1993. The Big Chill hits Hawaii as it is flooded with “ice,” aka crystal methamphetamine hydrochloride, a new narcotic, much of it coming from Japan. The FBI decides to cut off the flow at the source and go after some of the Japanese gangsters bringing in the product. But how? Their secret weapon: “Jimmy Sato”—undercover Jewish-Japanese Special Agent Jim Stern. Can he gain the trust of a yakuza flunky without blowing his cover in a Benihana and ending up skewered on a sashimi knife? Will the budget stretch enough to cover crazy endless nights spent at the local strip clubs? Will the Big Boss come to the Island? Will Jim’s Jewish-Japanese heritage make him feel double guilty as he begins to develop a kind of fondness for one clueless gangster? Here for the first time is the story of how the FBI was able to make its only arrest of a major yakuza boss on U.S. soil.
Jake Adelstein has been an investigative journalist in Japan since 1993 and has covered the yakuza, Japan’s organized crime groups, for over 20 years. The author of Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on The Police Beat in Japan, which is scheduled to be a motion picture. He currently writes for The Daily Beast, Vice News, the Japan Times, and the Japanese publication ZAITEN. His second book, The Last Yakuza: Lives in the Japanese Underworld, is scheduled for release next year.
Cover design by Andrew Lee.
Jake Adelstein has been an investigative journalist in Japan since 1993 and has covered the yakuza, Japan’s organized crime groups, for over 20 years. The author of Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on The Police Beat in Japan, which is scheduled to be a motion picture. He currently writes for The Daily Beast, Vice News, the Japan Times, and the Japanese publication ZAITEN. His second book, The Last Yakuza: Lives in the Japanese Underworld, is scheduled for release next year.
Cover design by Andrew Lee.
