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NEWS > EVERYONE ELSE > YAKUZA GROUPS STRIKE HUMANITARIAN CHORD WITH TSUNAMI RELIEF EFFORT
YAKUZA GROUPS STRIKE HUMANITARIAN CHORD WITH TSUNAMI RELIEF EFFORT
April 12 2011
Hitachinaka, Japan – For most people in the west the concept of organized crime has been associated with one group. Due in part to the prominence of the Italian mafia, and hit movies like ‘The Godfather’, the entire concept of organized crime has 
revolved around that one group, the place where it begins and ends. Nothing could be further from the truth of course. While it is certainly true that Italian mobsters have played a major role in the in the United States, even the crime periods when they really thrived were habituated by Jewish and Irish gangs just as influential, if not more, than the Italians. It was after all Bugsy Siegel who helped found Las Vegas.
Organized crime however goes back much further than figure like Al Capone. Pirates, highwaymen, and other groups were very much organized crime groups. Some groups today can trace their history back centuries, well before the rise of mobsters in the United States or even in the homeland. As long as government exists, so too will organized crime, operating on the peripheries and in the shadows. Despite little romance today, organized crime is still very much alive and well across the world with Russian, Mexican, Irish, Chinese, and even the stalwart Italians still very much active. However few of those criminal groups have achieved the kind of cultural that one group has acquired. Across the world the word ‘Yakuza’ brings one connotation to mind, that of tattooed thugs secretly dominating the crime world, something one gang apparently wishes to change as they branch into humanitarian efforts.
“We knew these things were coming from the Yakuza. They were covered in long sleeves and said nothing about who they were, but we can tell the Yakuza with or without tattoos,” said one man in the tsunami ravaged north of the country. “They brought food and blankets and everything we needed, the day after. They helped my old mother, they helped women and children. These are great people no matter what the police may say.”
The Inagawa-kai, the third largest Yakuza group in the country, claimed responsibility for the aid and proclaimed it a new chapter in the life of the group.
“We have been given this reputation of only caring for money and greed but this is 
what the Yakuza are meant to do. This is a part of our creed, that we must spend some of our time helping people and this event provided us with the opportunity to finally give back,” said one Inagawa-kai member who preferred to remain anonymous. “We have this bad reputation and this is something we wish to change, something we choose to change. We are the people of Japan and others have done so much good for us that it is only right that we give back to them. This is our way of repaying those who have supported us for so many years.”
Other Yakuza groups, even smaller ones, have also contributed to the effort sending over 200 tonnes of aid and millions of dollars to the stricken region.
“Most people look at the Yakuza as strictly a criminal organization. Shakedowns, assaults, fraud, those types of things, the types of things that we see glamorized in movies. Add in the tattoos and they have this fearsome reputation but few are aware of their robust humanitarian and charity efforts, often because they hide their criminal associations when engaging in those things,” said Scrape TV Crime analyst Willard Weston. “The Yakuza have long promoted peace and stability. These kinds of efforts are not unusual, though taking credit it for them is. That likely means the organizations are starting to shift as they become more widely accepted, showing themselves for what they really are, which is a bunch of good people who just happen to have tattoos and money and influence and nine fingers. That is a true Yakuza.”
Though the Yakuza asked for nothing in return for the humanitarian aid, many people have abandoned their parents in the region, many of whom were apparently already dead.
Emil Uliya, International Correspondent
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