Chapter 177 - Name and Reality 100 {128 Solo} (305–306 Oshima Finally Heads to Tokyo)
In response, Yoshimura cut in with a straightforward question before Nishida could speak.
"Then, despite having those feelings, why did you go along with Isaka's devilish proposal?"
"It is only natural to think that. At first, I never imagined I would do such a thing either. ...However, while I was struggling to fall asleep at the inn in Asahikawa that night and thinking about various things, the persuasion Isaka had used in the car kept floating back into my head. He had said, 'Houjou Masato is already dead in the war, and as for Mende's son, there is almost no chance of finding him. The same goes for Houjou's relatives. If we can't give it to them, it's not a crime. We who survived this war should have the right to be forgiven for taking it.' As that continued, I felt sorry for Kin-chan, but I started thinking conveniently for myself—that if no one was going to use it anyway, it would be much more in line with the deceased's wishes for us to put it to effective use... And when I woke up the next morning, I reached that devilish conclusion Yoshimura-kun mentioned, to split it between the two of us, and I told Isaka so as we left the inn. Surprisingly, Isaka didn't seem all that happy, but he nodded and said, 'I see, I understand.' After that, we arrived in Ikutahara in the evening and stayed another night. Then, from early the next morning, Isaka guided me to the site, and by that evening, we managed to succeed in digging up the gold dust. We stayed one more night in Ikutahara and went out to Kitami the next day. After holding a final celebratory banquet between the two of us in Kitami, we bid farewell to each other to go our separate ways in life. At the time, I never thought we would meet again."
When he heard this answer, Nishida hesitated over whether he should tell Oshima what he had heard from Masamitsu. That the reason Isaka had proposed such a wicked deed to Oshima—or rather, Onodera Michitoshi—was due to jealousy over Oshima escaping the draft and anger over him exploiting the disability Kuwano had struggled with. And that the deep psychological scars Isaka had suffered during the ground battles in Okinawa had spurred it on. However, believing it was necessary to tell the truth to the current Oshima, he decided to speak up.
"I cannot say for certain as it is hearsay from Masamitsu, but it seems the reason Isaka brought such a wicked scheme to you was because of his jealousy toward you."
"Jealousy...? Now, what would that jealousy be?"
Oshima asked Nishida suspiciously.
"Since Isaka didn't seem to talk to you about his wartime experiences at that time, I don't think you would have known, and I suspect you probably haven't heard since then either," Nishida prefaced.
"Isaka served in the Battle of Okinawa, which suffered a massive number of casualties, and he had experiences where he barely escaped with his life. He lost most of his comrades-in-arms; it was a story of returning from a literal hell on earth. On top of that—and again, this is second-hand information from Masamitsu who heard it from Daikichi—it seems you spoke to Isaka in the car on the way to Asahikawa about how you succeeded in escaping military service by utilizing the disability and death of your colleague, Kuwano-san, who had looked after you. For Isaka, that evasion itself was unforgivable... Because of that, in a fit of rage, he apparently considered killing you at first. But since you were Kuwano-san's relative after all, and having lost so many comrades, he decided it was too pointless and stopped... That said, Daikichi, who had become somewhat self-destructive, decided to steal the gold dust belonging to Houjou's heir and Mende's son—who were unlikely to appear—and at the same time, he tried to reduce his own sense of guilt by dragging you down the path of evil."
But at that moment, Oshima, who had been relatively calm until then, suddenly stood up with a demonic expression and flew into a rage.
"What jealousy! That's preposterous! Don't be ridiculous! Certainly, I might have escaped the hell of life and death on the battlefield. But! I, who was not directly embroiled in the war, also tasted the thoughts of hell! Didn't I just tell you two? Even those on the home front saw hell! What jealousy! Enough of this!"
Unlike before, the two detectives were naturally startled by such a sudden transformation, but it seemed Oshima's fury was not directed at being dragged into the crime itself, but rather at Isaka's 'misplaced' anger and jealousy.
Certainly, it was a fact that even among those who did not go to the battlefield, there were those who met tragic deaths in air raids or atomic bombings, and those who suffered from hunger. As Japanese people, though they might not be many in number, there were surely people who saw the kind of hell Oshima tasted.
On the other hand, like Matsushima Koutarou who was shot at the hospital, there were those who were drafted during the war but reached the end of the war—no, the defeat—without experiencing even a minor skirmish. Every person who lived through the war had their own drama.
Thinking of it that way, even for Nishida and Yoshimura, who had no experience of that era at all, it was not difficult to imagine to some extent Oshima's explosion of anger against the idea or formula that 'escaping the draft equals escaping hell,' based on their investigation so far and Oshima's story today.
"Certainly, even though you didn't go to war, I believe there is no doubt you tasted considerable hardships. However, it is also a fact that Isaka Daikichi suffered great psychological wounds in the Battle of Okinawa. Considering that Isaka's misunderstanding would later bring about a terrible tragedy, we are also filled with a sense of helplessness, but I feel like I want you to understand his anguish as his own anguish. In the first place, regarding the gold dust Daikichi took back then, he immediately regretted stealing it. The portion you likely used he kept in cash, and the portion he took himself he left untouched; even now, Masamitsu has inherited that will and is keeping it properly."
Nishida didn't clearly know the reason why he had made a statement that seemed to defend Isaka. All he could say was that even if they were to hold grudges against each other regarding the respective hardships they experienced during the war... no, even if one side no longer existed in this world... he felt certain that if that was where the target of anger lay, they were clearly misidentifying the enemy.
Hearing this, Oshima sat down heavily with a look of utter exhaustion, though his breathing remained ragged.
"Isaka... had not disposed of the gold dust other than his own..."
Nishida nodded silently to Oshima, who had confirmed it as if muttering to himself.
"Then why did he say those things back then!"
He showed irritation again, but the ferocity from earlier had subsided.
"I can sympathize with your feelings, Onodera-san, but Isaka has already been dead for nearly ten years... Besides, as you surely know, there are naturally people who feel strong anger toward what you have done! Right now, I want you to focus on confessing the facts rather than your own emotions."
Nishida felt no hesitation in offering such a bitter counsel now, even though he didn't originally want to lecture a man who had lived nearly twice as long as he had.
"I suppose you're right..."
Saying so, Oshima wore a slightly embarrassed expression for having lost control of his emotions despite his age. After taking a light, deep breath, he began to speak again.
"Well then, shall I continue the story? ...After leaving Kitami, I headed straight for Tokyo. News that Tokyo had been turned into a burnt wasteland by air raids just like Sendai had of course reached my ears, but that was precisely why my desire to start over in Tokyo was strong. I had the idea that a place where no one could possibly know me was the most suitable place to attempt a comeback. Although more than a year had passed since the air raids in Tokyo, while it felt like it was still in the middle of the road to reconstruction, daily life was returning to the people and it was quite lively. I also found a place to stay with someone who was using a house that had survived the fire as a boarding house, and for the time being, my destination was decided."
Immediately after that, Yoshimura asked,
"Was that Tada Sakura-san's place?"
Nishida knew from the timeline that he had boarded with Tada Sakura much later, so he calmly cut him off.
"Yoshimura, that comes after."
Oshima watched them and added with a softened expression, his anger having subsided somewhat.
"That's right. That will be a little later, so I'd like you to just keep listening. Japan at the time was suffering from terrible post-war inflation. In that sense, for me, who held gold dust rather than cash, the economic situation at the time was actually very advantageous. That's why, even though my identity wasn't clear, the boarding house was decided surprisingly easily."
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After the defeat, Japan fell into a state of so-called hyperinflation, where the consumer price index increased 100-fold between October 1945 and April 1949. This was due to the rapid rise in reconstruction demand and the Bank of Japan's direct underwriting of government bonds to redeem the massive amount of wartime bonds issued during the war (currently, direct underwriting of government bonds by the central bank—the BOJ—is prohibited by law as a rule, though some view the 'extraordinary easing' under the Abe administration as effectively synonymous with fiscal financing).
Considering the price hikes in the black markets immediately after the defeat, it is seen that it might not have been such a literal hyperinflation in reality, but in any case, the considerable rise in prices and the decline in currency value were clear. Holding gold at this time was a significant weapon.
The price of gold, which was about 17 yen per gram in Showa 21 (1946), reached high prices of 150 yen the following year, 326 yen in Showa 23, 385 yen in Showa 24, 401 yen in Showa 25, and 585 yen in Showa 26.
(Reference: http://shouwashi.com/transition-gold.html)
If it was high-purity gold dust, having 750g (for two people, including the stolen portion) would be enough to live for several years without doing anything, provided one lived a life at the level of a single person in a boarding house, based on the price trends of 10kg of rice (Reference: http://shouwashi.com/transition-rice.html) and the trends in monthly income for heads of households (Reference: http://shouwashi.com/transition-salary.html).
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Nishida had been listening up to that point, but he made a preemptive strike.
"After you went to Tokyo—not to bring up the previous topic—but by creating a new family register through a separation in January of Showa 23 (1948), your permanent domicile changed from Iwate to Tokyo. And until you moved to Tada Sakura-san's place... or rather, in the meantime, you changed your name from Kuwano Kinya to Kuwano Yasuo, obtained qualifications through something like today's high school equivalency exam, and enrolled in the Faculty of Law at Meiho University, didn't you?"
"Umu. You've investigated that thoroughly as well..."
"Well, I didn't investigate it directly; it's thanks to my subordinates who went to Tokyo to conduct interviews back in '95," Nishida honestly conveyed the facts in response to Oshima's praise.
"To add further: after I found a boarding house, while I had the gold dust, I couldn't think of anything in particular I should do, so I started thinking about going to university. Looking back, there might have been a way to use it as capital for business, but when I dabbled in black market business in Sendai, I didn't feel like I was suited for it, even if I wasn't without business talent... So, I hired a student from the then Tokyo Imperial University as a tutor and decided to thoroughly redo the studies I hadn't had much passion for in the past. Fortunately, thanks to Kin-chan, on the surface I had graduated from an old-system middle school, so jumping over that was easy in a sense. Of course, it's also true that I needed to study for it... And it's certain that I had the intention of carrying on the will of Kin-chan, who fell in the middle of his ambitions. Also, there was one more thing I studied thoroughly during that time. As I mentioned at the beginning, that was correcting my Iwate accent to speak fluent standard Japanese. It was a result of thinking it was necessary to wipe away a kind of trauma—that the accent had been the trigger for Isaka finding me—and to live anew in a new land, just like the name change. The name change to Yasuo was chosen out of a desire for Kin-chan to rest in peace (T/N: 'Yasu' in Yasuo can mean peaceful/rest)."
Hearing this story from Oshima, Nishida was once again convinced that it matched the testimony of Koshiba, who said that by the time Oshima boarded with Tada Sakura, he didn't give off the impression of being from Iwate, and he was also convinced by the fact that there was no trace of it in Oshima's current speech.