Death in Little Tokyo (Ken Tanaka Mysteries Book 1) Read online

  “With the adults adrift, the kids ran loose. It was hard to have a normal life. Everything we had been taught about America and justice and democracy all seemed to have no meaning. Most of us were raised to believe in America, and we felt we were Americans. We couldn’t understand why we were shipped off to these camps just because Japan, a foreign country, had attacked us. Eventually, family discipline broke down so much that some of the kids formed gangs. Even some of the men got together in gangs. And the prison guards were no better. Some were okay,” she corrected, “but like I said, a lot of them stole rations and sold them on the black market. Besides the squid, for awhile we just had rice and peaches to eat, because the meat they provided was rotten. They were selling all the good meat on the black market. The peaches actually turned out to be a bad thing, even though we kids liked them, because some of the men made stills and fermented alcohol from the peaches.”

  Mrs. Okada looked at me and laughed. “I’m just running on about bad times! Until recently I wouldn’t talk about the camps at all and now I can’t seem to shut up!”

  “Why didn’t you talk about the camps?” I asked, puzzled. The reticence to talk about the camp experience was something I had always noticed in Japanese-Americans who were in them. My family was from Hawaii. Although my grandfather lost his fishing boat because they thought all Japanese with boats must be spies, we were relatively untouched. My mother was at Pearl Harbor during the attack, and during the war she worked as a Red Cross volunteer. The experience of the mainland Japanese-Americans was different from Hawaiian Japanese-Americans, and I was frankly curious.

  “We were embarrassed and ashamed. It was like being in prison, even though we had done nothing. But you younger people seem more open about it, and it’s made it easier to talk about the experience. The apology and redress for the camps from the U.S. government was also something that helped. I recently went to the Japanese American National Museum and looked up my camp records on their computer system. I even sent away to the National Archives and got a copy of my camp file. They had report cards and school records and even some drawings I did in school. It’s both sad and interesting that they keep everybody’s files after half a century.”

  The doorbell rang, and I was so interested that I was actually sorry that Mrs. Okada’s grandson finally showed up.

  When she opened the door I was surprised to see that Mrs. Okada’s grandson was well over six feet tall. He was in his late twenties, with spiky black hair atop a face with the same cheekbones as Mrs. Okada. He was dressed in blue jeans and a Levi’s work shirt. Despite the way he towered over the diminutive woman, I learned who the boss was inside of two seconds. “You’re late,” she scolded. “I’ve been boring Mr. Tanaka with my ramblings while we’ve waited for you.”

  “I’m sorry, Grandma,” he said, a faint flush of color coming to his cheeks. She grabbed his arm and guided him inside. An elf leading a giant. She brought him over to me and said, “This is my worthless grandson.”

  He flushed again, but because of the business with the tea, Mrs. Okada knew that I wouldn’t believe she was in earnest. Some Japanese downplay the virtues of their children and spouses and are surprised that others take them seriously. Mrs. Okada knew I wouldn’t make that mistake.

  “Hi, I’m Ken Tanaka,” I said, offering my hand.

  “I’m Evan Okada,” he said as he shook my hand. We each sat at an end of the couch as Mrs. Okada resumed her perch on the chair.

  “I understand that you work as a reporter for the L.A. Times,” I said.

  “Yes, I do,” he said with what I thought was a bit of wariness.

  “Did you work on the story about the Japanese national who was killed at the Golden Cherry Blossom Hotel?”

  “Why do you ask?”

  “Because I was probably one of the last people to see him alive.”

  Evan’s interest picked up. “Did you know him?” he asked.

  “Not really. The night he was killed was the only time I met him.”

  “Do you work at the hotel?”

  “No. I had business with him.”

  “What kind of business?”

  “I was just picking up a package from him.”

  “And when did you see him?”

  I laughed. “I guess it’s in a reporter’s nature to ask questions, but I was really hoping that you could provide me with information, not vice versa. You haven’t even answered my original question about if you worked on the story.”

  “Why are you interested in finding out more information?”

  “Because I saw him that night, I think I may be a suspect. Frankly, I want to protect myself by learning about the case. I was surprised about how much information the Times story had about Matsuda’s background, and I wanted to know how you got the information so fast.”

  “Actually, it’s against our policy to discuss sources for stories.”

  The frustration must have shown on my face because Mrs. Okada interjected. “Now you answer his questions! Mrs. Kawashiri asked me to see if I could help Ken-san. She said it would be a great kindness to her if I did so. She’s been very good to me over the years, and I want you to stop being a bad grandson and help him.” She shook a small finger at him as she lectured.

  In some Japanese families being a “bad” son or grandson is the ultimate chastisement. A reporter’s wariness and the policies of the Los Angeles Times were no match for Japanese Grandma Power. Evan crumbled.

  “I’m sorry I haven’t answered your questions,” he said. “It’s just that a lot of the information was contained in a dossier I obtained from a confidential source. I didn’t write the story, but I did contribute some research. My normal beat is Pacific Rim business stuff, so I’m interested in the business activities of the Yakuza and have contacts with law enforcement who share that interest.”

  “Matsuda was a member of the Yakuza?”

  “Actually, I don’t know. He was certainly connected with Yakuza companies that are associated with the Sekiguchi-Gummi crime family, but he didn’t appear to be an actual member of the Sekiguchi-Gummi. Maybe his background made him a bit of an outcast. In any case, he seemed to operate as a ‘fixer,’ someone who acts as a go-between on deals, instead of an actual member of the Yakuza.”

  “I’m a little confused. I thought the Yakuza was Japanese organized crime. He was acting as some kind of business agent for them?”

  “The Yakuza is involved in legitimate businesses like pachinko parlors and bars. Like U.S. organized crime, they also get involved in show business. They also have clearly illegal enterprises, too, like drugs or gun smuggling. It’s really complicated. A big Yakuza family like the Sekiguchi-Gummi will have company picnics and operate more-or-less openly. It’s sort of like some sections of New York where everybody knows who the wise guys are and who the Don is. Knowing those things and proving criminal activity are two different things.”

  “Do you think Matsuda was killed by the Yakuza?”

  Evan paused for a long moment. “I don’t know,” he said. “What makes me think he might have been is the fact that he was apparently killed by a sword. A sword is a Yakuza weapon.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “Japan has strict gun control laws. Guns are very difficult to get. They’re becoming more common now, but until recently crimes involving guns were very rare, so the Yakuza would use swords and knives for hits. They cut up that movie director, Jizo Itami, because they didn’t like a movie he made about them. I’ve even seen TV news videotape of a Yakuza hit man crawling into the window of a house where an informer was hiding. He took a sword in with him and murdered the informer. Then he bragged on camera afterward, holding the bloody sword.”

  “Was he crazy?”

  “No. Just proud of his work and not too concerned about his personal well-being. There’s no death penalty in Japan, and if he had any family he knew they’d be well taken care of by his Yakuza bosses. It’s all that Japanese nonsense about loyalty to the group take
n to its ultimate, perverse conclusion.”

  I sat back, soaking in what Evan had told me. During the lull in the conversation, Mrs. Okada leaned forward and patted him on the arm, saying, “I’m pleased that you’re helping. Do you want some arare crackers?”

  12

  When I was done at Mrs. Okada’s I decided to stop at my apartment in Silver Lake to kill time until my appointment with Michael. As I drove I had a lot to think about. Evan didn’t know much more about Matsuda’s Yakuza connection, so the discussion ended soon after his remark about the sword being a Yakuza weapon. Funnily enough, some of the things that Mrs. Okada had told me affected me more than the stuff Evan Okada told me.

  It was my first personal conversation with someone about the camp experience, even though most of the older Japanese-Americans I know on the mainland must have been in a camp. Most simply don’t talk about it. From the books, I knew the recitation of facts about the camps, but hearing that something like boiled squid had been served ad nauseam made the experience seem more real.

  Also from the books, I knew that at the beginning of World War II over one hundred twenty thousand people had been herded into U.S. camps based solely on their Japanese racial background. About two-thirds of them were American citizens, and many of the ones who weren’t citizens were actually prevented from becoming citizens by Asian exclusion laws. In 1922 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that naturalization for citizenship was only open to whites and people of African descent. Since Asians were neither, the Court said it was constitutional to pass laws that prevented them from becoming citizens or even owning land. The last of these laws were on the books until 1952.

  J. Edgar Hoover, hardly a liberal, advised against the camps because the FBI couldn’t find a single case of disloyal activity in the Japanese-American community. Ironically, Earl Warren, who was then governor of California and later known as a liberal chief justice of the Supreme Court, pushed for the camps. Even the American Civil Liberties Union, despite the protest of a couple of local chapters, supported the camps.

  All people of color have a hard time in our country. We’d like to think that isn’t so, but unfortunately it is. I think Asians have had an especially tough time in U.S. culture because for over a century an Asian face has been the face of the enemy.

  First were the Chinese. The Chinese were imported to the U.S. to build the railroads and to wash the laundry, but they were soon branded as the “Yellow Peril” and viewed with hatred and suspicion when they dared to think that they could share the American dream.

  Then came the Filipinos. As a result of our annexing the Philippines as part of the Spanish-American War, we became engaged in a vicious guerrilla war in our newly acquired colony. The fanatic charges of Filipinos caused the U.S. Army to adopt the .45 caliber automatic as the standard handgun, because this pistol had the stopping power to drop a man in his tracks. Some of the things we did in the Philippines at the turn of the century foreshadowed our worst actions in Vietnam.

  Then came the Japanese and World War II. The attack on Pearl Harbor was truly an infamous act, but an equally infamous act was herding Japanese-Americans into camps based on the notion that an Asian face meant a traitor’s face.

  Then came the Korean War, where even the people we were supposed to be helping (the South Koreans) were “gooks” to our troops, just like the North Korean enemy.

  Eventually the Southeast Asians got their turn with Vietnam. That war is too close for me to even understand my feelings about it. Like a lot of Americans, I thought the war was wrong. And like a lot of young American men, I still went to war because I couldn’t define what courage really meant.

  I guess to some people we will never be “real” Americans because our faces remain Asian, even though our hearts belong to the United States. That’s a sad fact that gnaws at us. By the time I got home I was depressed. I got more depressed when I played the messages on my machine. Detective Hansen had called. I dialed the number he left.

  “This is Police Detective Hansen.”

  “This is Ken Tanaka. Did you want to speak to me?”

  “Yes. I’m wondering if I could ask your cooperation in something.”

  “Yes?” This was a new development, asking me for help.

  “None of the clubs downtown have a dancer that matches your description, but when I went to the Paradise Vineyard they had three redheads dancing there. None of them would admit to knowing Mr. Matsuda, so I’d like you to go down there this evening before their first show to see if you can identify the woman you saw with Mr. Matsuda two nights ago.”

  “What time?”

  “Five o’clock.”

  “Can you make it five-thirty?” I didn’t want to cut my appointment with Michael at three-thirty short. His office was in the mid-Wilshire district and the traffic might be a problem.

  “Okay.”

  “Can you pick me up in front of the office building where you first met me?”

  “Sure.”

  “Okay, I’ll see you then. Good-bye.”

  I hung up the phone. The police not finding the woman who was with Matsuda was not a good sign.

  Michael’s office was in one of the glass cube office buildings that dot Los Angeles. I suppose the first one of these had some style, but now there’re so many of them that they sort of blend into the horizon. After going through the preliminaries with the receptionist, I was ushered into Michael Kosaka’s domain.

  Michael had a raffish beard that made him look like a pirate, an image that isn’t totally inappropriate for a single practice attorney. From the gray in his hair I’d say he was in his early forties, and he had a hint of a middle-aged paunch gently pressing against the belly of his light blue shirt.

  His office was decorated in highly polished rosewood furniture, and on his walls he had Japanese Ukiyo-e woodblock prints. Two were Hiroshiges, and another was a triptych of Yoshitoshi’s flute player: expensive antiques.

  Japanese woodblocks are interesting. In the 1700s and 1800s they were made to be sold for literally pennies. That’s why there are series of woodblocks like “100 Views of the Moon” or “100 Views of Edo (Tokyo).” The artist wanted you to collect all one hundred so he could turn a reasonable profit on things that sold so cheaply. Now a masterpiece by a Hokusai or a Hiroshige, which originally sold for pennies, can fetch enormous sums of money. Something inexpensive and new eventually turns into something expensive and old. It’s a kind of alchemy.

  To make a woodblock, individual cherry wood blocks are carved for each color in the print. The blue color has its own block, the red its own block, and so forth. When a piece of mulberry paper is printed with all the blocks, the image emerges. All the blocks have to be in perfect alignment, or register, for the picture to come out clearly. Sometimes when you see a block for just one color, it’s hard to see what the picture is. It occurred to me that unraveling crimes is a little like woodblock printing. Layer after layer is put together until the total picture emerges, and everything has to fit together properly if the picture is going to look clear.

  The L.A. County Museum of Art has an example of the same Yoshitoshi flute player that I saw on Michael’s wall. It’s a three-panel print of a flute player walking across a marshy plain under a full moon. Behind some marsh grass a robber waits to attack the traveler and kill him. As I recall the legend, the music of the flute so enchanted the robber that he let the traveler go. The example in the museum’s collection is pretty ratty and soiled, but Kosaka’s example was in excellent condition, with still-vibrant colors. I decided the first thing I better talk about was his fee. The office, furniture, and especially the art all spelled money.

  After the usual hellos, I said, “Did Mariko explain my financial condition to you?”

  Kosaka laughed. “She said if I charge you more than two hundred fifty dollars, I’ll have to sit at the kiddies table the next time the family gets together for Thanksgiving.”

  I smiled both at the threat and the fact that I could swing $2
50, even though it was probably what Michael got per hour. “That I can handle financially,” I confirmed, and I launched into my story about Rita Newly, Matsuda, and my gaff about the package. Kosaka sat there listening to me intently, occasionally making notes on a pad of paper with a very elegant gold fountain pen and nodding his head or making encouraging murmurings.

  When I was done he sat back in his chair for a moment and thought. “Where’s this package?” he asked.

  “Actually, Mariko has it where she works.”

  Michael thought a little more. Then he leaned across the desk and said to me, “It’s easy to understand how anyone could get confused after several hours of questioning, especially about such a horrible crime. Is that why you misspoke about what happened to the package?” He looked at me and raised one eyebrow. Well, I don’t need a ton of bricks to hit me. I said, “Yes, I just got confused.”

  He leaned back into his chair, pleased. “Of course. Very understandable. And at the first opportunity, you’re going to march in and correct your mistake.”

  I checked my watch. “That could be in seventy minutes or so. That detective wanted me to go with him to a theater to identify the woman I saw at the hotel.”

  Kosaka pursed his lips. “If he asks you about the package again, you’ll of course tell the truth and explain you got confused. But if he doesn’t ask you, I think tomorrow will be soon enough to correct your mistake. Let me call a friend of mine in the D.A.'s office to ask, in a general way, the best approach to correcting your mistake. That may take a day or two if my friend’s not in the office. This detective may not be the best person to go to with your correction. So just sit tight for a couple of days until I contact you.”