Those of us who spent time on Okinawa as teenagers are familiar with that popular hangout, the "Pizza House" that was located in Oyama on what was then called Highway One. It was a nice place, popular not just with the young crowd, but with many others. The food was decent and the pizzas were very good, at least we thought so! A stuffed Japanese Green Pheasant (kiji) that I had shot as a kid on Honshu ended up guarding the cash register at the counter for many years. Perhaps it is still there, who knows?
What most of us did not know at the time was the connection that the popular Pizza House had with the notorious yakuza, the Japanese criminal organization! Having lived in Tokyo before coming to Okinawa, I was familiar with another popular pizza house that was in Tokyo, "Nicola's Pizza House" in Roppongi (which is still in operation!). Nicola's was very popular with younger Americans, along with another joint near by called the "Hamburger Inn." What struck me when I first tasted the pizza at the Pizza House on Okinawa was that it tasted exactly like the one served at Nicola's in Tokyo. It was as if the very same recipe was used to make pizza's at both places! I didn't think much of it then.
Years later I learned that the Pizza House on Okinawa was started by essentially the same people who ran Nicola's Pizza House in Tokyo. Nicola's Pizza House was opened shortly after the end of World War Two by one of the early Americans to arrive in Tokyo. It was Nicola "Nick" Zapetti, a man with strong Mafia connections that opened the first pizza joint in Tokyo. Zapetti was known to have strong Mafia connections in New York and was even involved in a $800,000 diamond heist at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, for which he spent time in jail and was deported in the early 1950s! Yet, he managed to get back to Japan (no doubt through his "connections") and open the pizza joint! It was extremely popular with the younger crowd and with Tokyo's underworld. Even Kodama Yoshi, the big boss of the Tosei-kai, the largest yakuza gang in Japan at that time, was seen at Nicola's Pizza House! Rikkidozan, a very popular pro wrestler with strong yakuza connections was a good friend of Zapetti's and was also seen often at Nicola's. Although the business was owned by Zapetti, yakuza's hand in it was quite apparent.
Seeing how popular Nicola's Pizza House became with everyone, especially the Americans, it was no doubt a good business decision to find a partner on Okinawa to open a similar place. An Okinawan partner, someone who had a respectable front but had connections with Yoshimi-kogyo, the largest Okinawan yakuza group, was chosen to open the Pizza House. Pizza makers from Tokyo came down to train Okinawans in the art of making pizza and other Italian dishes. Small wonder then, that the pizzas on Okinawa tasted like the ones at Nicola's in Tokyo! The Pizza House on Okinawa became a thriving business and a landmark for many Americans who spent time on that island. When it first opened, there was talk that it was owned by a former G.I. Perhaps there was an American involved, but the yakuza definitely had its hand in it.
Shortly after the reversion back to Japan took place, a huge turf war broke out between the yakuza from Tokyo and Osaka area and the home boys, the Okinawan yakuza. But that's another story. I don't know who owns Nicola's Pizza House in Tokyo today, but I have no doubt that it still has strong connections if not outright ownership by yakuza. As for the Pizza House on Okinawa, if it is still there, it too no doubt still maintains connection with the yakuza, either Okinawan or from naichi, Tokyo or Osaka. It is ironic that my Japanese Green Pheasant, if it is still there, sat guarding the cash register all these years, working for the yakuza! Today, of course, there are other pizza joints on Okinawa, including Domino's Pizza, but there will never be another "Pizza House" like the one in Oyama, at least not one with such shady connections!
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