Denji Kuroshima

“ But the onward march of industrialism got the better of the farmers’ tenacity, and this land, too, became factory sites.
The farmers had worked because they hoped to become rich like the soy manufacturer; that was why doddering old men and children went out into the fields.
When Uematsu changed his concern into a company, and increased the capital, he urged the farmers to take shares in it. They, with five or six shares each, were in high joy, feeling that they too had entered the ranks of the soy manufacturers. They mortgaged their property to make the payments. ”

“ The truck had come under cover of darkness to carry off the pickets.
“They’re after another of our men,” whispered Handa as he rowed. “They’ll drag him off and lock him up in the factory.”
If five or six pickets were together the truck would drive past; but when one was seen by himself, suddenly it would pull up and from the top down would spring two or three thugs. Then they’d grab the picket roughly by the wrists and drag him up into the truck; it didn’t trouble them how his shins got barked on the steel fastenings on the side. Their attitude was: if you don’t come we’ll kill you. ”

“ Handa gtipped the side of the launch with one hand, and with the other gave great swinging blows with the hammer.
Over the night sea, where all other sounds had died, the clang of the hammer echoed far. It seemed to penetrate far beyond the shore, into the very heart of the village. Machida awaited eagerly the appearance of the gang of thugs; if they showed up, everyone would see his strength! Again and again Handa struck the chisel, but before he could make the hole big enough, Yamaguchi, who had gone aboard to take out the sparking plug, ran stamping over the deck. ”

“ Further off a tank of pulp bubbled under compressed air. A truck loaded with barrels, all with new labels on them, dashed along at full speed towards the pier; the sound of the wheels echoed in the concrete cavern.
Chiun’s ghost had hidden himself. The company, in its struggle against Yamaki had, at any cost, to fulfil all orders. Autumn was the rush time in the soy industry. The men were paid special rates for night work. For those who stayed in the company’s dormitory there were special rewards.
In other factories the men lived together in special quarters. ”

“ Amid the cursing and screaming and bellowing, the mob clawed at one another; hands or faces or clothes, anywhere and everywhere without distinction. Empty barrels bounced noisily off one struggling head on to another. It was no time for Yamaguchi to be distributing leaflets. ”

“ When the boat drew alongside the pier, the human ants crawled down the gangway. They were so placed as to make them look as numerous as possible. But the strikers were up to such tricks.
“What of it? They haven’t got eighty real workers,” they sneered. When counted from the distance, one by one, the men who looked really capable of working amounted to only sixty-five.
“D’ye think they’ve got eighty? With a handful like that it’ll take them all their time to mix the pulp.” ”

“ By night it would appear and seize workers from out of the factory. This was what Oki had in mind when he asked whether spirits could be called up by daylight.
No, this was not a feasable proposal. Ghosts have no say in the class battles. Machida knew they must win by their own strength. He was dead against salvation from above, whether from arbitration or from ghosts. But Oki, Handa and the others were no use at any other job but soy brewing; they hoped to see the strike settled as soon as possible; that would be better than to see their union completely crushed. ”

“ But as the strikers weakened under the strain the number of workers began to increase. Eighty became 100; 100 became 120.
The farmers made not the least response to the strikers’ leaflets and house-to-house canvassing. The leaflets they used as toilet-paper. These farmers, who, working on their farms from morning till night, just managing to pay their rent and buy manure, had never known what it was to hold ready cash in their hands and felt unbounded gratitude for this work in the soy factory where they could make more than two yen a day. ”

“ Everyone imagined that they would use the strike to oust Uematsu from the market.
To quarrel and curse one another in this fashion had become habitual with Yamaguchi and Tokujiro. There are some people who, when you meet them, are so irritating that you can’t help picking a quarrel with them. ”

“ Uematsu believed in feeding his livestock cheaply. But for the men this system had proved a blessing in disguise; being always herded together they had come instinctively to learn the meaning of solidarity. ”

“ The oppressed workers. The strikers would have won. The company would have been forced to climb down.
Thinking of themselves, they had turned their backs on the strikers. They went to all lengths cringing before the bosses, and found themselves working sixteen or seventeen hours a day. If the workers begin to concede an inch they are done for and become just like oxen with great heavy weights hung through their nostrils, which weigh them down. For ever they must go with bowed heads. ”

“ He grinned at Handa.
The company, hoping to crush the union, had planned and constructed Factory No. 11 on a grand scale. Even if all its other factories were to be razed to the ground, they need not turn a hair so long as No. 11 was immune. All the workers employed were steady farmers’ sons who had been testified by their headmaster as “free from dangerous thoughts.” ”

“ As often happens in times of strikes, the newspapers reported pathetic cases of men fighting on at the cost of parting with their wives. But these men couldn’t turn out their wives and children, even when the latter did urge them to be scabs. From the age of fifteen or sixteen they longed to possess a wife, but, not earning enough to keep one, and being only soy workers, they had had to abstain for long years. ”

“ He remembered how both Yamaguchi and Machida had been in love with Niemon’s daughter.
“Why, everything about her’s pretty. I like a girl who smells of the workers!”
Suddenly he remembered those words.
V
It was life and death with them. They were all determined, no matter what the consequences, to smash Uematsu.
They strained themselves to the limits or their endurance.
But the strength of Uematsu’s side was greater far than theirs. “Tin-tailed” figures [1] and a company of iron-shod putteed men [1] appeared and ruthlessly crushed the strikers. ”

“ This meant that the number of workers in the skilled class were less than a quarter of the total. The “unskilled” men, who had been farmers and fishermen, had their wages cut down to the old 70 per cent. Hell, how they’d been taken in!
For the first time, like a sudden thump on the back, they realized it.
“We’ve been made bloody fools of! We’ve been taken in nicely by the boss’s fine words!”
They stamped their feet in rage.
“If we’re going to get our wages cut 20 per cent. or 30 per cent. like this, we’d have been better at that time to have thrown in our lot with the strikers! ”

“ A group of women and children, their yellow kimonos grimed with dirt, flocked round where the cinders were thrown out, rummaging and poking and putting something in their baskets. They were the coke-gatherers. ”

“ Uematsu understood this and in the new factory. No. 11, he did not allow the men to live together. He employed only boys, vouched for by their headmasters.
After the strikers had started attacking the boats it became dangerous to bring the men back to the village each day. This, however, threatened to deprive him of scabs. So he began to give “prizes” to those who would stay in the dormitory. All mention of Chiun’s ghost was forbidden.
From the top of the strainer the bag, swollen up with bean pulp, stuck out bulkily. ”

“ At first its employees had walked to work, but Handa and his men would waylay them and drag them into the ranks of the strikers. Those who refused they would beat up and then drive away. The company then started bringing blacklegs by boat from the neighbouring village to the factory pier, sending them back the same way in the evening. A gang of thugs was always in readiness on the wharf. The scabs were farmers and fishermen. ”

“ Why everything about her’s pretty. I like such a worker’s daughter.”
Handa knew full well that strikes—most strikes—act as matchmakers for girls and fellows. But this girl was already keen on a fellow called Yamaguchi. He knew that too, but he didn’t tell it to Machida; you never knew what trouble love might cause.
II
At night the launch, after taking the scabs home, came back again to the factory pier. There it lay dreamily at anchor. ”