Chapter 50: 50

I have now gotten used to being in the hospital. Sara-chan and Sou-kun comes to visit everyday. They tell me of their daily lives, always busy with matters regarding the student council. It’s a system where the 3rd year students retire once the summer break starts.

Other classmates such as Kimoto-san also come by once in a while. And they even bring with them things I have long wanted to try, such as Umaibou, Morocco Yogul, Kyabetsu Tarou, and other such junk food. I have never eaten junk food before, so I cannot help but make a big fuss over them.

Just the other day, Sara-chan and Sou-kun were both there with the rest of us. The two of them were very much stiff initially, but they too became excited over the junk food.

 

“What is this adorable snack!”

 

There Sara-chan was, taken by Morocco Yogul.

 

“Kabayaki-san Tarou sure has an addicting element to it.”

 

Sou-kun, who fails at putting on airs even when he intends to.

 

“Umaibou is the best! They have so many different flavors while being so cheap!”

 

And me, who secretly vowed to myself that I will try all the different flavors Umaibou has to offer.

 

Gradually, Kimoto-san and the others also start to relax. We are all 1st years. We should have a lot of common topics we can commiserate about between ourselves.

It has been decided that once my cast is off, we will all go eat at Yoshinoya to celebrate. On the day of, I plan to not eat in the morning in preparation for the gyudon. I also have to do some research on the manners to observe.

 

 

I have heard Mossad Tanaka-san’s life story. It may be obvious, but Mossad Tanaka-san is not actually Mossad, but a pharmaceutical scientist.

In fact, he was the person to have isolated the bacteria that would eventually become the basis for an immunosuppressive drug developed by HONGO Pharmaceuticals. He obtained it from microorganisms in the soil from the mountain behind Hanaoka Town 12 years ago.

 

Before coming to live in Hanaoka Town, he was a researcher who was often abroad, constantly investigating soil microorganisms.

As a young man, he was deeply involved in student movements. He joined in on the All-Campus Joint Struggle Committees[1] and was one of those who participated in barricade formations.

And my father, Kujouin Tooru, supported the movement. He was giving support to the protests of 1968 while also doing the same for the Japanese student movements.

 

“Kujouin-san lent his support to the students. He gave big donations.”

 

Even after retiring from student movements due to a difference in philosophy, Tanaka-san continued to harbor some sentiments. He completed his doctorate soon after, and was estranged by his family because of the principles he held. With Kujouin Tooru’s continued support, he went on to do research while still hardening his own left wing views.

 

It appears that the person who lives beside him, who we had supposed to be his estranged son, was actually his assistant and secretary. One my father assigned. Since Tanaka-san mantains no outside communication, though he was not actually Tanaka-san’s son, it might as well have been true.

Speaking of, Tanaka-san himself is saying that he’s still under public surveillance. Though I believe someone under surveillance would not be allowed to be in possession of firearm.

 

“Can you possess firearm even while under surveillance?”

“I don’t know about that. We are free to have our own opinions. Don’t you think, Reiko-kun?”

“For you to be under surveillance, don’t you think it means that the opinions you hold are dangerous?”

“What is equality.”

“… Such a thing does not exist. Equality cannot exist. A majority of us just live under the circumstances we are handed, trying to make it better.”

 

Mossad Tanaka-san is a pharmaceutical scientist who holds on to his own strange ideas in the left political wing. He obtained his survival skills from training since his younger days, all in anticipation of a guerilla war. His ability to live in the mountain came from a Matagi[2] he met when he went to the Touhoku region to collect soil sample in his younger years.

 

“With that kind of training, wouldn’t that make you a Matagi instead of a guerilla soldier?”

 

I wonder if he considered the bears as his supposed enemies. I don’t quite get his thinking. At any rate, Tanaka-san is trained to be able to survive hidden in the mountains. He told me I will make a good sniper, but I suppose a good Matagi would be the more accurate term. Which means, I can be a good Matagi. I’m somehow happy about that. Thinking of myself as a Matagi separated from wordly matters, it sounds so cool!

 

“Kujouin-san requested of me to teach Reiko-kun the ideals I hold regarding the nation. He told me that in order to aim for a classless society, you ought to experience a life of being poor and know its struggles. And that those struggles are what will make you grow.”

 

Such an arbitrariness! What is he saying, while himself living a life of luxury!

 

“I submitted to Kujouin-san intermittent reports. You did well enduring a life of poverty. You were always full of smiles, even when you’re forced to do servant work, or undergo severe education.  Over time, I came to be unsure of myself. Does poverty equal misfortune?”

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So I have been forced into a poor life by my father. Can it be that Fuki-san was in cahoots with him?

 

“Just because one is poor, does not mean that they are in misfortune. In the first place, I was never in danger of not having food to eat, clothes to wear, or a roof to put over my head. I may have been poor, but I was not in poverty. Even knowledge is something I can get for free from the library.”

 

Mossad Tanaka-san seemed in great distress.

 

“I guided you to become a soldier to build the nation I thought of as ideal. I was wrong! By the time I came to this realization, you have already absorbed everything I sought to teach you.”

“That’s not true; I can’t throw a Molotov cocktail. I have no athletic bone in my body.”

 

I see now, Mossad Tanaka-san was nice to me because of my father. Though Tanaka-san did indeed teach me various stuff, I do not recall myself becoming a soldier. Rather, I should say that I am so bad at sports that I don’t think I can become a soldier at all.

 

“There is no need for you to be worried; I am not affected by your views. What guided me were Barefoot Gen and Kamui[3]. Compared to them, the life I have lead might even be said to be comfortable.”

 

Even saying this, I remember how miserable I had felt when I caught that cold. I still have a long way to go.

 

The fact that I know about the lumpenproletariat and Marxism were all Mossad Tanaka-san’s doing. When I was a child, Tanaka-san used to tell me about Leninism, terrorism, and other such topics as if they were fairytales. They were not interesting in any way, but I did in fact remember them clearly.

Additionally, that one corner in Hanaoka Town’s library, which was full of left wing books, were all donated by Tanaka-san. There are even his own works among them. The publishing costs were shouldered by my father.

 

“You read a book written by Tanaka Shouji, didn’t you? That’s my work.”

“Ah! I thought it was a fantasy book. It was about a world inside a dream, was it not? Did you write that in earnest?”

 

Without thinking, I blurted out what I really thought. Mossad Tanaka-san seems bent in disappointment.

 

“It seems that I have come to know happiness while living in Hanaoka Town, watching over you. You have turned my views upside down right from its roots. Poverty does not equal misfortune!”

“Indeed, happiness is subjective. Tanaka-san, you were blessed enough to have been able to go to university, were you not? Fufu, perhaps it could not be helped that you thought of poverty as being equal to misfortune. You did not, after all, know poverty.  Even in poverty, it must not be easy to have debt. Everything is in perspective.”

 

It has now become clear to me what the relation Tanaka-san has to my father is. My father is one who will make younglings indebted to him, and use them later on. Lawyer Tamaru is one of them. I reckon there are even more of them out there.

 

They tell me that my father has yet to regain consciousness. And the landlady is also still hospitalized. Because the landlady’s son, who gifted me the radio cassette, has diabetes and is in need of a dialysis, his wife is the one taking care of the landlady.

 

“Does Tanaka-san know of the landlady?”

“Kujouin-san also entrusted to me Midoriya Setsu-san, the one you refer to as landlady. He said that there is a possibility Midoriya-san might become victim to your grandmother and Yamada Fuki. Though no such thing happened.”

 

My father seems to actually have regard for the landlady for real. I wonder when they first met. When I tried asking, Tanaka-san did not know either.

But he did know about my mother. Though as an anti-war naked artist. When I told him that my mother fought against the use of Agent Orange and not against war itself, he taught me that at the time, a fraction of chemists had already had their apprehensions regarding the use of Agent Orange.

 

Before leaving, Mossad Tanaka-san bowed his head down to me.

 

“Reiko-kun. Had I tried, I would have been able to save you. But I did not. Rather, I made sure that you lived a lacking life. Though heartrending, the image of little you picking medicinal herbs in the mountain, smiling in your patched up bottoms, is one I fondly remember. … I am no good as an adult.”

 

I do not particularly harbor a grudge against Mossad Tanaka-san. I am rather thankful to him. He taught me about medicinal herbs and how to dismantle wild boars. In the first place, I think it rather impudent to seek help from someone you have no ties to.

 

When I tell him this, Mossad Tanaka-san held his tears and went out of the room.

 

Though I was indeed taught certain ideas, I believe I have not been brainwashed…… Probably.

 

Picking the corn potage flavor from my Umaibou collection, I munch on it while recalling nibbling on cinnamon sticks in the mountain. Such luxury I am now living in!

Translator’s Notes:

[1] All-Campus Joint Struggle Committee: known as 全共闘（zenkyoutou）in Japanese, they were student organisations consisting of anti-government, anti Japanese Communist Party leftists and non-sectarian radicals. They were active in the late 1960s and graduate students and young teachers were among their participants. The barricade formation mentioned here was an incident where the students formed barricades inside their campuses in protest, in some cases ending in their forcible removal being broadcasted on live television.

[2] Matagi: The Matagi are traditional winter hunters of the Touhoku region of northern Japan. They continue to hunt deer and bear in the present day, and their culture has much in common with the bear worship of the Ainu people. They have their own unique way to butcher and prepare the animal they hunt.

[3] Kamui: Kamui is a manga series set in feudal Japan, telling the story of a low-born ninja who fled his clan. The story had themes of oppression and rebellion that reflect its author’s Marxist convictions.

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