Correspondents' Correspondence
EPSTEIN, ARNOLD ABRAMS / DAVID G.
Correspondents' Correspondence BRIEF TAKEOUTS OF MORE THAN PERSONAL INTEREST FROM LETTERS AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS. The Mikado Girls Tokyo—By day it stands dark and silent...
...no windows were broken...
...Conservatives reacted by disparaging the small number (under a dozen) of arrests...
...Granted, critics can find scores of incidents to validate their contentions, but there is another side to the story as well...
...At the same time, the liberal and Left-wing segments of the political spectrum, in their professed concern for the underdog, are equally capable of anti-police bigotry...
...This begins with the premise that the vocation of the police officer is public service, be it helping an elderly invalid back into bed or besieging a barricaded gunman...
...Asked for proof of his claim, the professor replied, "Proof is not necessary...
...Next, women's groups demanded that patrols and investigations be intensified to combat an apparently high rate of sexual assault in the central city...
...I've fallen in love several times...
...it refers both to the young liberal arts graduates who are increasingly going into police work, and to the slightly older chiefs and directors who hold one or more postgraduate degrees and wear their dedication and tolerance as badges of a new professionalism...
...In recent years the term "the new breed" has gained some currency...
...During a question session following a speech by a police official at an ACLU meeting, a professor disputed the necessity for patrolmen to carry guns, asserting that this practice obviously caused criminal violence...
...Only a few side streets were blocked for short periods of time...
...Liberals condemned the police for over-reacting...
...To put it bluntly, the police are not all bad guys to be automatically suspected of evil, or worse, condemned without proof...
...Police over-reaction was not unknown, and instances of Right-wing armed vigilante action had barely been prevented...
...So why not become one...
...In many respects, the Mikado is a microcosm of modern-day Japan —an incongruous blend of inscrutable East and garish West...
...No clubs were used...
...It offers up a Las Vegas setting in which a polished band on a revolving stand plays Latin American rhythms for kimonoed hostesses to tango with pin-striped executives...
...The Right was disappointed that severity was not a watchword of demonstration control...
...Miss Saijo would not even consider the question of divorce in such a situation, she says, for a simple reason: "If a man is willing to leave his wife for me, someday he'll be willing to leave me, too...
...In return for such services, Japanese hostesses are paid well through a combination of salary and per-customer commissions...
...For this is the Mikado, the world's biggest nightclub, a sprawling, three-floor fun-factory with 21,000 square feet of floor space featuring two simultaneous stage shows for up to 1,700 customers every night except Sunday...
...The city had been racked for several years by student disorders, including occasional bombings and cases of arson...
...David G. Epstein...
...The Right responded by roasting him for bringing in "outsiders," while liberal spokespersons attacked him for "tokenism...
...The student newspaper published an article that was antipolice in its intent and largely fictional in its content...
...Because I haven't found the right man," she explains...
...no tear gas was expended...
...Although a hostess' job can—and often does—involve more, usually it is limited to fulfilling her customers' basic need to have a good time and be made to feel important, if only for a few fleeting hours...
...As soon as this was done...
...The Right responded by roasting him for bringing in "outsiders," while liberal spokespersons attacked him for "tokenism...
...Right-wing groups began grumbling that the police were giving in to radical demands, and two Left-wing city council candidates charged that business interests were being protected at the cost of neglecting private citizens in residential areas...
...We got rid of the last [police chief] and we'll get rid of you too if necessary...
...From the extreme Right, and often from within police departments as well, any sign of relaxing traditional modes of operation is met with derogation and resistance...
...Each time it has been with a customer...
...To put it bluntly, the police are not all bad guys to be automatically suspected of evil, or worse, condemned without proof...
...There is a lesson in this for liberals...
...All I want is to be an ordinary housewife...
...But if the building is a frog by day, it turns princely after sunset, when neon lights flash on and some 800 good-looking girls glide through its portals to await eager hordes of unaccompanied men, mostly middle-aged...
...In a society where women are largely subservient and heavily snackled by social custom, such earnings bring these girls—most of them in their late 20s—relative freedom and independence...
...We got rid of the last [police chief] and we'll get rid of you too if necessary...
...the most popular can take in as much as $1,000 per week...
...Right-wing groups began grumbling that the police were giving in to radical demands, and two Left-wing city council candidates charged that business interests were being protected at the cost of neglecting private citizens in residential areas...
...At 24, she would gladly give it all up: "The work is boring, and I'm tired of running from customer to customer, table to table, every night...
...Nevertheless, the work also has its drawbacks: social stigma, a limited future and potentially great loneliness...
...Most customers are already married...
...They, after all, are inclined to believe that the police mean well...
...The Mikado Girls Tokyo—By day it stands dark and silent in the shadows along a narrow city street: an ungainly structure whose architectural style, marked by jutting marquees and a baroque facade, might be described as moviehouse modern...
...The Japanese, however, have more fun at such rituals than do their American counterparts...
...If liberals expect to influence police policies and practices, they will have to add a carrot to their often wielded stick...
...Despite the vast number of men they meet, many hostesses do poorly at husband-hunting, a prime preoccupation among them...
...Finding the right man does...
...As soon as this was done...
...They know, too, how alluring looks can melt a man who is trying to fight off advancing age, not to mention how a tender touch of knees or the holding of hands can affect him as lights grow dim, music turns mellow and wine keeps flowing...
...He knows that nothing he does will satisfy his critics on the Left, and he sees no reason to alienate the conservative elements in his constituency by undue emphasis on what might be misinterpreted as a permissive approach to law and order...
...Liberals condemned the police for over-reacting...
...I don't think I will find my future husband in the Mikado," says Michiko Hir-ota, a typical hostess who, at 23 and after two years on the job, makes about $375 per week...
...I thought differently at first, but now I know better...
...the Left was generally incensed at the mere presence of police at any demonstration...
...An evening here, costing about $50 per person, is Japan's expense account answer to the American business dinner...
...it refers both to the young liberal arts graduates who are increasingly going into police work, and to the slightly older chiefs and directors who hold one or more postgraduate degrees and wear their dedication and tolerance as badges of a new professionalism...
...Next, women's groups demanded that patrols and investigations be intensified to combat an apparently high rate of sexual assault in the central city...
...Conservatives reacted by disparaging the small number (under a dozen) of arrests...
...I don't want to become a housewife and stay home while my husband comes to the Mikado at night...
...Consider the following examples, all of which occurred in a Midwestern city with a large university community and a police force dominated by new-breed officers and administrators: First, liberal groups pressured the department to integrate both racially and sexually...
...the Left was generally incensed at the mere presence of police at any demonstration...
...The city had been racked for several years by student disorders, including occasional bombings and cases of arson...
...Then, one fine spring evening, 80 officers were mobilized to deal with a nucleus of 300 demonstrators who had broadcast their determination to regenerate the previous years' violence...
...Asked for proof of his claim, the professor replied, "Proof is not necessary...
...Brains are valued far more than brawn, and officers can be black, female, Irish or Jewish...
...is present too...
...This begins with the premise that the vocation of the police officer is public service, be it helping an elderly invalid back into bed or besieging a barricaded gunman...
...It has come to the point where at least one administrator, though very definitely a member of the new breed, refuses to publicize most of his initiatives to liberalize police procedures...
...Crime is recognized to be a social problem that the police cannot solve alone...
...Girls at the Mikado are skilled at that: They listen attentively to the most boring of tales, laugh lustily at the least funny of jokes and sympathize warmly with the tritest of tribulations...
...In search of qualified candidates, the director went out of the state to a respected college of police science, eventually hiring one black and one female officer...
...Someday she will head for Paris, she says, to start a new life as an art student...
...During a question session following a speech by a police official at an ACLU meeting, a professor disputed the necessity for patrolmen to carry guns, asserting that this practice obviously caused criminal violence...
...Police over-reaction was not unknown, and instances of Right-wing armed vigilante action had barely been prevented...
...Their average income is about $300 per week...
...At the same time, the liberal and Left-wing segments of the political spectrum, in their professed concern for the underdog, are equally capable of anti-police bigotry...
...From the extreme Right, and often from within police departments as well, any sign of relaxing traditional modes of operation is met with derogation and resistance...
...Nonetheless, a pride in being "the last of the knight errants," as Sergeant David Durk of the New York City Police put it...
...Nonetheless, a pride in being "the last of the knight errants," as Sergeant David Durk of the New York City Police put it...
...The women providing companionship and pleasant chatter are not wives but hired hostesses, who are something of a socioeconomic institution here...
...In their efforts to solidify the new professionalism, the administrator and the patrolman alike are under extraordinary pressures...
...Brains are valued far more than brawn, and officers can be black, female, Irish or Jewish...
...Similar examples could be cited from the experiences of other cities...
...The student newspaper published an article that was antipolice in its intent and largely fictional in its content...
...And they aren't very interesting, anyway...
...no windows were broken...
...In Tokyo as in New York, behind the glitter and glamor of high living can lie a lot of grief.—Arnold Abrams The Policeman's Plight Iowa City, Iowa—Liberal and Leftist publications seem to consistently view the police as reactionary, undereducated, quasi-fascis-tic, insensitive Neanderthals who are bigoted at best and sadistic at worst...
...He knows that nothing he does will satisfy his critics on the Left, and he sees no reason to alienate the conservative elements in his constituency by undue emphasis on what might be misinterpreted as a permissive approach to law and order...
...In their efforts to solidify the new professionalism, the administrator and the patrolman alike are under extraordinary pressures...
...The money is good, of course, but it doesn't mean that much to me...
...Soft-spoken and sensuous, somehow having avoided the hard look such work normally leaves, she is requested by some 30 customers each evening...
...Organized groups frequently engage in well-financed campaigns to overturn proposed or already enacted reforms, sometimes even advocating unlawful defiance of regulations...
...Similar examples could be cited from the experiences of other cities...
...Granted, critics can find scores of incidents to validate their contentions, but there is another side to the story as well...
...They, after all, are inclined to believe that the police mean well...
...There is a lesson in this for liberals...
...It has come to the point where at least one administrator, though very definitely a member of the new breed, refuses to publicize most of his initiatives to liberalize police procedures...
...Like most of her colleagues, she longs to leave, but she is not seeking nuptial relief...
...no tear gas was expended...
...Consider the following examples, all of which occurred in a Midwestern city with a large university community and a police force dominated by new-breed officers and administrators: First, liberal groups pressured the department to integrate both racially and sexually...
...David G. Epstein The Policeman's Plight Iowa City, Iowa—Liberal and Leftist publications seem to consistently view the police as reactionary, undereducated, quasi-fascis-tic, insensitive Neanderthals who are bigoted at best and sadistic at worst...
...No clubs were used...
...Most unhappy of all, however, is Yoko Saijo, one of the Mikado's five most popular hostesses...
...Each time he turned out to be married...
...The Right was disappointed that severity was not a watchword of demonstration control...
...An attractive brunette, she belongs to a select group of English-speaking hostesses who serve high-tipping foreigners...
...Only a few side streets were blocked for short periods of time...
...In search of qualified candidates, the director went out of the state to a respected college of police science, eventually hiring one black and one female officer...
...Earning more than Miss Hirota but enjoying it even less is 24-year-old Raiko Ohashi, whose $450 weekly income ranks among the top 15 per cent at the Mikado...
...Then, one fine spring evening, 80 officers were mobilized to deal with a nucleus of 300 demonstrators who had broadcast their determination to regenerate the previous years' violence...
...Organized groups frequently engage in well-financed campaigns to overturn proposed or already enacted reforms, sometimes even advocating unlawful defiance of regulations...
...is present too...
...Japan is too much of a man's country for me," she explains with more than a touch of bitterness...
...If liberals expect to influence police policies and practices, they will have to add a carrot to their often wielded stick...
...In recent years the term "the new breed" has gained some currency...
...Crime is recognized to be a social problem that the police cannot solve alone...
Vol. 57 • February 1974 • No. 4
