Writing a Yakuza Underworld Thriller

My buddy David Liscio stopped by Murder Blog to share the research behind his new Yakuza underworld thriller. I’m sure he’ll wow you. Enjoy! See ya in the comments. 🙂

Contrary to what some people may believe, writing fiction isn’t simply a matter of “making things up.”

It most often requires research, especially when the author uses historical references, or creates characters that must rely on the time-period’s technology or customs.

While writing Pacific Poison, my yakuza Japanese underworld thriller released on Amazon in June, a Google search window on my laptop was nearly always open. The writing and editing took two years.

So what did I research?

I wrote a scene during which the Japanese underbosses share fugu – a meal prepared from the toxic and potentially-deadly pufferfish. The circumstances required precise details. I felt it important to show readers just what happens to someone who eats the wrong parts of the spiky fish.

Perhaps more importantly, before writing that scene and others related to fugu, I needed to fully understand why anyone would choose to eat it.

After reading pages of scientific explanations about neurotoxins and blood brain barriers, I distilled that knowledge into a terse, understandable description of fugu. I then added more information and nuance through dialogue among the characters.

Writing about yubitsume — another yakuza ritual — also required research. My first novel, the Boston-based, serial-killer thriller Deadly Fare, contained passages related to the celebration of a Roman Catholic mass. Getting those words down accurately from the sinful priest, including the Latin phrases uttered by a former altar boy, gave the scene its authenticity and believability.

The cult-like yakuza has attracted an estimated 80,000 members and many abide by its strange rituals and unique ways. Many have chosen to practice yubitsume, in which the pinky finger is severed and presented to an aggrieved boss as an apology for whatever wrongdoing occurred. The severed fingers were usually wrapped in white cloth or encased in a glass vial for presentation, a practice that speaks volumes about a character’s personality.

Researching yakuza history helped me better understand the organization.

The yakuza took root over 400 years ago, starting out as bands of rogue samurai with no warlord to guide them, and later evolved into what is today a sophisticated, organized-crime syndicate, comprised of about 20 families or clans.

Since Pacific Poison was set primarily on the remote island of Saipan, I read whatever was available about the Northern Mariana Islands. Fortunately, I had visited that Micronesian archipelago on a photojournalism assignment thirty years ago to investigate the region’s heroin trafficking. As a result, I was already familiar with Saipan’s topography. But I still needed a history refresher, including details on the 1944 Battle of Saipan, when occupying Japanese soldiers fought fiercely against the crush of U.S. Marines storming the beaches. Thousands of troops on both sides died on the hills and in the caves of Saipan, leaving behind what many locals describe as a haunted landscape.

Tension between the local Chamorro and the Japanese has lingered these many years after the battle. By weaving this into the novel, I was able to show how it affects everyday life on the island.

Although the Japanese were harsh to the locals during their occupation, today they have long-term leased beachfront lands on which to build resort hotels and casinos. The circumstances have made for some uneasy times.

Writing a novel international in scope made world geography a serious consideration.

How did one get to Saipan in the late 1980s? How far was it from the nearest mainland? What aircraft or ships were in service at the time?

It was extremely important for character development that CIA officer Hannah Summers, the female protagonist in Pacific Poison and the two novels that preceded it – Deadly Fare (2016) and the mafia saga Blood Sons (2018), be capable when handling weapons, explosives, and other specialized equipment.

Writing about military technology of the late 1980s required meticulous research. I needed to know more about the explosive qualities of a limpet mine. Was a single mine powerful enough to sink a 260-foot long ship? Were mines more required? If so, how many? How were limpet mines attached to a ship’s hull? How much C-4 plastic explosive would be required to blow a massive hole inside a steel freighter?

CIA officers, FBI agents, and U.S. Navy SEALs were among the characters in Pacific Poison, each with their own preference for weapons, equipment, and protocols. How did these respective teams get to Saipan? If they arrived by commercial airliner, which companies operated flights to Saipan in those years? As it turned out, Continental Airlines was the answer because I actually flew on its Air Micronesia jets, but the company is no longer in business.

Research for Pacific Poison required learning about the capabilities of various U.S. submarines, surface warships, helicopters, and aircraft that were in use in the 1980s and early 1990s.

If the Navy SEALs were to land on the beach in the dark, I had to find out how might pilot their rubber rafts from a mother ship. I wondered what the mother ship looked like. Was it a surface warship or a submarine positioned offshore beyond the island’s coral reefs? What kind of warships and submarines were stationed in those waters during those years? And how were they armed?

State-of-the-art electronic communication in 1990 didn’t include instant satellite links or easy access to the internet. If a submarine captain wanted to contact headquarters, it required surfacing in order to deploy the specialized array of antennae. Simply writing that the captain radioed his commanders while the submarine prowled the ocean bottom would be a glaring error to those readers familiar with military operations.

And then there was heroin.

The United States experienced a heroin epidemic in the late 1980s. Much of the heroin came from Asia’s so-called Golden Triangle, making its way from Thailand to the Philippines for processing, then onto Saipan and Hawaii, before embarking on the last leg to reach the streets of San Francisco. I read dozens of yellowed newspaper stories about massive heroin drug busts and the overdoses plaguing America. Oddly, President George H.W. Bush was warning that the Colombian cartels run by narcos like Pablo Escobar were the real problem as they funneled tons of cocaine across the southern border. He downplayed the heroin threat.

Some of the newspaper stories were better written than others and offered statistics on the value a ton of heroin would reap upon reaching the United States. The profit margins were dizzying and made it easy to understand why the yakuza would want a piece of the action.

On the logistics side, I had to find out how much heroin weighs, how much space it requires as cargo, and how long the white powder can sustain its chemical properties in transit. I didn’t know what sort of military aircraft could carry a heavy shipment across the Pacific Ocean.

On the lighter side, I wrote a scene in which Hannah Summers goes on a date with a yakuza underboss named Orochi “Big Snake” Tanaka. They decide on a movie. What films were playing in 1989 or early 1990? With a bit more research, I found Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Stephen King’s Pet Sematary, and Cinema Paradiso.

Hannah decided on Pet Sematary because it wouldn’t lead to discussion about romance. The movie was about a tomcat that came back from the dead.

The same kind of research was required for the nightclub scenes in Pacific Poison. What songs were people dancing to in early 1990? I looked up dance tunes and decided to include among others Orbital’s Chime, New Order’s Blue Monday, Thriller by Michael Jackson, and some tracks from Madonna whose hit song Like a Virgin was dominating the airwaves. I added in for good measure an EDM mix, songs by the Japanese pop icon band The Checkers, and the entire soundtrack to Footloose.

Bottom line:

I did the research to imbue the story with authenticity. It all came down to details, details, details, yet not so many as would slow down the story. After all, it was the actual writing that brought me the greatest pleasure.

I hope you’ll read Pacific Poison and skip the fugu. 😉

David Liscio can be contacted through his website, www.davidliscio.com.

Also on Facebook at Author David Liscio.

And on Instgram at DavidLiscioAuthor.