The occupation years

After ww2 when the American troops occupied Japan they saw the yakuza as the biggest threat against their job there. They began examine yakuzas activation. 1948 they finished thier work when the examinations were over and they tought they knew what there was to know about the yakuza and the threat was eliminated.

The american troops rationed out food, which did that the black market flowered and it made the gangs rich and powerfulIt were during the occupations that a new sort of yakuza began to grow, gurentai (street hustler).

They did robbery and trade with the black market on liquor and food. You can compare them with the USA  mafia and their leaders can be compared with Al Capone.

Yakuza became influenced by the American gangster- movies and began to dress in black suits with white shirts, black sunglasses and cropped hair.

Yakuza became tougher and more violent, the swords was history, now was it firearms that counted. Now were it not just player and storekeepers that became exposed by violence, ordinary persons could be robbed and pressed on money.

Between the years 1958 and 1963 the number of yakuza- members increased with over 150%, to 184.000 members, more than the entire Japanese army, now are they down to half, 90 000.
It were approx. 5200 different gangs in entire Japan. They began mark out their territories and full, bloody wars started between the gangs.

The wars between the gangs was settled by a man named Yoshio Kodama. Kodama became, after the gang- wars, Japans underworld counterpart to America's Al Capone.