Quad-City Times from Davenport, Iowa • 57

QUAD-CITY TIMES Sunday, Oct. 5, 1980 aP In Tokyo row festers 33 the petty racketeers who operate there. A smaller number go to the government job center around the corner. "As for obtaining jobs, of course they can ask the government job center to find something for them," Hayashi says. "But the gangsters offer jobs with much higher salaries.

A large chunk of that, however, must be returned to the gang in the form of a kickback, and the tramps actually end up with less money than if they bad taken a regular job." The pervasive Japanese underworld has moved into a void left by the lack of government welfare services typical of most industrialized nations. There are more than 120,000 people involved in organized crime in Japan, according to national police agency investigators, who say underworld activities range from disrupting stockholders' meetings of corporations to procuring unskilled laborers as dock or" construction workers. The gangs also control most prostitution, gambling and drug trafficking in Japan, police say. VIRTUALLY every Japanese is covered by government or private comprehensive health insurance, but Japan also has job and welfare programs. These are proportionately much smaller than those of the 'Hi J1- EDITOR'S NOTE Japan's postwar prosperity eludes at least one sector of Its society the unemployed hobos and tramps.

Segregated into certain areas of major Japanese cities, the tramps face a life of poor health, violence, and organized crime offering them the only jobs they can get By Bryan Brumley of The Aaaoektod Pra TOKYO In Japan, where unemployment hovers below 2 percent, hobos and tramps are a rare sight. But they can be found wandering through rush-hour crowds of well-groomed commuters and living clustered in a rundown section of Tokyo known as Sanya. They sleep in flophouses, streets and subway entrances, divorced from the surrounding glitter and gleam of Japan's postwar economic boom. "The Japanese people despise tramps," says Koichi Hayashi, a former bank manager who has lived in Sanya since he lost his job after making a bad loan in 1951. "TRAMPS ARE segregated into certain areas of major Japanese cities," says Hayashi, who has spent the last 29 years writing about them.

"Despite their best intentions to find normal jobs, they are prevented from doing so by society," he says. "Forexample, it is impossible for anyone with a criminal record to get a job." Japanese who serve prison terms bear a life-long stigma that is officially endorsed by government identification papers, branding them as criminals. They are commonly referred to as "Zenkamono," or jailbirds, and most find it a handicap in getting a job or being accepted by society. IN JAPAN, a job for the average male means lifetime employment with one company which, if it is prosperous, may also provide health care and cut-rate housing. But some prefer the rigorous life of an outcast to the highly ordered world of the Japanese office and factory workers.

"I admit my life is a little unusual," says Hiroshi 45, who lives in two wooden crates stacked together alongside a subway exit in Shinguku, a jumble of high-rise stores teeming with commuters and fashion-conscious shoppers. "I would like to find a stable job that would give me a little more than I have," says Misaki, gesturing at his crates and the folding beach chairs that he pulls out for visitors. But then he shakes his head and recounts that he could not get along with the people at his last job, 14 years ago, in his brother's butcher store. "Now I live a solitary life and enjoy it," Misaki says. THE FLOPHOUSES of Sanya empty shortly after dawn as the tramps file down to Nikko Kaido Tori, the area's main street, seeking a day's employment from United States and most European nations, as measured against GNP.

Masato Iwasaka, chief of the Tokyo city govern- ment's Sanya division, says that his office does its best to "introduce job opportunities" for the tramps, "but frankly such official efforts are not enough. So they can't help but turn to the gangsters for jobs." Iwasaka says that about half of Sanya's estimated 6,000 residents work from time to time, mostly as unskilled day laborers in jobs procured by the gangs. 1 But the tramps who gather outside the gang offices don't appear especially concerned about working from day to day. Dressed in khaki work pants, light shirts and cloth and rubber jikitabi shoes, they linger after the last jobs are gone, squatting on the pavement and sharing bottles of sake or beer. Health among the tramps is poor, with tuberculosis and alcoholism frequent.

"Last year, about 20 tramps died in the streets. None was identified," Hayashi says. VIOLENT CRIME also is much more frequent in Sanya than in the rest of Japan, where murder, rape and assault are rare. "The tramps are likely to fall into the vices run by the gangs, and they are more likely to steal from each other" than are other Japanese, Hayashi says. A few of Sanya's tramps sleep in alleys or on park benches, but in the early morning peddlers appear in the same parks to trade used clothes.

There is no litter in Sanya. Tidy vending machines dispense whiskey or beer. The stoop of each boarding house is lined with potted miniature bonsai plants, and inside each foyer are rows of shoes carefully removed by the tramps before they enter. A vendor, above, offers clothes Including trousers for about $1.50 at street level In the San ya district of Tokyo. The customers are dayworkers, the skid row types whose quarter this is and, who make up to $45 a day, when they work, At left, a hobo In the Sanya district nurses his hangover on the walk.

Many of these drifters live in flophouses and cannot find Jobs because criminal records or other problems disqualify them. (AP photos) I Siren system found lacking, but gets little attention 1 i "nr-- I I Siren locations "Prt 'i LilvtT fniU? ock RT-! -G Rock Island 1. Atop WHBF tower 2. Fire Station No, 3, 7th Avenue31st Street 3. Rock Island High School, 17th Street25th Avenue 4.

West Rock Island High School, th Street13th Avenue 5. Washington Junior High School 18th Avenue33rd Street Fire Station No. 4, 31st Avenue30th Street 7. Fire Station No. 2, 9010 Ridgewood Rd.

8. 78th Avenue31st Street west 9. Water Tower, 42nd Avenue14th Street Moline II Atop City Hall 11. Atop former fire house, 1710 15th St. place 12.

1022 41st Street 13. south slope sewage plant, 2800 block on 48th Avenue 14 Jefferson School, 2613 31st St. East Moline 15. 42nd Avenue7th Street 16. 26th Avenue7th Street 17.

13th Street13th Avenue 18. by the correctional center, 2nd Street28th Street' Davenport 19. atop Masonic Temple 29. Fire Station No. 4, Locust and Judson streets 21.

Madison School, Locust and Brady streets 22. Fire Station No. 6, Pleasant and Hickory Grove Road 21 Hayes School McKlnley and Concord streets Bettendorf 24. Grant Wood School, 1423 Hillside Drive 25. Jackson School, 3311 Central Ave.

26. Pleasant Valley administration building, Belmont and Middle roads 27. 700 block on 14th Street Continued from Page IE Agency coordinator. About one-quarter of Rock Island's population, primarily in the southwest part of the city near the Rock River, currently would not hear a siren, Ms. Swain said.

Rock Island hopes to buy two rens in fiscal 1980-81 and two more in 1981-82. Priority areas are near 94th Avenue and 14th Street West, 92nd Avenue and 35th Street West, and 9th Street West and 83rd Avenue, she said. Mollne has five sirens, one of which will be moved to provide better coverage. This year's budget includes money to buy a sixth siren to serve southeast Moline. "We feel we need one to protect the students, faculty and staff that work out here," said Don SprouL facilities director at Black Hawk College, 6600 34th Ave.

City Administrator Steven C. Carter said another problem area Is the Heritage subdivision, south of John Deere Road. East Moline has four sirens. The city's "blind spot" is along 17th avenue, from 1st to 7th streets, near the International Harvester plant, John Stiegel, city civil defense director, said. Officials said sirens are less effective In rural areas, where population density is less than in cities.

And few towns in Rock Island and Scott counties have sirens. ELDRIDGE, Maysville, McCaus-land, Princeton and Walcott are the communities in Scott County with sirens, according to Joe Dooley, county civil defense director. Martin Marietta Cement Co. also has installed a siren at its plant In Buffalo. 1 The truck stop at the Walcott interchange on Interstate 80 is equipped with a siren, but its effectiveness is questionable because of high traffic noise levels, Dooley said.

Dooley's report to the Scott County Board of Supervisors in September, 1979, said Buffalo needs 10 sirens to cover its corporate limits, LeClalre needs five and Long Grove two. The report figured the number of sirens each town needed "without rethat sirens may be Installed over time "on a priority basis in the highest risk andor population density areas." All told, Scott County has 15 civtl defense sirens and needs another 66 to ensure total coverage, Dooley said. CORDOVA is the lone Rock Island County town with a civil defense siren, Warren Hallgren, county civil defense director, said. i Many small and rural communl-Many small and rural communities also use their fire station sirens as to spend what money they have to keep the people they have in the federal government employed." Gilbertson, of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was quick to note that Congress has not appropriated any money In recent years to match city contributions for sirens. THE CITY of Davenport budgeted money for additional sirens several years in a row, but the money was not spent because federal civil defense funds were cut back, Curtis Snow, administrative assistant, said.

And, although sirens were included in the city's fiscal 1980 and 1981 budgets, the City Council cut them out in favor of other programs, which is the council's right, Snow said. Davenport Mayor Charles Wright said civil defense sirens are sure to be. an issue as the city plans its 1982 budget, but It is too early to tell wheth- er any more will be purchased. Larry Hartman, Scott County civil defense operations planner, said sirens are "an item which is removed each budget period." That is frustrating, he said, because "it's something you should have." SOME OTHER area cities seem to have achieved better coverage with, their sirens than the Quad-Cities. I Galesburg, 111., a city of about 000, has nine civil defense sirens and hopes soon to install a tenth, Peter Pollilo, city civil defense director; said.

Galesburg needs 13 sirens to cover its borders, Pollilo said, adding IhaJ" the city has a policy of adding hfl civil defense system every two The sirens are paid for from city coffers. Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with about 112,000 people, has 17 operating sirens, according to Victor Root, Linn County operations planner. Two neighboring towns, Hiawatha and Marion, have one and three sirens, respectively, he said. COMPLAINTS about sirens in the Quad-Cities come regularly, but for different reasons. Every city tests its sirens; once a week, once a month or once every two months.

Invariably, police receive complaints. Either the sirens cannot be heard or they are too loud. Costello also hears about the sirens. Whenever the news media broadcasts a tornado warning, con-stitutents call to ask him when then-ares will receive a civil defense siren. Political action will come only after disaster strikes, he said.

Some civil defense and public officials said when that day comes, and Quad-Cittans living in an area without sirens are Injured or killed, the community may wish it had bought rhofe sirens as a life insurance Htuui fects of winds, temperature and humidity. There are no federal regulations on the number or location of sirens in a given community, James Gubcrtson, of the Federal Emergency Management' Agency, said. The agency will assist local officials on planning a civil defense network and the deployment of equipment, he added. BUT ONE obstacle to installing sirens Is the cost, and the federal gov ernment no longer helps with that The' sirens themselves range In cost from $1,500 to (8,000. Installation can run from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars.

Civil defense officials are bitter about the cutoff of matching federal funds that enabled many communities to buy sirens in the past. There also Is no state funding available. Erie Jones, director of Illinois' Emergency Services and Disaster Agency, sarcastically said, "They need emergency warning systems. Others rely on signals that drift through the air from neighboring towns. Officials said thatIn areas without sirens, means of notifying the public include using public address systems In police cars and interrupting cable television and other broadcast media.

People indoors are expected to tune in to the electronic media. "You have to figure these people will be listening to radio or watching televt- slon," Ms. Swain said, CIVIL DEFENSE sirens are supposed to protect residents from a clear and present danger which means anything from tornadoes to toxic chemical accidents to enemy missiles. But whether residents of a given area can hear a siren at all depends on reflection of sound by buildings, trees, the earth and other objects, and the ef- I.