Chapter 172 - Name and Reality 95 {123 Alone} (295–296: The Upbringing of Kuwano Kinya and Onodera Michitoshi 3 / Showa Depression)
"I've heard from Isaka Daikichi's son, Masamitsu, that Daikichi had a certain level of resignation that they wouldn't be able to give the inheritance to Mende's surviving child—his son. Was it the same for Kuwano-san?"
When Yoshimura confirmed this,
"He probably considered the low probability, but if you say he gave up, I think that's wrong. There's no doubt he had a strong desire to do something for him. Before he died, whenever Kinya-chan brought up the subject of the deed, he would always take it out and show it to me, and each time, he would passionately say, 'No matter what, for Mende's sake, I want to give his share of the gold to the son whose name, let alone face, I don't even properly know. That's the only tribute I can offer him.' And the Mende that Kinya-chan spoke of apparently always told his comrades, 'I can't possibly face my son and his mother now, but I'm here because I want to be as close to them as possible.' Mende didn't speak more clearly than that, but from those words, Kinya-chan and the others thought the two might have been somewhere not too far from the gold panning site in Ikutahara. Anyway, because he loved Mende so much as a younger brother figure, he must have had a strong desire to do something for that child."
The information that Mende's surviving child might have been somewhere not too far from Ikutahara was almost identical to what they had heard from Daikichi's son, Masamitsu. Furthermore,
"And whenever the topic of the deed came up, Kinya-chan had one more customary statement. He would talk about his dreams for the future in his usual strong Iwate accent, saying, 'Someday, let's make a name for ourselves with this gold, the two of us. It would be fine to be fishermen in Iwate in our parents' stead. But honestly, I have a desire to start over from high school again. However, given my age, that might be difficult. On the other hand, if that were possible, I also have a desire to do something for Japan as a politician. No, rather, that feeling is growing stronger day by day. I want to somehow save the working class of this country.' ...Ah, until now I've been reproducing what Kinya-chan said by translating it into standard Japanese, but in reality, he had a very strong Iwate accent, so you wouldn't understand him if I spoke as he did."
He added, giving a suppressed wry smile.
"I see... I understand about Mende's gold. And so Kuwano-san wanted to become a politician."
Nishida noted that point as well, but—
"Seeing the misery of the bottom-tier laborers at the time, in addition to his previous leanings toward the leftist movement, a sense of mission or duty to do something himself must have sprouted in him... However, back then, the leftists were in an era of being illegal. So he said it was a dream... That said, Kinya-chan predicted that an era of free politics would come in the not-too-distant future. He had seen through the fact that Japan's system wouldn't last long. However, he was quite worried that if the very life of the nation as Japan were taken away by losing that war, not only the future of the country itself but also his dream would be crushed."
Ooshima spoke poignantly of Kuwano Kinya's thoughts at the time.
"Judging from Kuwano-san's character, if he had become a politician, he might have become a fine one."
Yoshimura said something uncharacteristically meek, but—
"It's not 'might have'! He certainly would have! It's a shame, but he was different from me in every way! I am convinced that Kuwano Kinya's early death was, without exaggeration, a loss for post-war Japanese politics!"
Ooshima threw those powerful, hot emotions at the detectives, who had no connection to Kuwano.
Certainly, Kuwano Kinya must have been a very capable person, regardless of Ooshima's personal bias. However, at this moment, inflating Kuwano's character beyond what was necessary didn't have much significance for the investigation, curiosity aside. Nishida decided to hurry the development of the conversation.
"By the way, to go back a bit, please tell me in more detail about how you came to work together at Konomai. After Kuwano-san left Ikutahara, he started working at Konomai, where he went from being a miner to an apprentice dynamite technician. Since the working conditions were good, he spoke to the company and called for you, Onodera-san, right?"
"That's right. Working under Senzaki was also a good place, but after all, you're mostly in the mountains, so public hygiene wasn't exactly good. After leaving Ikutahara, he apparently wandered through hanba as before, but since winter was approaching, he wanted to work in a somewhat decent place. So, although he didn't feel very good about it as a person on the leftist side, he heard that the Konomai Gold Mine, part of the Mitsutomo Zaibatsu, was recruiting miners, so he applied for the time being. Originally, they weren't supposed to hire people with missing thumbs, but because the demand for gold had reached its peak and using a pickaxe was no problem, he was hired. Konomai, being a state-of-the-art gold mine, had very good treatment for a mine at the time. And Kinya-chan, from being a mere miner, was scouted to be an apprentice dynamite technician because of his academic background and his disability. Once he settled there, he decided to call me from Sendai. However, the direct reason for calling me from Sendai was that the business of the dry goods store I was indebted to was no longer doing well, and reading my letter saying I couldn't cause them any more trouble was, to be honest, the biggest factor. Originally, it seemed to be a fairly large establishment in Sendai, but the aftermath of the Showa Depression that started from the Great Depression, the famine in Tohoku, and the great depression in Tohoku around Showa 10 influenced by the tsunami were causing its foundation to tilt... It was truly a difficult time back then..."
Saying this, Ooshima nodded lightly to himself a few times. The situation must have been that serious at the time.
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The Showa Depression refers to the great depression in the Japanese economy that occurred from 1930 to 1931, triggered by the aftermath of the 1929 Wall Street stock market crash.
In particular, assets that had bubbled due to World War I were gradually becoming non-performing loans through several depressions before the Great Depression (which will be mentioned separately later), and they decisively became non-performing loans during the Great Depression, leading to financial instability. Furthermore, because they tried to deal with it through monetary tightening policies, it caused severe deflation.
Also, the fact that Japan's main industrial structure was particularly susceptible to the influence of external demand added fuel to the depression caused by the Great Depression.
The industrial form involved exporting raw silk to the West (especially the US) and using the profits to import scrap iron, cotton, and crude oil from the US. Furthermore, they manufactured cotton yarn and cotton fabrics from the imported cotton to export to Asia, and then imported heavy industrial raw materials from those profits. Therefore, the situations in the US and Asia, which were particularly hit by the Great Depression, directly and significantly rebounded onto the Japanese economy.
Also, the fact that raw silk itself was no longer an indispensable import for the US due to the appearance of chemical fibers was a painful point for Japan.
The number of unemployed in 1930 reached 2.5 million nationwide (a considerable number of unemployed considering the total population of Japan that year was almost exactly 64.45 million). It was an era when even university graduates, who were quite few in proportion to the population, could not find jobs, which led to the famous phrase "I graduated from university, but..." (this phrase would be highlighted again during the depression in the 1950s after the war).
In addition to the crash of raw silk, the rural villages were particularly exhausted due to the "poverty of plenty" from the previous year's bumper crop and the entry of cheap imported rice from Taiwan and Korea.
In 1933, Finance Minister Takahashi Korekiyo succeeded in escaping the depression for the time being through yen depreciation caused by quantitative easing and active fiscal policy, which boosted exports. However, because the Western powers did not approve of this as an unfair exchange rate policy and introduced bloc economies, it unintentionally became a stepping stone leading to the later World War. Also, while the lives of the people clearly improved from states of distress such as unemployment, as a side effect of wages not rising much even when prices rose again, the lives themselves were basically difficult for many commoners.
At the same time, contrary to the global trend of disarmament, the fact that a considerable amount of national funds was invested in strengthening military power as part of active fiscal policy was also a bad move from a long-term perspective, leading to the later runaway of the military.
Furthermore, at an inopportune time, the aforementioned Great Tohoku Famine occurred in the Tohoku region from 1930 to 1934. For the purpose of dealing with this, rural development expenses called the "Emergency Relief Projects" were recorded for three years (1932–1934) as part of active fiscal policy, but it was far from the reconstruction of the exhausted Tohoku (the cement and steel industries made profits due to policies centered on civil engineering projects). Combined with the Showa Sanriku Tsunami, even during the recovery period for Japan as a whole, situations such as long periods of depression continuing locally or benefits not reaching the general public were mixed. These economic conditions of the time will be touched upon in more detail later.
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"Does that mean for you at the time, Onodera-san, the invitation from your cousin was a godsend, or rather, a welcome proposal?"
"They were the people of Asaka Shoten who had taken great care of me, so I had a strong desire not to cause them any more trouble. Naturally, on their side, considering my circumstances, it was hard for them to say anything, so there's no doubt the timing was extremely good. I decided to cross over to Hokkaido without a second thought."
Ooshima answered Yoshimura's question without hesitation.
"Was that in March of Showa 17? Your employment contract at the Konomai Gold Mine said so."
"Ho. I'm impressed you've already obtained that. It certainly should have been. But even though it was March, Hokkaido is deep in snow, and Konomai is even further in the mountains... Even though I'm from Tohoku, I'm not from such a snowy place, so I remember thinking at first, 'I've come to an unbelievable place'... On top of that, the cold in the mornings and evenings was incredible. Nowadays, the construction of houses in Hokkaido has become very good, but I heard from colleagues with families that in the old days, even the soy sauce kept indoors would often freeze in winter."
Ooshima, who was asked for confirmation by Nishida, spoke vividly of his memories of the time beyond what was asked. However, regarding the soy sauce freezing and such, it was at a level Nishida had heard from his parents, and it probably wasn't that rare in the housing situation of the rural areas of the prefecture at the time.
"How was the work at Konomai? You said you were an apprentice dynamite... blasting technician."
"Kinya-chan was already somewhat used to it, so even though he was an apprentice, he was helping the technician to some extent. In my case, until I ran away after the accident in Yubetsu a few months later, I was really like an apprentice, or rather, doing menial work. But that's exactly why I was able to avoid being near the mine during that naval mine explosion accident... That aside, the work itself wasn't that difficult, but because the tunnels were deep underground, it was quite hot... Even though it was still cold outside, the environment inside made you sweat quite a bit. I was worried about what would happen when summer came. Kinya-chan hadn't experienced summer yet either, so when he asked a senior technician colleague, he said it was indeed harsh... Especially in the case of miners, the story was that they would lose several kilograms once they entered the pit. Because salt is discharged through sweat, they apparently had to work while licking salt. Naturally, they sweated quite a bit even in winter. However, even so, Kinya-chan often said that the working environment was several levels better than the coal mines of the time and that they were quite blessed. Gold mines were particularly a cash cow back then. It seems the welfare benefits were on a different dimension from other mines. As for me, I couldn't say anything because I had no point of comparison 'at the time'."
Ooshima was an old man well over 80 years old, but as expected of an active member of the Diet, his memory was solid, and his responses to Yoshimura were clear.
"As you mentioned earlier, after you started working together at Konomai, you heard various specific details about the deed from Kuwano-san, right?"
"It's exactly as I just said."
He strongly affirmed Nishida's question.
"Then, finally, let's move on to the story of the naval mine explosion accident. Please tell us what exactly happened that day."
"Umu... I still remember that day well. ...Or rather, it would be more correct to say I can't forget it."
Ooshima prefaced this, then let out a low voice like a groan. Then, muttering something like "Alright" to quietly encourage himself, he opened his mouth again.
"A request to suddenly help with the blasting of two naval mines that had washed up on the beach in Yubetsu came to us two days before the accident... so probably on May 24th. Originally, the people from the Kitano-o Gold Mine in Ikutahara were supposed to take it on, but they could only go from the afternoon due to some business, so they wanted the folks from the Konomai Gold Mine to handle it in the meantime... Naturally, the Chief Engineer, a man named Taketomi-san, seemed to have protested quite a bit to the company that accepted it. He said, 'It's dangerous to take on work we're not used to'... However, when it's a request from the police, the company couldn't really refuse, and since the blasting itself would be done by the Kitano-o folks in the afternoon, he reluctantly complied. So, the four of us, including myself, led by Taketomi-san, left the Konomai settlement first thing in the morning. Since the blasting itself was to be left to the Kitano-o technicians, we didn't need to bring dynamite, and I remember being relaxed about that. We crossed Kinpachi Pass (T/N: Author's Note: For Kinpachi Pass, see http://story.engaru.jp/story/%E9%87%91%E5%85%AB%E5%B3%A0/), went to Maruseppu Station, took the JNR to Engaru Station, transferred, and went to Yubetsu's... I think it was a beach named Ponto-hama?"
When he spoke that much, he suddenly checked, so Nishida nodded, and he continued.
"We arrived there. The weather was very good that day, and neither I, nor Kinya-chan, Taketomi-san, or Sagara-san who came with me, could have imagined that such a tragedy would unfold after that..."
Ooshima continued, his shoulders dropping.