Post-war Japan and a Mother

"Zashikiro” Temporary Edit: ”Post-war Japan and a Mother”

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The mother was elderly and gave birth to a baby with only one eye.
The mother told her son, "One day I will surpass everyone else, and I will be the most beautiful mother in the world for you."
However, the townspeople slandered and spread bad rumors about the mother and child every day.
His mother swore, "I will protect my child." And so, she shed the black blood of her kin on Sakichi, and the two of them fell into hell.
(The mother is rubbing her son's penis. *This is also based on a true story from Japan.)
Before the war, his mother was born into a fishmonger's family, and sold fish to "Karyukai" (the world of sake, geisha, and sex). After giving birth to Sakichi, she made a living as "Botefuri" (a job selling goods by carrying them).
Having lost her husband in the war, his mother survived after the war by "Yamiya" (a job buying and selling goods on the black market amid the shortage of supplies after the defeat).
After Tsukiji Fish Market reopened, he ran a fishmonger's shop again in Kiryu, and sold fish to the Korean people living nearby.　(Gunma fishmongers purchase fish at Tsukiji early in the morning, transport it by train, and sell it locally.)
During the war, Japan massacred and oppressed labor activists and socialists, and then invaded China and Korea.
During the war, there were slums in Kiryu where Koreans lived.
Sakichi's mother again made a living by selling fish to the Koreans.
(Interview with Director Harada's mother)
"In Japan there is something called 'Hanaoka-jiken'.
I understand why North Korea is still complaining about Japan.
In the past, coal was the power source for trains and buses in Japan.
Koreans and Chinese were forced to work digging coal.
After the war ended, Japan killed them."
(*Although not included in the interview, Harada's mother and grandmother witnessed Koreans from a neighboring town being taken away by truck. They never came back. Someone from the city hall came and told the residents not to tell anyone about this incident.)
As a result of Japan's invasion of the Korean Peninsula, the methyl alcohol scandal occurred in Kiryu, and Sakichi's mother had to stop selling fish to Koreans.

After that, his mother worked as a cleaning lady at a "Kenban" and "Okiya" (geisha offices) and a "Kamiyui" (barber shop), barely surviving on low wages.
Sakichi was constantly called "smelly," "disgusting," and "a monster" by the children around him.
The mothers of those children also ordered their own children, "Never associate with Sakichi."
The neighbors also spread gossip, saying, "Stay away from Sakichi and his mother and son," and slandered them as "Katawa(crippled, disabled)."
In addition, neighbors spread a false rumor that "Sakichi was born because his mother led a promiscuous life," insulting the mother and son.

Sakichi's grandmother told him, "Sakichi, your mother and this grandmother will protect you, but try not to go out too much. We will work hard, and one day we will try not to have people complain about us.
There's a proverb that says, "If a person lives honestly, God will protect him."
And since you are a man, live like a man."
At the time, Gunma was a low-altitude training airspace for US fighter planes. This is an article from Akahata, the newspaper of the Japanese Communist Party, reporting on this.

(Drawing, photography, music: Hiroshi Harada, Voice：Chiyo Hayakawa, Toshihiko Hino, Ken Kamata, Yuko Yajima, others)

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