follow the armies, right. So what the hell. What’s the difference between a Japanese army in Malaysia with all those whores. And the American army in Tokyo. The girls will follow anyway. How would the girls say that: “A dick is a dick is a dick?” They’re all the same. Almost.
Q: So you paid the girl, right? She’d smile. But you had to pay her.
A: Yeah.
Q: Oh, you’re talking about pimping, oh I see.
A: In those days, there were very little pimps. What can the pimp do? He can’t control no girls. The pimping business got big in Japan during the Korean War. But I don’t know if I told you that. They used to call them “nabeya.” And they used to…like I was involved with the Hotel New York, in Mukojima…I never forget. I had 52 rooms. And the GI from Korea used to come there…And they didn’t want to call themselves whores. They called themselves “only.” Because they only stay with one GI for one week. His R&R was one week. And the pimp would pick up these guys in the street. “Want to stay at a hotel?” you know. They used to catch these guys these guys as soon as they got off the base or whatever it was…the route was. And they bring them to a hotel…like they bring them to the Hotel New York. And they bring 4 guys or 5 guys or 10 guys, and they line up 20-30 girls. And you pick the one you want. And they make a contract that you stay with her for one week. You feed her. You buy her whatever she wants., if she wants something. And you get a hotel room and a broad for a certain price.
Q: You made the contract with the pimp?
A: Yeah. GI’d say this girl here. And, I don’t know what the fees were in those days. But the GI would say, I like that one. And that’s it. OK. Next guy. I like that one. And that’s a loss (?)../.And they paid maybe $50 a day. Or $25. I don’t know how much. I can’t remember. And the girls stayed with him, and they got up in the morning and they had breakfast together.
See. I used to put slot machines in the hotels in those days. I told you. I used to bug them so nobody could win.
It’s like the circles go all the way around. There’s a guy asking me to bring in 100 slot machines to Yalta. You know what he said? “I can control every machine that comes into Russia.” But anyway, so.
(GINZA MACHII)
Q: What did Ginza Machii look like?
A: Well, Ginza Machii was a young strong man. He was a young strong man. He’s probably about 60 now.6 feet 1′ or 2″. He weighed a good 200 pounds. A big guy, yeah. Course, those days, yes. And I would say he was a nasty guy. And from what I heard, In don’t know how true it is, he used to live near the Sugamo Prison. And, you know where they kept the war criminals. And now it’s a mint, right. Anyway, the last time I was there it was a mint. I used to make coins for my slot machines there. But anyway. I hear the kids in the neighborhood used to call him to fight the MP’s. And that’s I think, the start of his criminal activities. He started out just as a tough guy, pretty soon he had 3 or 4 guys with him, then 10, and then 20…and then pretty soon…
Q: Why would they call him to fight the MP’s.
A: Cuz the American MP’s were nasty bastards. Maybe they go in a bar and they make noise and what are you doing with black market whiskey or cigarettes or you know. Those kind of things. They are probably honest law enforcement kids. But they were always with….they don’t go home to their wives, they go home to broads. They human.
Q: What’d you say? They go in the bar and do what
A: They shake down the bar. They can arrest the owner. For having illegal whiskey. & for having illegal cigarettes. And then they always had their fucking Japanese informers, who would tell them that guy is doing this and that guy is doing that. That’s how I got arrested. They had a Japanese informer who squealed on me. But that was his national duty to fuck up the Americans, I guess.
But at the end I came out better.
Q: You think I could meet him. Talk to him?
A: Whew….
Q: No, huh?
A: Well, he’s very, very difficult to get to. He lives right over here. Even I can not get in there. And he’s a personal friend of mine for 20-30 years. So it would be very difficult. Cuz…I doubt if you can get in there….You don’t want to play that …he’s a dangerous man….He’s retired now. He’s got a bad heart. He’s physically probably sick worse than I am. But still, he’s extremely highly respected by the fucking gangsters. So if he gets….
I told you what he did to Maurice one day….Remember I told you the guy was sitting with the French counselor?
Q: Oh, took him outside and beat the shit out of him.
A: You better believe it. Cuz he just didn’t say hello. Jesus…You. Even I don’t press my luck. I don’t insist on seeing him. They come here. His gangster boys come here. Different groups come to my restaurant. They act like….
I tell you they are probably better gentlemen than some of the fucking customers. Because this is not where they make money, this is where they spend money. Where they make money they’re probably son of a bitches.
But if you ever go to Hawaii, I can introduce you to some of his ex-henchmen, who live in Hawaii.
But these guys, you’re never gonna get anything out of them. They’re never gonna talk. I would probably…I’d give up that route. It’s too dangerous….
Q: What about the…can you describe any of the gang wars then.
A: Well, there wasn’t to me….I told you the story of how he became the boss…you know the 3 guys. And to me, he was the boss of Tokyo. And that’s it. And up in Hokkaido is still their domain. I don’t know who’s got Kyushu but I had trouble with a gang…I had trouble in Yokota on time. I dealt with…I didn’t know who the hell they were but his name was Yoshida and they tried to grab the restaurant..
(YOKOTA GANG & TSK)
And I called these guys and they had one killed. They came up there with Japanese swords and machine guns…oohh, I tell you….They didn’t fuck around. The police run away.
Q: Tell me that again?
A: I opened a restaurant in Yokota with a Japanese partner. And I bought the land. And I put the building up. And he was my partner, I don’t know why, I can’t remember the details. And everynight what we sold, we’d send the money in the morning to the bank, and that bastard would take it out in the afternoon. And in the first month when I wrote checks to pay my bills, they all bounced. So, of course, the bank says “Who took the money out.” So I got that guy and I want my money back. And he called gangsters. They’re from Tanashi City between here and Yokota. And this guy Yoshida came out, who probably today is a very, very big wheel….And this Mr. Yoshida came out with a white shirt, white tie, a white suit. All that crap. And if I got to run into that kind of people, I picked up the phone, I called Crime Incorporated, Mr. Machii, I say, “I got trouble here.” And this that and the other thing. And it was a sort of standoff gang war.
But they did knife each other….one of the kids that I brought up from Tokyo got killed. They cut his stomach out. And of course, they must have lost some dead too. (note: Only Tanashi lost a soldier, by knife). And, I got the restaurant.
Q: He do this just because of you?
A: Yeah.
Q: Because you asked him.
A: Yeah. I make to make money because I don’t know how much money was involved, but the guy had to pay 2 or 3 times the amount of money. (i.e. Nick bought him out). And they had to pay…when somebody dies you got to pay a lot of money to the bereaved family. They paid. They paid everything. (note: Nick paid solatium via TSK) Machii. Machii was a powerful, powerful man in those days.
Q: Who paid?
A: They did.
Q: Ginza Machii made them pay.
A: Oh, yeah, they paid….he didn’t get killed at my restaurant. He got killed outside. One of the bars or something like that. So wherever these two groups would meet there would be a fight. And I’m pretty sure the police probably got involved when there’s a death in…and asked them to settle their agreements. Machii’s boys would have killed all off them.
Q: How’d this guy get knifed in the bar. Tell me about that?
A: I don’t know. There was an argument. Somebody had a knife. And cut his fucking stomach. And, of course, there must have been other people dead. But I only know one of our side was killed…I don’t know what the other side had. (Note: in later tapes. Yae contradicts this. Says Tanashi kid got knifed by TSK. That’s only death. Nick paid solatium via TSK. Bought out Yokota partner…+ N. got stolen money back) …
And I got my restaurant back. I got all my money back. Plus some more. And they had to keep paying to the Crime Incorporated. And they had to keep paying for the kid that died.
But this Tanashi group, they cannot fight people like Ginza Machii. Machii has thousands of god damn of you call’em yakuza. He had thousands of members for Christs Sakes. He could have had ten or 15 or 20 thousand members. You don’t play games with those kinds of people.
Tell’em to kill Bob Whiting and they’re gonna put a big sign up and say, “We’re gonna kill Bob Whiting and they’ll march right down to Kamakura. They won’t even take the train. And everybody can see the sign and know where they’re going. And you ain’t about to stop them.
Q: Why did he do that for you? Just because he liked you?
A: We were friends. We palled out together. We drank together. We were buddy-buddies. And remember, you know, those people didn’t know who I really was. I’m an Italian from New York. I can hobnob with those kind of people. They take me in as one of theirs. I only wish they still thought of me like that. I’d get rid of some of the fuckin’ trade deficit.
(Note: Yae says Nick paid him)
Q: When was the last time you saw Ginza Machii?
A: Oh, ten years ago. 12 years ago. I met him by accident in Immigration. He was getting a visa and I was getting a visa.
Q: What was that like?
A: That’s the last I saw him. And after that he got sick. You know, the old days, Immigration visas were down in Shinagawa. But not like today. You can’t even get near the fucking place. Thousands and thousands and thousands of god damn applicants. Those days it wasn’t that bad. Still took time. Today you get it quick right. If you can get to the window…But after that, he got sick. We went different ways. But his henchmen would always come around. I mean I could pick up the phone and call them. And soon I’d have one or two come here real quick like.
But today these guys are sophisticated. They’re not what they used to be.
Today they all got their niches and they don’t let nobody know what they’re doing. It isn’t like the gangster in the States. Dutch Schulz was selling beer. This guy running the numbers on the horses or…this country I don’t know what they’re doing….Like they talk about a Medellen cartel that’s selling dope. Today what the Japanese gangster does is very difficult to analyze. Or advertise. He’s there. There’s no question about it. They pass a lot of money among themselves. I mean I’ve seen that.
Did you ever go to Machii’s Caravansari?
Q: Once about ten years ago.
A: Must have cost you and arm and a leg.
Q: I didn’t pay. The president of Grolier took me there. I remember that. Guy named H. Nakao. Back in 1972.
A: So book salesmen were making money.
Q: They were making a lot of money. Shit. Fucking Britannica.
(Story about Britannica. Salesman of the month story. Arrested in Kobe for harassing potentialn customers with late-night visits.. Sells 2 sets of Encyclopaedia’s to guards. Books are in English. Nobody can read them.).
A..I knew …..this guy…operated …Jewish kid, young kid….operating out of Osaka. He built a building in Osaka and they took it away from him or something. And he opened a restaurant here where the old Italian Gardens was. Steak house down in the basement. They used to steal all the steaks everyday. What the hell was that son of a bitches name. Anyway, but he had 700 salesman. Hey, he was selling books.
(KING OF KOREA)
Q: What did the King of Korea look like?
A: Colonel Sanders.
Q: How old was he when you went out with him?
A: Oh, he must have been 50. But I was in the 20’s. But he had gray hair in those days too. But he was young, cuz I got him fixed up with broads. He must have been young. He never turned down sex. So. He could have been premature gray. But you know he lived over here where the Prince Hotel is now. Across the street from the Otani. That was his home. That’s what they called it the Prince Hotel. It was his place.
But he was a gay blade. He enjoyed life.
Q: That’s a funny story about getting him a blow job. Hilarious.
A: Well that girl was a “pro-bowler” or “pro-blower.“
Q: The one who studied to be a lawyer?
A: You know now, life is such a funny situation. I take the train. I go to Kami-Kitazawa. & I can swear she lived in Shimo-Tokaido. I go through that station every fucking day. And I can swear she lived in Shimo-Tokaido, and I go through that station everyfucking day now. & I’m thinking now, I wonder where that house is. I wonder what her name was. But then who wants to me her today. She’s 60 years old. 65 years old. Get out of her. I don’t wanna meet no 65 year old broad. But it would be fun.
Did you see the Korean girl that won the Japanese singing contest the other day? Jesus Christ. I’d give up my right arm to be young again. She was 16 years old. She was the most beautiful fucking girl I’ve ever seen. I shouldn’t call her a fucking girl because she wasn’t fucking. She was a skinny thing, I mean she was perfect English, she couldn’t speak Japanese and she sang a Japanese song and won. Imagine that. They asked her in Japanese a question and she looked worse than I did. And she’s looking around for who’s gonna help her. But Jesus Christ she was beautiful. God Damn it. But I imagine she weighed 40 kilos. And her tits didn’t grow yet.
Q: Did you ever take that Korean King to Yoshiwara?
A: No, no. Those days Yoshiwara was practically gone. No, we had private sex. Plenty of girls. We used to go to “Oasis” to pick up girls. That was at the bottom of the Matsuya Department Store….It was a dance hall. Probably had Hiroshi Watanabe and Chiemi Eri singing for Christ’s sake. Although that was before her days. Watanabe used to play at the Dai=Ichi Hotel….Band leader. Chieri Emi …that was her first singing gig. Dai-Ichi Hotel used to be an officer’s billet. In Shimbashi.
Q: Ever go to Happy Valley Dance Hall in Shibuya.
A: I was Shimbashi Ginza man. I never bothered with Shibuya. That was Charlie Manos’s territory. But there was so many girls. You didn’t have to walk more than 5 feet and you got one. And I guess today it’s the same thing. Except of course they’re more sophisticated today. They’re a little bit more different. Today, sex starts high school or less than high school. In those days, sex was a limited playtime. Japanese men didn’t qualify. The girl wanted something and they had no money. But the foreigner had plenty of money. Especially this foreigner here. I had so much money, made so much money, now I’m poor and my wife is very rich. I wonder how that happened.
(ROPPONGI)
Q: What was Roppongi like in those days?
A: Well, what you see today. There was no Roppongi. Oh we had trolley tracks. And I thought I did pretty good when I went way down there where the highway was, to get a piece of property. And the value of this property was near the Russian Embassy. And then they had Hardy Barracks up here. But as far as Roppongi Intersection was concerned, there was absolutely nothing. It wasn’t as big as it was now. They tore the buildings down. They got rid of the people….You know Roppongi’s a tree. (means 6 trees) When I was in here, came in this are in 1956, probably the tree was still standing at the intersection there. But I opened. & then the Club 88 opened. Then, near the 88, another club opened up. …Then slowly…the New Latin Quarter opened up in the New Japan Hotel. And then the Benibasha. & I used to go to the Ginbasha, which was in Atago-cho. This is the guy Niita. His Chinese name is Pheng. His son and my son were born on the same day. & I could tell you his son is very very very rich. & my son is not very, very, very rich. So it doesn’t mean shit if you’re born on the same day, under the same stars, in the same area. The stars will shine on one but it doesn’t mean they gonna shine on the other. & now the son owns the place in Harajuku…Viva , near Kiddyland. He owns that bldg. His father gave it to him. & of course, the father owns next to the Latin Quarter & the Ginbasha..
But when I started in the restaurant business, then I started going to all these different places. LQ. Copa. Benibasha. Hanabasha. Ao-Shiroi. Club Oscar is right where my office is now. Chrysler Motors is there now. But in those days you go club hopping. From one club to another. From one club to another. Get home 4,5,6 o’clock in the morning. If you got home at all.
Then we used to go another place where Armando Federico would play the piano. Only man that escaped the Manila Prison. Japanese threw him in prison and he escaped that prison. Fantastic piano player. But he was a little guy. I don’t know. He must have squeezed through the bars. But I think he’s the only man that escaped that Manila place.He worked in supper club owned by Frank Sakakibara, who opened, when I closed my (first) restaurant in 1930..I mean 1964. Showa 39 nen. He opened acorss the street.What the hell did he call it? Guy from Hollywood. Used his name. But he’s guy to went to buy the Christina. Just sold for 12 million dollars. Some group bought it. Gonna run it in Mexico north of Acapulco. That’ll be tomorrow’s newspaper. But he went down to buy the Christina for $2 million. I couldn’t help but laugh because Onassis died. But he said Christina 2….I know it’s made in Japan…That’s the one where Anthony Quinn played Tycoon. Pushed button. Side of ship came down. Etc. etc. blah…
I wish I could have buyed that boat. But not $2 million.
Here it is 20 years later. $12 million. Of course, today $12 mill is same as $2 mill then.
But there was a lot of running around in those days. Gessekai was another one.
Q: Why’d you choose Roppongi?
A: Cuz it’s foreigners neighborhood. Pizza & spaghetti. You not gonna sell them to a Japanese….Hardy Barracks was over there. & then where Dr. Akesenoff is…(Int’l Clinic) that used to be American Legion club. And I was the historian for the American Legion. And I used to sit in that living room that’s now his….come in from Russian Embassy and Hotel Okura. & I said “Gee that’s a good location.” & I aimed for it & I got it. & I got my restaurant there. It turned out to be a mistake. Cuz hiway came through and knocked me out of busines. But they paid me a lot of money. I should have taken that money and run. But then, there was much more to be made. But Roppongi was the gaijin settlement. Hardy Barracks there. Russian Embassy. Okura Hotel was there. Actually it was…
You’re sitting at my new table by the way.
(TRADE-TRUMP)
Q: I gotta take off.
A: You heard part of my conversation to Russia today. See JT yesterday. Son of a bitch Morita. (Sony’s Akio Morita) I would like to answer him. But I need somebody like this to correct all my English, to make it concise or more powerful ….they wouldn’t let me print it….what’s I say…America can so. & just go write what he said. You know he’s a very slippery, sneaky bastard. & says that the J. are wrong in 1 point, then he starts bragging about how they’re right in 5 pts. If you, ….the way he wrote is I’ll throw him a bone then hit ’em on the head with a hammer. & that’s way his article was written. I took him out and put it on my desk,..sex Jees I can really write against this son of a bitch….But he had 1 pt. Which was really correct & Americans should pay attention. He says “How can the American gov’t tell us that we should give 20% of our semi-computer business?///, when the American gov’t ask them to give the businessman something/// but why doesn’t the American gov’t tell the American businessman to do it…..he’s trying to say the American answer that our system is free trade (is hypocritcal) ….Americans say we don’t do managed trade(when in fact they do, asking for 20% share of semi-conductor market)…That’s mixing private business with gov’t. He had a small point there. That was good. Today you read anything in the J. Times…As long as you say Japan is right, they’ll put it in…
I write something critical, they will say I’m just a crackpot. Throw that fucker out.
(blah, blah, blah.)
But America can say no …..today in JT they tried to harp on this bullshit that Japan is more of an enemy than Russia. ….So man in the street. He’s gonna rise.
(Talk about Penthouse Article. Talked to Bruce Scott at Harvard…Scott said “It’s all over. The U.S. banking system is entirely dependent on Japan. We’re vassals of the Bank of Japan.”
A: Yes, but it’s not really over. The American public has not been pushed hard enough as to what’s really happening…Like me I always dreamed that when I got enough money, I’d spend it on anti-Japanese stories. Hire anybody to write. Put it in the paper. “Send me your anti-Japanese stories. I get them published….There’d be plenty of contributors. But see J. not gonna win. Not gonna beat Americans.
Q: For the next ten years they going to be running things. It’ll take that long for the US to turn it around. (HA!)
A: I don’t think Uncle Sam will turn it around that way.
Q: They gonna have to change educational system.
A: My ideas are good but they have to be reworked by proper people. Or professionals in each category…..I was thinking of writing to Don Trump. Paul Harvey said Don Trump said J. Koreans, Chinese coming in buying up our country with our money. Way he said it he really emphasized in favor of Trump said. Same as H. Cossell, he writes against Pete Rose, every chance he get.. (blah, blah)
Trump….you can’t beat him…keep away from him…get him angry you in trouble,
J. trying to buy Trump Towers.
You know I told you my crazy idea about how to destroy the J. trade balance? Bring American stores. Trump could do it. He got plenty of money. He can buy anything he wants. Can force the market to accept his products. But then J. will spend just as much money as he’s got ton tell people don’t buy from that store.
Q: I told Ezra Vogel your idea about the cars, Lower dollar to 50 yen etc, West can sell cheap Benzes & Cadillacs. He said that would last for a few months and then the J. would be making Cadillacs and Benzes. They’d just copy it and make it cheaper.
A: That’s good for the people. But the Japanese.are not going to do anything for the people. & never will. Bullshit. I’d like to see them try to make a Cadillac, or lower their price. They have to lower their price on their Toyota’;s. but if you know a J. he will never ever change that name Toyota. No way. Fight with it forever. Cuz when they throw a chip in the water they don’t ever expect that chip to come back. They will do like I said. They will have to lower their prices. & if they lower their prices to compete with the American car, how do they prevent the car from coming in Japan. They just go to GM & say we want to be agent of your car. Who’s GM got as an agent? They got Yanase. Do you know how much money Yanase owes? He’s broke. He owes a tremendous amount of fucking money. And the reason why this guy is there is becuz he owes money. But if he was a rich prosperous organization, how many Cadillacs would there be in Japan? I would push the Cadillacs. You don’t have to ask for ten million yen for a Cadillac.
You can say 3 million yen for a Cadillac. But they only way Yanase can stay in business, he has to have the blessing of the Japanese. And the Japanese say “Keep your fucking price up. Whatever you lose, don’t worry about it. Keep your price up.” Because you’re dealing with Japan incorporated.
Why doesn’t America bring in an American organization to sell Cadillacs. Shit. There’d be no more Japan here.
Q: You read “Trading Places” by Clyde Prestowitz.
A: Didn’t I see the movie?
Q: No. (Explanation of book and intro of Clyde Prestowitz follows) (Japan require each individual metal bat imported from U.S.. Takes forever. But no “restrictions”
(Another Zappetti rant follows. About Yamada, inventor of cure for color blindness. Has three Benz’s.) Long time friend. Wada says, ‘I’m not Yamada from Tokyo.I’m not Yamada Japan.” I say “Who the fuck are you?” He sez “I’m Yamada of the world.”
And here I read this fucking thing that Morita put it. He says Morita’s from the world.
Q: Which is why Nissan sets up factory in Tennessee and then sets up own spare parts factory, eschewing American parts factories. And when they moved their site from one place to another in the state, they used a mover.
A: The same thing when a Japanese buys a ticket to fly to the Hawaii, he flies a Japanese airline. He rides a Japanese bus. He stays at a Japanese hotel. He eats Japanese food. And then he sez, I been to America. Shit. But if the American don’t wake up. And I think that the, you see today, they’re too many people, whose problem is what, abortion. Well, I don’t know. I believe in women’s rights. I believe that everybody has a right to do what the fuck they please. It’s their body. I don’t know all the details involved. But this is gonna be the big issue. But one of these days the issues gonna be the trade balance. And you know this guy Morita is saying, “You know you people are looking at the trade balance from a consumer point of view. You don ‘t realize that we buy a lot of services from America.. And this not right. You’re not counting this.” You know. He can get away with it. Because Nick Zappetti can’t argue against that. I don’t know if it’s true or not. So he’s got all this bullshit there. But you read this column and you can come up with more hate than you can imagine. And the opening line is “I did not appreciate that somebody translated my book in Japanese into English and sent it to Washington D.C. without my approval. He’s saying w/o my approval they translated the book into English. You believe that? You can’t do that right?
Q: Well, you can’t sell it. Well, no you can’t. It’s copyrighted. But shit the Japanese do it all the time.
A: They do it all the time. But that’s the opening line. Boy you could tell where his hard-on was.
(End Taping)
Tokyo Junkie 