ROBERT WHITING

An important element in Japanese baseball is wa--group harmony--embodied in the proverb "The nail that sticks up shall be hammered down". But what if the nail is a visiting American player? Here's a look at Japanese baseball, as seen by baffled

Tokyo Underworld chronicles the life and times of Nick Zappetti, an Italian-American GI who remained in Japan after the war to open a pizzeria in Roppongi. As a restauranteur in the heart of Tokyo's vibrant night-life district, Zappetti rubs elbows with some of Japan's most infamous underworld figures. Whiting's novel is a superbly researched account of organized crime in postwar...