Featured Usagi the Yakuza Gangster

Thanks to both of you. I appreciate the sentiments. If I do write a book you can say you read it first on the BB! Maybe someday.... :type:

I'll write more on Usage this evening while my wife is out teaching English.

 

This is a good time to discuss the subculture of the yakuza. They have their own customs, their own relationships and even some vocabulary that is not shared by the rest of Japanese society. Some of these things are known by the general population, others are not. Usagi has filled in the blanks for me.

The most noticeable feature of the subculture is the commonness of tattoos, something that was almost unknown in the general population until recent years, when the Japanese young people began to copy the American tattoo fad. I remember when we lived in Yokohama and my aunt and uncle were visiting us about 20 years ago, we were stuck on the tollway to Mt. Fuji in a massive traffic jam. Lo and behold, I looked in my rear view mirror I saw a car cheating and coming down the left shoulder. All the cars were moving over and giving the driver room, but I said, "I'm not moving!" But when the car got close enough I noticed that the man had his arm hanging out the window, and then I noticed he had a yakuza tattoo on that arm! So I moved over!

Usagi says he has a dragon tattoo on his back, but I've not seen it. These tattoos are not done with modern machines, but with the traditional bunch of needles plunging into the skin again and again. They can be beautiful works of art, taking over a year of weekly sessions to finish. Some yakuza have full body tattoos that tell a story, but the tattoo artist always leaves a bare streak several inches wide down the center of the chest so the pores can breathe. Even so, such a full body tattoo can take ten years off your life, according to Usagi.

So, what is the purpose of these tattoos? Why are they such an important part of yakuza culture? First of all, they show how tough the gangster is, since getting the tattoo is very painful and it takes such a long time. Secondly, they serve as a badge that one is a yakuza. As such, they are intimidating, and intimidation is the source of yakuza power over other Japanese. As in the illustration given above, the average Japanese will let a yakuza do whatever he wants when they know who he is.

 

Greg, I'm so sorry to hear about your son. I hope he's okay nowadays.

While in the States on furlough I talked to several knowledgable people about gangs, and they agreed with my take on the yakuza that it is extremely difficult to exit a gang once you are in. In the case of the yakuza, the exiting gangster faces: mutilation of his hand, or having to leave town. If he stays in town he will be harrassed, beaten, have his possessions destroyed, etc.

 

Concerning Usagi's prison experiences, they were very rough on him and he definitely does not want to go back. This helps keep him honest nowadays! On the other hand, two good things happened to him in prison.

Upon entering a Japanese prison, the criminal loses all freedom. His name is the first thing to go, and he is called by a number for the rest of the time he is there. He lives in a tiny room, perhaps 6' x 6', with about a third of that space being the genkan, or the little entryway in a Japanese dwelling where one takes off his shoes, since we do not wear shoes in our dwelling space in Japan. The rest of this area is his futon (bed) space and a toilet.

He is watched all the time through a window in the door to his cell. He works all day every day, and gets a little money from that. He gets an exercise time, but no television, no music, no newspapers or magazines from the outside world. There are no "drug lords" or "yakuza godfathers" operating out of the prison because there is no way to communicate with underlings, though I suppose a phone call to family is allowed once in awhile.

While in prison Usagi met some interesting people, if I may put it that way. One was a yakuza hit man. Who did he hit? He wasn't saying. How did he kill them? Don't ask.

Usagi also met a Japanese preacher who had a Bible club ministry in the prison. And there for the first time Usagi encountered the Word of God and heard the Gospel. He wasn't ready yet to trust Christ and learn to love the Bible given him, which he eventually got rid of. When he got out this time, he was going to party some more! He was going to continue with his illegal activities! He was a rough, tough yakuza, after all! But he never forgot the preacher, and recently urged me to start a prison ministry. Maybe I'll try that....

The other good thing that happened to Usagi was that he was able to quit the drugs and kick his addiction. If he had not done that, he might very well be dead today, without Christ. When we lived in Yokohama (1983-1996) a drug addict named Togo San, hooked by "speed" (amphetamines, "uppers") was saved in our church after reading Hal Lindsey's book, Satan. Togo and I remained friends after we moved up here, and would converse for a half hour at a time on the phone, but the drugs had an iron grip on his system, and his weakened body gave up and died in his early 40s. It was his girlfriend who called me and gave me the news, and because of Togo's faithful testimony, I was able to lead her to Christ right there on the phone!

 

Amen, brother! Before he died, Togo San, who was a talented artist, did a logo for our church here in Hokkaido and a manga cartoon picture of me, which someday maybe I'll make my avatar here on the BB.

 

I'm going to take just a break here from Usagi's story and ask for prayer for another man. Unomatsu is 97 years old, and is in the hospital right now dying of lung cancer. He was a machine gunner in WW2 and killed many men, so he has a strong consciousness of sin. I don't know where he fought, but has dark memories of the war, along with some good memories of learning kendo as a soldier (the sport version of sword fighting).

When he was 92, I believe it was, he went into the hospital for some other sickness, and I visited him because he is the father of one of our members. It was so easy to lead him to Christ there in the hospital because of his consciousnss of sin.

For years now Patty and I have visited him in the old folks home, and he was always so glad to see us. Last time when I took his hand he wouldn't let go of mine for the whole time we were there. When he had to scratch his head he'd grab my hand with his other one and still hold on.

Please pray for this gracious, sweet Christian as he lies dying, and pray for his son, who has already lost his wife (11 years ago) and daughter (3 years ago) to cancer.

 

Thanks, Greg.

Early this morning (Monday evening your time) Tomiro called me to say his father Unomatsu had gone to Heaven. We'll be making the funeral arrangements today. 99% of Japanese funerals are Buddhist, but we should have no trouble. The funeral home will accomadate to our Christian faith and leave out all the idolatrous stuff.

 

Thank you. I come from a family of authors gifted as such by God.

Thank you. This morning I spent 1 1/2 hours at the funeral home with the family, working to make sure the family was pleased with everything and the funeral director didn't insert any heathen Buddhist practices. (It was his first Christian funeral.) Everything went well. Tonight I'll give a devotional and eat supper with the family. The funeral is tomorrow morning at 11:00 Japan time.

Please pray for younger sister Hirayama and family, who are not Christians.

It is frustrating. It's hard to love a people and give your whole life to see them saved, and have so many of them reject Christ. But as my grandfather used to say, "You can't win everyone to Christ, but you can always win someone."

 

Thanks, Greg.

This evening we had dinner with the family at the funeral home, a delicious Japanese dinner with three kinds of rice, one tempura fried fish, some other great stuff and a UFO (Unidentified Frying Object). Then I gave a short message about how Grandpa Unomatsu trusted Christ and how he will be resurrected someday. Then I gave them a minute for silent prayer so they could ask for forgiveness if there were a dark place in their heart like Grandpa Unmatsu. Then all viewed the body--we didn't allow praying to the dead person or his photo, offering flowers or any other heathn practices, but everyone knew our man Tomiro's deep faith and obeyed.

In the morning we'll have the full funeral. Mrs. Takasugi from our church will play the piano, and Mr. Hashiba said he'll be there, though he's not saved yet. It will be a wonderful opportunity to give the full Gospel. After that we'll go with the family the crematorium, which is a real cross-cultural experience the way the Japanese do it.

 

Thanks for all who prayed for the funeral this morning. We had a wonderful service, the Christians and the lost Buddhists sang the hymns well, Patty and I sang "Over the Sunset Mountains," then the Lord helped me to preach the pure Gospel. I did not give a "come forward" invitation (this being Japan), but gave them a minute to thank God for Unomatsu San's life, and thank Unomatsu's God for sending Christ to die.

Afterwards we all went to the crematorium, a beautiful new facility with 16 furnaces, where we all had a delicious Japanese box lunch. After a couple of hours we had the shukotsushiki, the ceremony for the gathering of bones, in which the family members pick up the pieces of bone and put them into the urn, breaking them up as they do. Finally, we went back to the funeral home where I closed with a word to all, and a prayer.

 

As you have seen, the last week has been quite busy. But I'm finally ready to get back to Usagi's story.

Every week for several months I visited Usagi's little one room apartment to teach him about the Bible he loved. At first I parked on the main street, where there seemed to be room, but a very expensive parking ticket soon dissuaded me of that! The Japanese police are very strict about parking violations! So I would park at a nearby department store and walk a half mile across the bridge and down the hill to Usagi's place. This was in the middle of the harsh Asahikawa winter, so I had to watch my step in the ice and snow. Some of you may not realize that my island of Hokkaido is in the far north! By the time the winter is over there is about six feet of accumulation in the yards of people with houses. (We live in an apartment now, and no longer have to shovel snow, thank the Lord!).

All along I prayed for the guidance of the Holy Spirit to show me when Usagi was ready to trust Christ. I've known Japanese to study the Bible for up to a year before finally understanding the Gospel. Uematsu San was that way. Because of his affair with a bar girl, his wife told him he had to receive counseling from me or she would divorce him. He loved his wife and wanted to keep her, so he agreed. After a whole year of counseling, one day he rang our doorbell late on a Sunday evening to excitedly tell me, "Pastor, you know how you keep telling me that Christ died for my sins. Well, I never understood that. But today a Christian friend came from Sapporo and we talked about Jesus for four hours. I finally understand how Christ died for me!" And Uematsu was saved.

One day as I studied with Usagi, I felt the Holy Spirit's gentle urging, so I asked him (as I had before), "Do you think you are ready to believe in Jesus?" Finally, this time he said yes! It was just a matter of a few moments before he was wonderfully saved. Now, there was no great excitement, no deep emotion, and he was still a rude and crude ex-con. But I fully believe he trusted Christ that day because of his life since then, coming to church, witnessing for Christ and loving the Word of God.

 

I'm glad you're being blessed, Bob, thus fulfilling my purpose. More tomorrow.

 

After salvation, of course, baptism is commanded. So my next Bible study with Usagi was my basic lesson on baptism. It would take at least a couple more months before Usagi was ready for that. Baptism in a Gospel-resistant country like Japan is a big deal. If it's a young person it may mean being ostracized by the family. If he is the eldest son it may mean being cut off like a friend of mine was. (Fortunately his father forgave him and then helped pay for his Bible college education in America!)

In the meantime, I continued my education on the Japanese underworld. One thing had always puzzled Patty and me. Quite often in Japan when a career criminal has committed a crime, he turns himself in to the police immediately. Of course there are those that run and hide, many of them, but it seems like more turn themselves in here in Japan than elsewhere. I was about to learn why.

Usagi had been in prison with a man convicted of assault and gun charges. Guns in Japan are extremely well controlled, since Japan is an island nation and pacifistic. As a result, any gun crimes are treated very seriously. So what did Usagi's prison mate do? It seems he ran a car into the enemy yakuza gang's headquarters and then shot up the place! Then he immediately turned himself in to the police.

Usagi explained the whole thing. "You see, Pastor, he was ordered to do that. Our gang wanted to make a statement to the other gang, wanted to declare that we weren't afraid of them. Running the car into their headquarters and then shooting the place up would make that statement. But then he was ordered to turn himself into the cops, because if he didn't, how would the enemy gang know who did it?" Yeah. Okay. If you put it that way. :tonofbricks: