Chapter 116 - Name and Reality 39 {67 Solo} (154-155 Isaka Masamitsu's Monologue 4)
The smoke break ended, and the continuation of the story began.
"The old man worked as a miner at a coal mine in Haboro (Haboro Town, north of Rumoi City) for a while after that, but even though it was a large company, unlike his time in Ikutahara, he apparently had a terrible time. After the war, coal (industry) was part of Japan's high economic growth, so miners were high earners for 'black diamonds,' but before the war, they were treated as mere disposable miners. Apparently, he was treated better than the conscripted Koreans or Chinese prisoners, but he talked about being worked like a cart horse under the wartime mobilization system."
In the coal industry, which played a central role in Japan's energy industry after the war as so-called "black diamonds," the treatment of miners had become quite good, partly due to the frequent occurrence of labor disputes. However, before the war, awareness of human rights was low, and especially during the war, it was necessary to dig out large amounts of coal amidst a labor shortage (as many of the prime working generation had headed to the battlefield as soldiers), so Japanese workers alone were by no means sufficient. In the coal-producing regions of Kyushu and Hokkaido, large numbers of Koreans and Chinese were mobilized to supplement this. In Hokkaido, the ratio of Koreans is said to have been particularly high. In some parts, Western prisoners of war from the Allied forces were also used. The various "forced labor issues" that are still problems today are, in the case of Koreans at the time, mostly caused by the difference in labor conditions before employment, cases where forceful methods were taken during conscription, and labor environment issues after employment.
Also, in the case of the Chinese in particular, many prisoners were mobilized, which is also a problem. Japanese workers were by no means treated well either, and there are many cases where they were forced to perform unreasonable labor. Naturally, the situation varied depending on the individual and the specific workplace, and one should avoid generalizing all individual experiences. However, as a general trend, it is a fact that it was far from a decent environment compared to a certain period after the war.
Reference Links:
Haboro Coal Mine
http://www.suzukishoten-museum.com/footstep/area/haboro/21419.php
Chinese Laborers
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%8F%AF%E4%BA%BA%E5%8A%B4%E5%8B%99%E8%80%85
Research on labor conditions in the pre-war Chikuho coalfield by a Kyoto University researcher
http://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2433/44436/1/12_10.pdf
In response to this story, Nishida confirmed,
"From what we've investigated, I believe it was after that, but your father was drafted and mobilized for the Battle of Okinawa."
"Even though it's unrelated to the case, you've gone that far... As I said earlier, you guys really go at it..."
Masamitsu was surprised, his tone half-exasperated.
"What do you mean 'that far'... It's only by investigating that far that we finally began to see the full picture of the case!"
Nishida spoke as if protesting. Considering the walls of various obstructions and the passing years, it was understandable that Nishida wanted to say a word.
"Well, that's fine... As you say, the old man was drafted after that, went to Manchuria once and returned to Japan, and finally ended up participating in combat again in Okinawa. When I was a child, I'd heard from my late mother that the old man had a terrible time in the war, but that was the first time he'd spoken to me directly. He said most of the comrades in the same unit died miserably while charging at the US forces without even proper weapons... The old man narrowly escaped with his life and surrendered to the US forces near September after the end of the war, but he said he remembered it as a nightmare even decades after the war."
Both Nishida and Yoshimura knew that there was no lie in those words, as they had investigated the fate of the 89th Regiment that Daikichi had been in.
【Author's Note Reference Link: http://cgi2.nhk.or.jp/shogenarchives/shogen/movie.cgi?das_id=D0001100643_00000 (There are many valuable video testimonies from survivors of the 89th Regiment, so please take a look. Note that although it is historical fact that surviving soldiers of the Battle of Okinawa were basically held in US prisoner-of-war camps in Okinawa until around October 1946, the year after the end of the war, in this work, I will proceed on the premise that they were repatriated at a slightly earlier stage. Please understand.)】
"So, after being repatriated from Okinawa after the war, the old man thought only of getting his share of the gold dust, which could be called his only remaining hope. And with the deed he had kept on him even during the war, he went to the Kitanou Mine in Ikutahara to see the witness, Sada Toru. When he did, he was no longer there. The mine itself had closed. So he had no choice but to head to Otaru, his family home, which he had been told to visit in case of emergency. However, there, the old man was told that Sada Toru had died in battle, and on top of that, Sada's father told him, 'I cannot tell you the location of the gold dust unless you are with one of the other comrades listed on the deed. That is what I was told by Toru.' Naturally, the old man was quite despaired... After all, he had no idea what the other comrades were doing now... It was close to a death sentence, so to speak. As for Kuwano Kinya, he was from Iwate, so he didn't know his family home clearly. As for Hojo Masato, he didn't know his family home specifically, but since he was originally from Ashibetsu, he went to the Ashibetsu town hall after that and was told that Hojo had also died in battle. He'd heard from Hojo that his younger brother was in Takikawa, but he didn't know anything more than that. In that case, only Mende's child, whose name he didn't even know, was left, and he was finally cornered. He wondered what he had survived that hell for... Since he had no money and nowhere to go, he had no choice; since he'd heard that Kuwano hadn't come yet, he decided to work in a sort of menial capacity at the black market that had formed in front of Otaru Station, believing slightly that he might come and they could reunite. He said he waited there earnestly for Kuwano to arrive."
Nishida and Yoshimura knew that Onodera Michitoshi, who must have been disguised as Kuwano, and Isaka had appeared together at Sada's family home later, but they were honestly surprised that Isaka had waited for Kuwano without any prior arrangement or contact. They speculated that the state of mind of Daikichi at the time, waiting aimlessly for Kuwano in front of Otaru Station where thousands of people must have passed in a day, must have been quite desperate, but at the same time, they couldn't help but think that his obsession with the gold dust to that extent was perhaps because he had survived the Battle of Okinawa by the skin of his teeth.
"I'm surprised he could meet Ooshima in such a situation."
When Nishida inadvertently said that, Masamitsu muttered,
"So you've seen through the fact that Kuwano was Ooshima too."
And he continued as is,
"Then, do you also know that that Kuwano was actually a fake?"
He confirmed.
"Yeah, of course. We've already grasped that a person named Onodera Michitoshi, who was the real Kuwano's cousin, took advantage of Kuwano's death in an explosion to impersonate him."
Nishida answered flatly on purpose.
"That saves me the trouble of explaining, and to be honest, it helps me too. It's quite a complicated story, after all..."
Masamitsu laughed weakly upon hearing that, but as if ignoring it, Yoshimura questioned a point of doubt in a loud voice.
"Returning to the story, I see that your father and Ooshima had never met before, but they really managed to meet. In a place like the front of Otaru Station, where there must have been a heavy flow of people even back then. Was there some hint?"
"That... it seems it was truly a mere coincidence. I can only say it was fate. The old man said so too..."
Masamitsu spoke with a serious face this time.
"Tell me more about the circumstances there."
Requested for more details by Nishida, Masamitsu began to speak in detail.
"As I said earlier, he had nowhere to go, his money was running out, and he asked to be allowed to work at the black market in front of Otaru Station. It was about several months later... One night, at a nearby stall serving zousui, he apparently spotted the back of a young man who was talking to the stall owner in what sounded like a strong Tohoku accent he'd heard before. And since that man's back was somewhat similar to Kuwano, who was relatively large, and from his Tohoku-accented way of speaking, he had a hunch it might be Kuwano. He called out 'Kin-chan,' which was Kuwano's nickname, in delight. Then, the man turned around in surprise, but his face wasn't Kuwano's. However, since he clearly reacted to the name, unless he happened to have been called 'Kin-chan' before, you wouldn't expect such a reaction, right? So, when the old man pressed him for various things, it turned out he was Kuwano's actual cousin. On top of that, the guy told the old man that Kuwano was already dead. Naturally, in that case, he despaired that he couldn't find out the location of the gold dust from Sada's parents, but that man—that is, the current Ooshima, Onodera—had inherited the story of the deed and the gold dust from Kuwano, and since Sada wasn't in Ikutahara, he had come to Otaru to ask about the location of the gold dust. So the old man decided to go with that Onodera to Sada's parents to ask about the location of the gold dust. And at that time, he decided to set up Onodera as Kuwano himself. Normally, he could have spoken honestly to Sada's parents as the legitimate relative and heir of the deceased Kuwano, but the old man thought that if the person going with him wasn't Kuwano himself, he might be misunderstood as having plotted something and things would become troublesome. Fortunately, Sada Toru had died in battle, so there was no one left who had seen Kuwano directly, so he thought he could push through the lie. He also thought that at worst, if the lie was exposed and the old man was excluded as the mastermind, Onodera himself was a legitimate heir, so he could just have him tell him the location he'd heard later. By the way, at this point, it seems he hadn't yet heard that Onodera had already switched his family register itself to be Kuwano."
Hearing this, Nishida said,
"I see. But wouldn't it have been better to let Ooshima hear it alone from the start and then ask him later?"
"Don't ask me that, I wouldn't know,"
Masamitsu expressed his dissatisfaction, but he offered a somewhat persuasive answer,
"Maybe he thought that if he didn't hear it together, the information would be monopolized and his own share might be taken? This is just a guess, mind you."
That aside, it was true that in the letter explaining the circumstances of the distribution of Sada Toru's gold dust, no clear characteristics were noted regarding Kuwano's appearance other than his Iwate accent and the fact that he was relatively tall. Considering that, there would have been no problem appearing before Sada's parents as Kuwano. However, even so, since they didn't know the contents of the letter Toru had sent to his parents, it was also true that it was quite a gamble. Furthermore, he learned that Ooshima, who currently speaks fluent standard Japanese at least in public, spoke normally with an Iwate accent back then, just like Kuwano.
"And then they succeeded in finding out the location of the gold dust, went straight to Ikutahara, and the two of them dug up all the gold dust and snatched it, right?"
Yoshimura spoke with a thorny tone, but here Masamitsu raised his voice slightly and objected.
"That's mostly right, but also a bit different!"
Nishida suspected this was related to the fact that Masamitsu had let slip a comment somewhat defending Daikichi during Nishida's solo interrogation the other day.
"How is it different?"
To Yoshimura, who was being confrontational without knowing that, he passionately argued,
"It's true that the old man and Ooshima dug it all up; he admitted that himself, so there's no mistake. But the old man pleaded that he didn't intend to steal it all from the beginning. No, it's not just an excuse! If that were the case, he would have used up all the gold dust, and he wouldn't have left money equivalent to another person's share of gold dust. The old man wasn't thinking of pocketing it from beginning to end!"
Whether or not it was true, one person's share of gold dust was indeed left entirely, and the four million yen in bundles of old Shotoku Taishi ten-thousand yen bills, which must have been the compensation for the portion consumed, were also left at Masamitsu's house. This was something that couldn't have been prepared recently. Nishida also became curious and said,
"I want you to explain that in detail."
"Let me say this for the sake of the old man's honor, in a sense! In the old man's original plan, after digging up the gold dust, he intended to leave Hojo Masato's share for his younger brother, since Masato had said while alive that he had one, and also properly leave a share for Mende's child. However, it was while the two of them were heading to Ikutahara by train, looking back on their lives so far and talking..."
Having said that much, Masamitsu bit his lip.