Chapter 60 - Light and Shadow 39 (200–202 Takeshita Iwate Interview Arc, Part 1)
On November 15th, Nishida was in a small meeting room with Kosaka, consulting on their next move while holding a copy of the family register transcript he had obtained the previous night.
"Since evidence has come out that Oshima was Kuwano Kinya, shouldn't we bring this to the Investigation Headquarters already? What do you think, Nishida?"
"I suppose... If it's only a difference of a day or two, we should probably take that risk over the alternative."
Nishida was hesitant, but with such clear evidence, he didn't think keeping quiet for one more day would significantly change the risk of information leaking to Oshima's side that the police had begun to move.
"Then, leave it to me. Alright?"
"Understood."
Without even waiting for Nishida to finish his reply, Kosaka headed toward Kurano. Upon receiving the report, Kurano summoned Nishida as well and, along with Otomo Yuhei—the Investigation Headquarters Chief and Criminal Investigation Director of the Kitami Regional Headquarters—gave them a severe reprimand. As the officers in charge of the investigation, it was a natural response to the delayed report. Afterward, they all confirmed the contents of the tape. Having heard it, the two superiors recognized the gravity of the situation once again.
However, Kosaka and Nishida pointed out that in order to extend the investigation's reach to Oshima, they would need to apprehend the group actually responsible for the murders of Matsushima and Kitamura. Since there was a high possibility they were 'professionals,' the current investigation policy of looking into 'yakuza circles' required almost no adjustment. Otomo and Kurano discussed this privately for a while.
Afterward, they summoned Yoshimura as well.
"The delay in your report is quite problematic, but we can understand the reasons behind it. We also see that the situation doesn't require a major change in direction. Therefore, for the time being, we intend to keep this information shared only among the five of us: the four here and Yoshimura. The reality is that Kitami is simply too close to Oshima..."
Otomo presented this conclusion to the three of them, his harsh expression softening slightly as he continued.
"I don't know how long it will take, but I may need the three of you to move decisively for a while. However, since Team Leader Kosaka is the Team Leader in charge of the local precinct, the ones who will effectively be free to move are Team Leader Nishida and Yoshimura—you two."
He spoke directly to them.
"Understood! We will apply ourselves with resolve. Also, right now, two of my men, Takeshita and Kurosu, are heading to Honshu to verify the facts. I intend to coordinate with them as well, so please approve that point—though I apologize for the retroactive notice."
When Nishida told him this, Kurano replied,
"If it's already a fait accompli, there's no point in complaining now... However, from now on, make sure to report information as it comes in. For real this time! And this person named Abe. We'll have the Organized Crime Department look into any Abes with yakuza ties..."
Though Kurano's expression was soft, his tone was far stricter than usual.
Takeshita and Kurosu took a shuttle bus from Hanamaki Airport to the front of Morioka Station, and from there, they transferred to an express bus for Miyako (though it was an express bus that used local roads, as there were no highways).
Waiting for them at the bus stop in front of Miyako Station was a staff member from the Taro Police Box named Shinomiya. He was there to meet them following an urgent request for cooperation from Sawai to the Miyako Station. While they could have managed on their own, Sawai had thoughtfully requested a local guide, thinking that a police box officer familiar with the area would ensure better cooperation at the town office and help them navigate the unfamiliar terrain.
After a brief exchange of greetings, they headed for Taro Town in the mini patrol car driven by Shinomiya. After a while, as they entered the town of Taro, a series of 'walls' along the coast came into view.
"What are those?"
"Those are what we call 'seawalls,' built to prevent the town from being hit by tsunamis."
Shinomiya answered Kurosu's question matter-of-factly, but since it was a term he hadn't heard before, Takeshita asked further.
"A seawall... is it similar to a breakwater?"
"Ah, yes. It's like a breakwater, but specifically for the tide—a seawall."
"Ah, I see. I suppose since Sanriku is famous for tsunami damage, you have to build embankments that high."
"That's right. Honestly, it seems they've surged to unbelievable heights, according to the long-time locals. In fact, records of those heights still remain in the town today in the form of signs, likely as a warning... Taro is an area that suffered particularly severe damage even within Sanriku, so we've built those to be prepared."
Shinomiya didn't seem to be a local, but since he would have to lead evacuation efforts in an emergency, he appeared to have a certain level of knowledge. While they were talking, the three arrived at the town office building.
They immediately asked to see the family register corresponding to the Original Family Register (Author's Note: The Original Family Register refers to a family register from before a change in the register format. Since events that occurred before the format change may not be recorded in the new format, these are often required separately from the family register transcript in cases such as the death and inheritance of elderly individuals). To be precise, since everyone had been removed from the register due to death or removal, it was called a Register of Removed Persons.
The first thing the two noticed was that Kuwano Kinya's parents and younger brother had all died on the same day. Furthermore, the word 'Reconstructed' caught their eyes in the register.
"Excuse me, what does this mean?"
Takeshita asked the young staff member in charge at the office.
"Ah, this? Taro was hit by massive tsunamis twice, once in the Meiji era and once in the Showa era. I heard the family registers at the office were all washed away along with the building itself. So, the 'Reconstructed' notation means the register was recreated. Also, with this registered address, it would have been in an area where entire villages were wiped out during the Showa Sanriku Tsunami, so that's likely why they all died on the same day... Well, I don't know if the bodies were ever found, but in the case of family registers, there's a system called 'Certified Death'—unlike the one-year period for special disappearance under civil law, death can be recorded on the day the person was presumed to have died. This should have existed under the old pre-war Family Register Act as well. This original register itself is in the format of the 4th year of Taisho."
"I see, the cause was the tsunami... That's what I was just talking about with Officer Shinomiya."
Takeshita was satisfied.
"In any case, given the situation, it's likely that rather than the office taking the lead, the surviving eldest son requested the office to reconstruct the register for just his family."
The staff member stated this while staring at the document. Despite being a young staff member at a rural office, he seemed reasonably well-versed in family register procedures.
"The father's address before becoming the head of the new register was also here, so he must have been the heir to the Kuwano family. The mother's maiden name was Onodera, and her original register is listed as Ryori Village, so she likely married in from the Onodera family in what is now Sanriku Town (Author's Note: At this point in time, it was the Ryori district of Sanriku Town, but it is currently the Ryori district of Ofunato City. This is because Sanriku Town was absorbed into Ofunato City)."
"Ryori Village?"
Kurosu reacted to the staff member's words.
"Yes, it's about halfway between Kamaishi and Ofunato. The surrounding villages should have merged to become Sanriku Town, but I don't know the details."
The staff member stopped there.
"Normally I'd want to go there too, but we don't have time. Right now, we have to focus on following Kuwano Kinya's trail directly. We'll have to ask Team Leader Nishida to call the office and look into that after we get back to Engaru..."
Takeshita told Kurosu regretfully.
It is fresh in our memories that the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, caused devastating damage to the Pacific coast of Tohoku, particularly the rias coastline of Iwate and Miyagi, the coastal plains of Miyagi, and the coast of Fukushima. However, even before that, the Sanriku region was famous for being extremely susceptible to tsunamis due to its rias coastline.
Even since the Meiji era, it had been hit by three major tsunamis: the 'Meiji Sanriku Tsunami' of June 15, 1896; the 'Showa Sanriku Tsunami' of March 3, 1933; and the 'Chile Earthquake Tsunami' of 1960.
In Taro Town, while there was no damage from the Chile Earthquake Tsunami (reason mentioned later), the Meiji Sanriku Tsunami killed nearly 1,900 people—over 80% of the population—and the Showa Sanriku Tsunami recorded over 900 deaths, more than 30% of the population.
In both cases, it was the area that suffered the most damage from each tsunami. Furthermore, many point out that the Showa Sanriku Tsunami, which caused less direct damage than the Meiji Sanriku Tsunami, combined with the global depression of the time and famine due to poor weather in the Tohoku region, led to subsequent political instability (the Showa Depression, the selling of daughters into servitude, the February 26 Incident, etc.).
However, in the Taro district, because almost all settlements were devastated by the Meiji and Showa tsunamis, they began constructing 'seawalls' before the war and resumed construction in earnest after the war. The town came to be surrounded by magnificent seawalls 10 meters high.
Thanks to this, they succeeded in completely avoiding tsunami damage during the Chile Earthquake Tsunami. However, some point out that this success story reduced the sense of crisis regarding the Great East Japan Earthquake tsunami, which far exceeded the Chile Earthquake Tsunami, and delayed evacuations.
Furthermore, due to the immense power of the tsunami, the seawalls were destroyed in an instant, exposing the limits of artificial tsunami prevention (Author's Note: As mentioned above, compared to the Meiji Sanriku Tsunami where over 80% of the population died, the death toll in the Showa Sanriku Tsunami was significantly reduced to over 30%; however, please note that in this work, the figures are expressed with some 'exaggeration' for the setting).
After receiving a detailed explanation, Takeshita and Kurosu asked while having the family register copied,
"Is there anyone still alive who knows about the Kuwano family from that time in detail?"
"I wonder... There might be someone in terms of age, but since entire villages disappeared, I honestly think it would be quite difficult to find someone who was in that village and actually knew them..."
Shinomiya, who had been listening, spoke up.
"There's a person living near the police box who used to be a social studies teacher at the local junior high school. He researches local history as a hobby, so he might know something."
"Local history... That feels like a slightly different genre, but... well, it doesn't hurt to try. We'll take you up on that..."
Takeshita didn't want to waste Shinomiya's kindness, so he couldn't bring himself to refuse.
The former junior high school teacher they went to see, Oku Takamasa, was in his late 70s. As Shinomiya had said, he introduced himself as someone who personally researched local history. Meeting him in person, he gave the impression of being quite young for his age. Perhaps it was because he was free to do what he loved.
When Takeshita stated his business,
"Looking for someone, are ye...? I don't research personal matters like that, so..."
He said exactly what they expected.
"I thought so..."
Kurosu said this and shot a quick glance at Shinomiya beside him. Well, saying he 'glared' might be an exaggeration. Kurosu's personality wasn't sharp enough to glare at Shinomiya, who was considerably older than him.
"However, there might be someone among my acquaintances who knows something about this Kuwano family, based on this address. It rings a bell," he said, unexpectedly and strangely roundabout.
"I don't quite understand, what do you mean?" Takeshita naturally asked back.
"Back when I was workin' at the junior high in this town, there was a fellow teacher about my age named Suzuki. That man built a house and lives on the same lot as this address in the family register after he retired. A few years back, he was sayin' somethin' like, 'A woman who was my aunt died in the Showa tsunami in Taro, and I happened to end up livin' in the same place where the house she served as a maid was. Must be fate,' or somethin' like that. If that's the case, he might know a bit about this Kuwano family."
Since they couldn't quite understand parts of it due to the dialect, the two had Shinomiya explain it to them. Once they understood properly, the two detectives were excited by the unexpected turn of events, and Shinomiya also looked pleased that his reputation had been salvaged.
"If they had a maid, does that mean the Kuwano family was wealthy?"
"I wouldn't know even if ye asked me that."
Oku gave a wry smile.
"It might be rude to say, but it's been a not-so-prosperous rural village since way back, so I don't know if the word 'wealthy' fits... Well, they had a maid, so they probably weren't poor."
Takeshita thought it was a rather blunt way to speak about the area for a former local teacher, but now was not the time for such character assessments.
"Then, could you introduce us to this Suzuki-san?"
"I can do that."
Since he was the one who brought it up, he readily accepted Takeshita's request.
Following the introduction from Oku, they visited the Suzuki residence, which was about a five-minute walk from Oku's house. Since Oku had called ahead, Suzuki's wife was waiting for them at the gate.
"Come in, sit down and have some tea."
When they sat in the living room, the wife brought tea while saying something they didn't quite understand, but they inferred from her actions that she was offering tea and said,
"Please, don't go to any trouble."
Suzuki had not yet appeared. It would be rude to stare too much, but it was a large Japanese-style house typical of rural Tohoku. When the master of the house didn't appear even after several minutes, the wife appeared again and brought rice crackers.
"Please, have some sweets."
"Thank you."
Just as they thanked her again, Suzuki finally appeared. He was another elderly man who looked youthful for his age, with a quite sturdy build.
"No, no, sorry to keep ye waitin'."
He seemed to apologize for the wait, to which his wife muttered a complaint.
"Father, keepin' the guests waitin' like this."
The two could understand this. However, Shinomiya, who had been listening, spoke up.
"Suzuki-san, I'm sorry, but the guests don't understand the dialect, so please speak in standard Japanese."
Of course, Takeshita and his partner didn't quite catch this either, but Suzuki laughed.
"If ye put it that way, I'll have to speak proper standard Japanese, won't I?"
Takeshita, who had been struggling to find an opening to enter the conversation, introduced himself again.
"Thank you for your help. I'm Takeshita, a detective from the Hokkaido Police, Engaru Station, and this is Kurosu."
"My, you've come from quite far. I heard the gist of it from Oku-san just now."
His intonation was accented, but this time he spoke in standard Japanese.
"So, you wanted me to talk about the Kuwano family?"
"Yes, please."
Both Takeshita and Kurosu placed both hands on the living room table and bowed.
"Then, let me start with the relationship between the Kuwano family and my own. My father's younger sister—my aunt—was working as a maid for the Kuwano family at the time, but she died in the Showa tsunami along with the Kuwanos and the other servants. Because of that, I've heard a fair amount about the Kuwano family from my father. My family home is in the neighboring Iwaizumi Town, and I later became a teacher, with my last post being here in Taro... Since the locals treated me well, I chose this as my final home. My wife liked it here too. There happened to be a house for sale, and since it was cheap for such a large plot, I decided on it. I never imagined that house would be built on the site of the Kuwano family home..."
He said wistfully.
"How did you find that out?"
Takeshita asked Suzuki the obvious question.
"My family home in Iwaizumi... my late older brother's son has taken it over now, but I happened to go back for the Obon festival the year before last. When I was rummaging through a small—really small—storehouse, a letter sent from my aunt to my father while she was alive turned up. My aunt's address was the same as this place—well, it was Taro Village back then. I was shocked, naturally."
"A true trick of fate, then."
Takeshita also acted surprised to keep the conversation moving smoothly, though it was a bit forced. That said, it went without saying that it was indeed a significant and miraculous coincidence.
"It really is. I was small, but I have memories of my aunt, so it brings up a lot of feelings."
Suzuki spoke familiarly, as if he were old friends with the two detectives. Perhaps the fact that he was well-acquainted with the local officer, Shinomiya, who was sitting beside them, had an influence.
"I see. By the way, was your family home not caught in the tsunami?"
"As I said before, our place was in Iwaizumi, on the mountain side next door. So there was no tsunami damage."
"Is that so?"
This time Kurosu nodded exaggeratedly to match the conversation.
"We were lucky to be able to meet you."
"I'm glad to hear that, but I don't know how much help I can be..."
Suzuki bowed pleasantly at Kurosu's social pleasantry (likely knowing it was one).
"So, what we want to ask is a bit more involved. It's about the person listed in this family register, the surviving Kuwano Kinya. But perhaps it's better to hear about the Kuwano family in detail first?"
Takeshita asked for his opinion, needing to set the stage so Suzuki could speak easily.
"Well, rather than me deciding, wouldn't that make it easier for you two to grasp the story?"
Suzuki was instead considerate of the two of them.
"Then, we'll leave it to you, Suzuki-san."
"I see. Then, first, a few things I know about the Kuwano family."
Saying this, Suzuki picked up his glasses and began to speak while wiping the lenses.
"The Kuwano family seems to have been a major family of shipowners in Taro at the time. My aunt apparently started working for the Kuwanos on the recommendation of her older brother—my father—who acted as a father figure after her grandfather died young. Since that led to her death, my father regretted it for the rest of his life... Anyway, in addition to several maids, there were about ten fishermen employed by the Kuwano family. My father was a teacher like me—though he was what they called a substitute teacher... He had apparently taught in Taro before and had some level of association with the Kuwano family, who had influence in the local area. I haven't heard the details, but I suppose that was the reason he sent his sister there as a maid."