The Battle of Bar Kenny

The Battle of Bar Kenny

William H. Ruckle

1

The struggles fought in this world are not between Good and Evil but between Bad and Worse, and the worst of humans are those who fail to realize this. One of these struggles was the brawl on the night of December 22, 1955 in Misawa Japan between the Birdwatchers, a loose club of U. S. airmen from Misawa Air Force Base, and the Gang Boys, a bunch of local Japanese thugs.

It is easy to prove the Birdwatchers were bad. They practiced and promoted the three great vices available in Misawa, namely, drinking, whoring and belching. They most liked to get drunk by 9:30 am after working a midnight shift. Some Birdwatchers insisted that you had to do this to be a member, but you didn’t. All that was necessary was to work on the fourth trick (shift) at First Radio Squadron and wear a Bird Watcher patch on the back of your shiny silk jacket.

It is easier to prove the Gang Boys were worse. True, the Birdwatchers dallied in bars, drinking concoctions like sake mixed with Hakadama prot wine, consorted with known prostitutes and indulged in random mayhem. But the Gang Boys extorted money from the bar owners and prostitutes and maintained their hold on the less vicious purveyors of vice by the extensive violence and cruelty. They broke fingers of bartenders who tried to hold back their extortions. Once they amputated the left nipple of a prostitute who tried to leave town without paying a final installment on a loan. Remarkably, they never killed anyone.

The boss of the Gang Boys was Omura, an elderly brothel owner. He may have had a higher boss in Aomori, Sendai or even Tokyo, but this is not certain. Omura maintained good relations with the local police captain and directed gang strategy. He left the everyday transactions to his two lieutenants, Buckshot and Sakai. Buckshot was the fighter. He knew jiu-jitsu and perhaps karate. He had hardened his hands to split wood or skulls. Sakai, the sadist, was personally responsible for most of the mutilations attributed to the Gang Boys. Beside Buckshot and Sakai, there were about twenty regular Gang Boys. Sometimes they recruited irregulars from among local bartenders or nearby farm workers, perhaps doubling their number.

Until the clash with the Birdwatchers there had been no friction between the Gang Boys and GI’s. If a GI told a Gang Boy to take his hands off a girl, the Gang Boy let go with a smile, bowed and retreated with only a half audible hiss. This had been Omura’s policy. But in early December he summoned his two lieutenants and told them, “We are collecting as much as we can from the bar owners and women. However, we can obtain more money from the Americans. Soon they will have Christmas parties. We can tell the bar keepers to collect 100 yen for each GI at the party and give the proceeds to us. The Americans are rich; they will not notice the additional hundred yen.”

Omura was right except in one case. The day shift and three of the shifts at First Radio, the soldiers of the anti-aircraft battery, the various fighter squadrons and even the air police squadron paid the extra levy without question. After all, in 1955 one hundred yen was worth only twenty nine cents. Only the Birdwatchers balked.

“You pay money, six thousand yen, or Gang Boys come, fight you, break up party and break up my bar!” explained Kenny, the proprietor of the Bar Kenny where the Birdwatchers had scheduled their party.

“Not one yen,” declared Sergeant Dubois. Dubois was the highest ranking bachelor on the fourth shift, a staff sergeant, and thus the highest ranking Birdwatcher. He served as the unofficial president.

“If you not pay, no party here.”

“If we don’t have our party here, maybe we break up your bar, maybe not. But no Birdwatcher will come again to Bar Kenny, dai yo! If Gang Boys break up your bar, Birdwatchers pay you ten, maybe sixteen thousand yen.”

Kenny calculated quickly. The Gang Boys could do more than sixteen thousand yen damage to his bar, but the Birdwatchers were his best customers. He could protect himself and his bar to some extent by making it clear to the Gang Boys that the quarrel was between them and the Birdwatchers and not with him. If the Birdwatchers refused to pay, the Gang Boys must try to collect from them to maintain face. So Kenny said, “You can have party at Bar Kenny. I will call Gang Boys to come, talk to you.”

Kenny brought free beer to Sgt. Dubois and the two GI’s with him while they waited for the spokesman from the Gang Boys. There was Rod, a brown Puerto Rican with an impish smile and Tom, a pale skinny boy with a sunken desperate look. All three wore the civvy uniform that enlisted men almost always wore off base, a sport shirt and vat died work trousers with Air Force issue black socks and shoes. Less than half an hour later, Omura’s two lieutenants arrived. Buckshot was muscular with rough misshapen hands and a flat calm face and Sakai, tall for a Japanese with a malevolent sneer permanently etched upon his lips.

“Why you not pay?” asked Sakai, “We not ask much.”

“Go to Hell, you dumb ass bastards,” replied Dubois, licking the edges of his thick black moustache. “We not pay one yen, not the sweat off our fuckin’ balls. You can’t push around the Birdwatchers.”

Sakai held back his wrath and said with a smile, “Everybody know you Birdwatchers tough boys. Everybody like Birdwatchers. You pay only four thousand yen. Then everybody happy, OK?” Omura had instructed Sakai that money was less important than the precedent.

“Fuck you, chiisai (runt),” Dubois replied to the compromise.

“Fuck you, GI,” hissed Sakai, “You be very sorry da bei! Many of your heads be broken. Apes (Air Police) take way all Birdwatchers. Not touch Japanese boys.” The two hoodlums pivoted and left the bar.

The three Birdwatchers realized the implication of the final statement. The Gang Boys didn’t want to fight but they must in order to save face and retain their grip on Misawa. Most of the Birdwatchers would enjoy a brawl with the local bullies whom they outnumbered about two to one. But the Gang Boys had a tactical advantage. Tom was the first to understand it and explained it to his buddies, “The Japs’ll hit us hard and fast and beat on the little guys, the drunks and other easy targets. The Apes’ll show up before we can get in our licks. They’ll cart us off to the stockade and let the Japs go. The Apes can’t arrest a Jap.” The conversation degenerated for a while into a pointlessly vulgar condemnation of the Gang Boys’ ancestry. Finally all three reached the conclusion that they should by all means be prepared for the attack.

“They’ll come through the front door and try to pick on the easiest ones they can find,” Dubois speculated. “We got to keep the biggest toughest guys around the door and stop them there.”

“The Gang Boys have only one real fighter,” added Rod. “That’s the silent one with the broad shoulders who just left. But he’s a monster. He’ll bust through anybody we put in front of him, and his buddies will follow.”

“We could recruit Sam Jefferson,” suggested Tom. Sam was a black Air Policeman who stood guard on the Fourth Shift. He had been a small time semiprofessional boxer.

“But we don’t want those kind in the Birdwatchers,” objected Rod.

“Jefferson is the only one I know who can stop the tough Jap,” said Dubois. “I vote we let him in. It’s no time to be prejudiced. We’re in a jam.”

“But if we let him in, others may follow,” complained Rod.

“Nah,” replied Dubois, “Most of the apes (Air Police) are too chicken shit to want to be Birdwatchers.” In fact, there were already several black Birdwatchers, but until now Air Police had not been welcome. Finally the three agreed to enlist Sam Jefferson and the meeting ended.

It was not hard to entice Jefferson to join the Birdwatchers and volunteer to be point man in the upcoming fight. But this did not take care of the problem of the Air Police arriving sooner than the Japanese police. The Air Police station was half as far from the mach’ (the bar district from the Japanese machi - town) as the Japanese police headquarters. Omura had bribed Captain Kojima, the local commander, to respond very slowly. Kojima was the only corrupt police official in Misawa. His second in command, Lieutenant Akiymam, was humiliated by his superior’s lack of integrity.

2

The following Sunday morning, Tom pondered these difficulties during the sermon at the base movie theater that doubled as a chapel. A Birdwatcher in church is not so incongruous as it may first seem. The newly arrived chaplain, Lieutenant Colonel Crowther had aroused considerable interest and controversy by his outspoken concern for the welfare and morals of the unmarried enlisted men. He constantly urged the married personnel to invite the bachelors into their homes so they could experience a continuity of Christian family life denied them in the strange world of Northern Honshu. This aggravated the ladies of the dependent area who held the unspoken but strongly fixed opinion that the unmarried airmen who were filthy animals best left to rot in the stews of Misawa. The enlisted men, however, were grateful for Chaplain Crowther’s concern for them even if most of them were unable to follow his advice concerning chastity and sobriety. Moreover, Tom was working the day shift this Sunday, and he was allowed to leave work two hours to attend services. 

Suddenly a part of the sermon intruded upon Tom’s thoughts. The chaplain was saying, “Last night, I accompanied the Air Police vice squad on their patrol of the mach’. Needless to say, what I saw made me sick. But a Christian who witnesses against evil must be aware of the nature of that evil. And, my friends, my vigil is not yet finished. In the near future, I intend to accompany a patrol into the Det.” The Det was a recently reclaimed area of Misawa that, although adjacent to the base was ten or fifteen minutes by vehicle from the mach’ and the main gate. The Det was unique because it contained no bars, clubs, pawn shops or tailors - only brothels.

After the service Tom made an appointment to see the Chaplain.

3

The beginning of the Birdwatchers’ party was dull. By offering extra pay Kenny was able to hire a band and a stripper, but the impending brawl scared away more than half of his hostesses. The GI’s nursed their first drink to keep clear heads. Instead of the usual boisterous talk and joking there was quiet speculation about the impending Gang Boy invasion. A dozen or so of the biggest, toughest Birdwatchers clustered around the entrance. They were apparently led by a short broad shouldered Black with long arms. Among these bruisers stood Tom, conspicuous because he was slender and seemingly frail. Dubois put him in the front line because of his well known ruthlessness. He went for the eyes, the crotch or other sensitive parts of an adversary without hesitation. This quality made Tom worth more in a fight than someone stronger but gentler.

The Gang Boys stormed into the club just before nine o’clock. Buckshot led a wedge of his best thugs to force an entry. No Birdwatcher could stand against Buckshot’s hardened fists. Sam Jefferson didn’t try. He faded backward to avoid Buckshot’s blow and caught the thug’s jaw with two long right jabs. These blows, softened by gloves and falling on the face of a professional opponent, would have only a passing effect. But Jefferson’s knuckles were bare, and although Buckshot was the veteran of many fights, his was not the hardened skull of a professional boxer. Buckshot went down. Three Birdwatchers grabbed him and passed him into the interior of the bar where four of the smaller GI’s sat on his arms and legs.

The plan was to pull the Gang Boys one by one into the rear and hold them out of action. The Gang Boys, some wielding clubs resisted this tactic, but they could not stand against Sam and his front line fighters. Already four Gang Boys were immobilized in the rear when six big hands grabbed for the snakelike Sakai. At the same instant Tom edged back from the front line toward the bar. Sakai hissed and drew a knife, slashing from side to side. The Birdwatchers front line divided and Gang Boys poured into the club. Thugs darted here and there throwing chairs, bottles and glasses. They avoided the bigger airmen and sought victims among the smaller ones.

The momentum carried Sakai toward Tom, who with a single sweep of his arm broke a beer bottle on the edge of the bar, swung it over his head and plunged it into Sakai’s left eye. Sakai screamed and tried to retreat. But several of the GI’s snatched away his knife dragged him to the rear and sat on him.

Where were the Air Police? Sakai had called them to report the riot before attacking. He expected to get in some quick and dirty licks and then be relieved by the Air Police before the Birdwatchers could deploy their larger numbers. But now disaster threatened and his unwitting allies were nowhere around. The Gang Boy auxiliaries and even a few regulars were deserting in the rear. Those who fought were flattened and pummeled. Unconscious Gang Boys littered the streets.

Through his agony, Sakai heard a whistle. “The Air Police,” he thought, and smiled. But there was no warble in this whistle. It was the Japanese police led by Lieutenant Akiyama. Those Gang Boys who could, fled. The rest gave up the struggle and sought refuge in arrest.

“We are sorry these hoodlums try to break up your party,” Akiyama announced in halting but precise English. “Now they come with us.” Paying little attention to the Gang Boys’ injuries, the police collected them where they lay and stuffed them into a van.

“I give all Birdwatchers free drinks!” declared Kenny jubilantly, and began to telephone his absent hostesses.

4

Omura vanished, his grip on Misawa permanently broken. One rumor said he committed suicide and another said his superiors executed him. Most probably he simply moved to another camp town and opened another brothel. Before he left he demanded Captain Kojima explain why his police came so quickly to the riot. “Lieutenant Akiyama was in charge,” the captain said. “The American chaplain urgently requested the prefectural government that I accompany him on a patrol of the newly opened lands (the ‘Det’). I could not refuse.”  Omura realized that this was also the reason for the late arrival of the Air Police. Their main forces had been with Chaplain Crowther. He wondered briefly whether there had been collusion between the chaplain and the Birdwatchers, but decided this was unthinkable.

It was not unthinkable to Tom who had told Chaplain Crowther the unvarnished truth as he knew it. The chaplain had decided that the night of December 22 was as good as any to visit the ‘Det’.

Buckshot, the Gang Boy, recovered from this defeat and went on to greater things. About a year later, a GI from Misawa, not a Birdwatcher, met Buckshot on a train bound for Hokkaido. Buckshot told the American that he was a now a member of the most important gang in Tokyo and his body was covered with tattoos.

Sakai lost his left eye and reformed. He joined an evangelistic Buddhist movement and took a job as society reporter for a newspaper in Aomori. This job paid less than crime but allowed him to lead a more regular life.

Without the Gang Boys life in Misawa improved. The bar and brothel owners foresaw a quicker road to wealth while the hostesses and prostitutes looked forward to an earlier retirement. For several days after the battle of Kenny’s Bar the Birdwatchers were treated like heroes, although everybody knew they were not. GI’s wearing Birdwatcher jackets didn’t have to pay for many things in the Mach’.