Chapter 175 - Name and Reality 98 {126 Alone} (301–302: The Tragedy of Air Raids in the Tohoku Region)
Near the beginning of this interrogation, Oshima had recalled the story of Kuwano returning to his hometown for his conscription examination. At that time, Oshima had also heard from Kuwano about the tragic state of the "hanba" in Hokkaido, which were civil engineering construction sites back then, but he had made the statement, "I didn't really understand it at the time." The true meaning of that was likely an implicit suggestion that actually experiencing it was different from what he had imagined in his head. In addition, the situation near the end of the war was almost certainly even worse than what Kuwano had experienced, just as Oshima had stated.
The front lines also varied; there were places like the Southern Front in Guadalcanal or Okinawa that were literal living hells, but there were also units and regions that saw the end of the war without firing a single bullet. In that sense, it wouldn't be far-fetched to say that, depending on the case, Oshima's experience was far more grueling than the front lines.
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"In the end, did you remain in Hokkaido after the war?"
Yoshimura asked following Oshima's story.
"Even though the war ended, I wasn't in a situation where I could move immediately. I was so emaciated that my appearance had changed, so I had no choice but to stay for a few weeks without moving... I stayed in the barn of a local farmer and tried to recover my strength while receiving offerings of miscellaneous grains. Of course, I wanted to leave the land where I had such terrible memories as soon as possible..."
Saying that, Oshima's face momentarily took on a very grim expression as he looked back on the hardships of that time. However,
"However, that evil experience in the tako-beya... after I became a Member of Parliament... You probably don't know, but I can still proudly claim that I worked not just as a 'zoku-giin' (T/N: 'tribe' politician) of the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries or Construction factions—which have bad reputations, though I hate to put it that way—but also as a Labor faction member for the rights of workers. Rather, as a politician, I devoted my heart and soul to activities in the Labor Committee... what is now called the Health, Welfare and Labor Committee (Author's Note: This changed because the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Labor were integrated in January 2001). Unfortunately, the public doesn't see it that way, but if that's a disaster I brought upon myself, I have no choice but to accept it... At any rate, it's certain that I engaged in political activities so that postwar workers wouldn't have to go through the hardships we experienced. That was my will, and it was also the dying wish of the late Kinya-chan."
He added at the end with a wry smile.
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Speaking of zoku-giin, they now have a completely negative image as Diet members who feast on vested interests in specific policy fields, but originally, the term meant a group of members who were well-versed in the policies of that field.
They were groups that studied with fellow and senior members to gain enough knowledge to contend with and influence the bureaucrats of each ministry, and these groups were often expanded and inherited by organizations known as factions.
Since all Diet members are obligated to belong to a committee in each house that handles their respective areas of expertise (Diet members are obligated to belong to at least one standing committee), zoku-giin generally belong to the committee of the specialized field that their faction excels in. Naturally, many members have experience belonging to multiple committees, and it is common for them to act as zoku-giin in multiple fields, regardless of their faction's strengths or weaknesses. Note that standing committees are basically places where discussions, screenings, and investigations regarding the policies and issues under the jurisdiction of each ministry are conducted.
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It was true that Oshima Kaiji was famous for his basic position as a member of the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries faction who succeeded Kaito Takumi, and for his later position as a member of the Construction faction where he carved out his own interests, but it seemed he originally placed importance on his position as a member of the Labor faction.
"Even so, considering the time you met Isaka Daikichi in Otaru, it seems you didn't go to the Sada family in Otaru immediately after the war?"
Due in part to the weight of the story, Nishida waited a moment before questioning Oshima about his actions during the interval, taking into account the time from the end of the war to when Isaka Daikichi was demobilized from Okinawa.
"I mentioned that at the end of the war, I was at an Army airfield construction site in Eastern Hokkaido. Specifically, I was in a hanba around Nakashibetsu or Betsukai. Once I was able to move properly, I first went to visit the Kitano-ou Gold Mine, where Sada Toru was said to have worked. However, it seemed all gold mines had been closed at the end of the war, and Sada Toru was no longer there. I considered going straight to his family home in Otaru as Kinya-chan had told me to while he was alive, but first, I felt like returning to my hometown of Ryori. ...Or rather, it might be more accurate to say I wanted to leave Hokkaido, especially Eastern Hokkaido, as soon as possible... A lot had happened. ...So, I decided to return once, as I was concerned about what had happened to my hometown during the war, even if my relatives and acquaintances were gone. Honestly, I thought it would be desirable to visit the Sada family as soon as possible to secure the gold dust, but I didn't have the mental leeway, and there was the chaos of the defeat, so I judged it might be better to wait until society had settled down."
"I see. It certainly seems you had a long period that was physically and mentally taxing, so it's not strange that such feelings emerged."
At this point, Nishida no longer felt like he was interrogating a criminal.
"And so, I first headed from Ikutahara toward Sapporo. Naturally, I passed through Engaru and Maruseppu, which made me reflexively recall what happened then, and I was in a complicated state of mind there as well. However, since I would be coming back anyway, I endured it with the utmost patience... From Sapporo, I passed through Otaru and reached Hakodate. In reality, it must have taken quite a while just to get to Hakodate. Since it hadn't even been a month since the defeat on August 15th, the train operations were disrupted and they were terribly crowded, which made things difficult... Furthermore, the (Seikan) ferries had apparently been hit hard during the war (Author's Note: For wartime damage to the Seikan ferries, see the following: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~un3k-mn/kusyu-seikan.htm), and since the number of ships in service was small, it was a struggle just to get to Aomori... Then, when I finally reached Aomori, I was surprised to find that Aomori City had become a burnt-out wasteland. Apparently, it had been hit by a large-scale air raid at the end of July. Being in a hanba in Hokkaido, I hadn't grasped the situation of Japan as a whole, but since they had been invaded as far as Aomori and Hakodate, I could only sigh, thinking it was natural we lost. That said, I later learned that even Nemuro and Kushiro had been air-raided, and since I was in a hanba near there at the same time, it just showed how little information reached us... At any rate, at that time, I was once again recalling Kinya-chan's prophecy."
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The Aomori Air Raid was carried out by 62 B-29s from the night of July 28th to the morning of the 29th in Showa 20 (1945), near the end of the war. It was an air raid using over 80,000 incendiary bombs. It caused immense damage for an air raid on a regional city, with nearly 1,800 deaths and almost 90% of the city's houses destroyed.
Furthermore, before this air raid, a sense of crisis had already spread among the citizens due to the bombing of the Seikan ferry route, and some had begun to evacuate. Fearing that this would spread chaos, Aomori Prefecture and Aomori City issued a warning that rations would be stopped if a house was left vacant, so it is said that many citizens returned to the city just before the raid.
On top of that, although leaflets warning of an air raid within a few days were scattered by B-29s late on the night of the 27th, just before the raid, a gag order was imposed, which meant the information did not reach the citizens, further expanding the damage.
Similar cases occurred in other cities that were air-raided, and it is considered a typical example where damage to the citizens spread due to the administration's judgment prioritizing control.
Note: There is a theory that leaflets warning of the atomic bombing were scattered in Hiroshima City before the bombing, but it is said that those suggesting the atomic bombing were at least after the bombing of Nagasaki. It is likely that the usual air raid warnings and the post-bombing leaflets have been conflated.
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"And then I transferred to the Tohoku Main Line, went as far as Hanamaki in Iwate, and headed for Kamaishi. However, on the way to Kamaishi, I heard from local people that in July and August near the end of the war, the Kamaishi city area had been subjected to large-scale naval bombardment from the Allied fleet. The scene I saw in Aomori came to mind, but when I reached Kamaishi, the town had indeed become a transformed scorched earth... I never thought that my hometown, and Kamaishi, which wasn't even that large a city, would meet such a fate, but if I thought about it, it had the only steelworks in the Tohoku region, so it was only natural it became a target. Furthermore, I heard there had been considerable air raids in Sendai near the end of the war, and I became worried about everyone at Asaka Shoten, who had looked after me and Kinya-chan. In the end, I only stopped by Ryori for a bit, and after confirming that nothing had changed, I headed straight for Sendai."
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Kamaishi, which Nishida and the others passed through when they visited the Ryori district and the elderly Amai in Miyako this spring, is a city with the rias coastline topography unique to the Sanriku coast. It is a city that has continued to suffer tsunami damage throughout history, and it is also a city of fishing and steelmaking since olden times.
At first glance, its geographical conditions seem unrelated to the damage of the previous war, but the fact is that it suffered great damage at the end of the war. On July 14, 1945, over 400 civilians died in naval bombardment by the U.S. Navy aimed at the steelworks. Furthermore, on August 9, the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, a combined force of the U.S. Navy and the British Royal Navy carried out naval bombardment and strafing by carrier-based aircraft, resulting in nearly 300 civilian casualties.
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"I heard Sendai also suffered considerable damage. In our investigation, that became a hindrance when we traced Kuwano-san's footsteps, and they were almost cut off at the stage of the Former Second High School."
When Nishida responded thus, Oshima said,
"Yes. I think I finally reached Sendai in early September, but despite the air raid being two months prior (specifically July 10th), the central area was still a scorched wasteland... Naturally, Asaka Shoten, which was right in the middle of it, was gone without a trace... Most of the surrounding residents seemed to have been killed, so I couldn't find out detailed information, but summarizing the information I gathered while staying in Sendai for a few months, it seemed the owner, Asaka-san, his family, and the shop employees had all died. In the first place, I couldn't even meet any acquaintances from around the shop, so it was a natural conclusion. For me, they had been like family since that tsunami, so I remember being struck by a strong sense of lethargy and loss. ...With Kinya-chan, my only blood relative, already dead, and then this... While I had no religious faith, I wasn't particularly an atheist either, but at that time, I felt certain that no god existed in this world."
He spoke haltingly.
The fact was that Nishida and Takeshita—men living in the peaceful present—could easily imagine the heart of the young Onodera Michitoshi, who must have been physically and mentally worn out from tako-beya labor during the war and stood alone in the scorched earth of Sendai.
"However, it didn't take long for the same state of mind I had when that mine exploded to arrive from the depths of despair."
"The same state of mind... Does that mean you felt like turning it into an advantage?"
Yoshimura offered a speculation in response to Oshima's statement.
"You've read it well. It's exactly as you think. Despair turned into a kind of hope. Since that explosion, I had to live as Kuwano Kinya, but no matter how much Japan lost and everything was wiped clean, the fact that I was using someone else's name could have become a major problem in my future life. However, if the people who knew Kinya-chan and me had all vanished, that worry would be considerably reduced. After that, I just had to change my name so I wouldn't be found out, and I had the hope that I could somehow live like a normal person."
As expected, just as in Takeshita and Kurosu's investigation in '95, Oshima had aimed for identity laundering and changed his name to "Yasuo." Furthermore, after that, he entered the Tada family as an adopted son to become Tada Yasuo, and finally became Tadokoro Yasuo through marriage. Nishida was satisfied with that much and asked for further developments in the story.
"What did you do after that?"
"I began to consider heading for the Sada family in Otaru again to find out the location of the gold dust, but considering the severity of the winter, I judged it would be fine to wait until early spring, so I stayed in Sendai through the New Year and waited for spring. Also, since that site in Yubetsu was near Ikutahara where the gold dust likely was, I might have had a subconscious sense of avoidance... At any rate, while I was hanging around, I met a man who was like a hoodlum, and I ended up getting involved in the siphoning of supplies from the occupation forces in Sendai. Given my unstable position at the time, I think it was actually comfortable. Needless to say, Sendai was desperately short of supplies back then, so I made a decent amount of money, and since I didn't have to endure harsh labor like in the hanba, it was quite like heaven... The occupation forces were in a place called Kawauchi, where Tohoku University is now, and I spoke with the low-ranking soldiers in my poor English and was able to get various things. Well, in that regard, my studies at the former middle school might have been a little useful... The hoodlum was a guy named Shiroyama, and I remember him trying quite hard to hold me back when I told him I intended to leave Sendai. However, I said, 'You've become able to speak simple English, so you'll be fine,' and somehow got him to accept it. Even so, when I actually set off, he gave me a considerable parting gift... I'm not sure if he's still alive or where he is now..."
Oshima said this and looked into the distance for a while.
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The place where the second bailey of the Sendai Castle (Aoba Castle) of the Date Clan once stood (the Kawauchi district) became the garrison for the Imperial Army's 2nd Division after the Boshin War. However, after it became a scorched wasteland due to the Sendai Air Raid, it was requisitioned by the GHQ after the defeat and became a GHQ garrison known as "Camp Sendai."
After the GHQ's withdrawal (Showa 32/1957), it has remained the Kawauchi Campus of Tohoku University to this day. At the Kawauchi Campus, some of the facilities used by the U.S. military as the GHQ were reused as-is for club activity rooms and such.
Furthermore, there is a popular theory that gyutan (beef tongue), which is considered a specialty of Sendai, became popular because tongue was discarded as an unnecessary part of the beef provided as food supplies for the GHQ at the time, and it was reused.
However, the current common theory is that the beef for food supplies was sent frozen from the U.S. after the cattle were slaughtered, so it is unlikely that gyutan was discarded as trash. And considering that gyutan itself was originally used normally as an ingredient in Western cuisine such as French food, it is almost impossible that it was discarded as trash.
According to the story passed down at "Tasuke," the shop considered the birthplace of Sendai gyutan (Author's Note: This has no connection or foreshadowing regarding Isaka Daikichi's pre-change name "Tasuke"), they managed to obtain tongue as an ingredient during slaughter from wealthy farmers who raised cattle in Miyagi Prefecture and neighboring Yamagata Prefecture. It seems the reality was that in the early stages of its popularity, they procured tongue locally on a small scale.
Nowadays, most of the raw materials for gyutan use imported ingredients from overseas, and it has become nothing more than a Sendai specialty as a dish rather than as a local ingredient (though there are local gyutan using Yonezawa beef or Sendai beef, they are a kind of high-end ingredient and not common).
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