８０年前に別れた友思う I Remember My Friend I Parted from 80 Years Ago

　８０年前に別れた友思う

 　以下は、三重県いなべ市在住の８９歳の女性が中日新聞に投稿された文章です。

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　国民学校高等科一年生だった１９４４（昭和１９）年から私たち三重県員弁郡の五校の生徒は学徒動員で四日市の東洋紡績富田工場に通いました。

終戦直後１９４５年９月から、元の学校に行くようになり、同県桑名市から転校生がやって来ました。綺麗で身なりも良く都会っ子という印象でしたが、なぜか気が合い、仲良くなりました。彼女は卒業前、一家六人で北海道へ渡りました。その後、彼女からはがきが届きましたが、私はお金がなくて返事を書くことができず、それっきり音信不通になってしまいました。

　私もすっかり年を重ねたからか、彼女のことが懐かしく思い出される今日この頃です。

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 お金がなくて葉書が買えなかった投稿者は、さぞかし無念だったと思うと、同情を禁じえません。彼女の友達がこの投稿を読みますように。

I Remember My Friend I Parted from 80 Years Ago

The following is a letter to the editor in a newspaper written by an 89-year-old woman living in Inabe City in Mie Prefecture.

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When I was a seventh-grader of a national school, we, the mobilized students from the five national schools in Inabe-gun in Mie Prefecture, went to Yokkaichi City to work for Toyo Spinning Tomita Factory.

   Immediately after the war, I went back to my school in September 1945. At that time, a new student from Kuwana City in the same prefecture came to my school. She was good-looking, wore nice clothes, and looked like a city-girl. For some reason, soon we became good friends.

   Before graduation, her family consisting of six went over to Hokkaido. Soon after that, she sent me a postcard, but I couldn’t afford a postcard. Since then, I haven’t heard from her.

   Now that I am an old woman, I remember her with fondness these days.

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I think the contributor was very sad that she couldn’t afford a postcard. I can’ help sympathizing with her. May her friend read the letter!

 

ディアナ号とへダ号

ディアナ号とへダ号

先日NHKテレビで感動的な番組を見た。１８５４年、日露和親条約を締結するため露西亜のプチャーチン提督が、露西亜艦船ディアナ号(長さ52メートル、2,000トン、大砲52門搭載、乗組員４８８名)に乗って下田港にやって来た。しかし、停泊中、台風により、艦船は大破し、修理のため、急遽、伊豆西海岸の戸田（へだ）村に航行することになったが、戸田沖で難破し、舵が取れなくなり、沖に流され始めた。戸田の漁民は漁船を繰り出し、艦船を岸の方に曳こうと懸命に努力するが、ついに沈没してしまう。その時漁民はディアナ号の乗組員５００人を救助した。

その後、幕府は彼らを露西亜に帰すため、全長２５メートルの西洋式帆船を建造し、彼らを無事に帰した。

ディアナ号に乗船していた司祭ワシーリイ・マホフの「ディアナ号航海誌」から。

「事実、私たちは見た。だが、この目が信じられぬほどの出来事だった。 私たちの運命を見守るべく、早朝から1000人もの日本の男女が押し寄せてきたのである。彼らは奇特にも束になって浜辺を走り回り、何やら気遣っているようであった。つまり、私たちのカッターや無鉄砲な救助隊員のことを心配していたのだ！ 日本人たちは、綱に体を結び付けて身構えていた。そして、カッターが岸へ着くやいなやそれを捉え、潮の引く勢いで沖へ奪われぬように、しっかりと支えてくれたのだ！善良な、まことに善良な、博愛の心にみちた民衆よ！」

日本人が外国の船員を救助した話は、和歌山県沖でもあり、その時の船はトルコ船であった　(「海難１８９０」２０１５年１２月１１日付「MATの目」参照)。このような美談が日本の教科書に載るべきだと思う。

追記　NHK大河ドラマ「晴天を衝け」３月１４日放送で、難破したディアナ号の乗組員を救助する場面があった。

 

The Diana and the Heda

 

I was deeply moved when I watched an NHK TV program the other day.

   Admiral Putyatin of the Russian envoy on board the Diana, a Russia's  battleship (52 meters long, 2,000 tons, 52 cannons, and 488 crew members) visited Shimoda Port in Shizuoka Prefecture to conclude the Japan-Russia Treaty of Shimoda in 1854.

However, while in harbor, she was hit by a typhoon and severely damaged. Therefore, she headed for Heda on the western shore of Izu Peninsula, but she shipwrecked off the Heda coast, failed to answer to the helm, and began to drift offshore. The Japanese fishermen from Heda did their best to pull the vessel toward the shore, but she sank in spite of their desperate efforts. Nevertheless, they rescued all the crew members.

Later, Japan’s government built a 25-meter-long western-style ship to send the crew to Russia.

The head priest on board the Diana wrote in his sailing journal as follows:

“In fact, we saw an unbelievable scene. More than 1,000 Japanese men and women had gathered on the shore early in the morning, were running to and fro on the beach, and looked worried. They were actually worried about the fishermen who bravely tried to rescue us, crew members. The people on the shore had ropes tied around their bodies and were ready. And as soon as the ship approached the coast, they fastened the ropes to the ship and pulled her hard toward the shore so that she would not drift offshore. They were good-hearted, truly good-hearted, philanthropical people!”

Japanese people rescued a Turkish battleship, the Ertuğrul off the Wakayama coast in July 1890. (See MAT’S EYE ON THE WORLD Friday, December 11, 2015 SHIPWRECK/125 YEARS MEMORY.) These heartwarming incidents should be written in Japanese school textbooks.

NHK drama, "Seitenn wo tsuke" (Biography of Eiichi Shibusawa) broadcast on March 14 showed the scene in which Japanese people in an Izu Peninsula village were rescuing Russian crew from the Diana.

沁みる夜汽車 A Heartwarming Night Train

    沁みる夜汽車

     以下は、心にしみるテレビ番組の内容である。

 

ある日の夜、私は電車に乗っていた。乗客は数人しかいなかった。私の座席の反対側に中年の夫婦らしき人が座っており、顔色が悪く、心配事でもあるかのように見えた。

二人は言い合いをしていた。妻はしきりに「病院に電話してよ」と言っているが、夫は「駄目だ」と言っている。それでも、妻は諦めずに電話をするよう夫に迫っていたが、夫は「駄目だと言ってるだろう」と言い返している。妻は、「危篤でしょ。電話してよ。後悔するよ。会えなくなるかもしれないのよ」と必死だ。

二人の会話から判断すると、夫の父は危篤で、二人は病院に駆けつけるところらしい。妻は夫に電話をするように言っているのだ。しかし、夫は乗客がいる前で電話をするのはみっともないと思ってか電話するのを拒んでいるのだ。

　私は周りを見た。どの乗客も二人のことが気になっており、夫が電話をすればいいと思っているように見えた。私は立ち上がって、夫のところへ行って「電話してください」と言いたかったが勇気がなかった。

いやな時間が続いたが、突然、私の近くに座っていた若い女性が立ち上がり、二人のところに行って「電話をかけてください。構いませんから」とはっきり、優しく言った。

　夫は、一瞬、女性を見つめ、決心したかのように携帯電話を取り出し病院に電話した。

「おやじ、聞こえるか。俺だけど。おやじ。ありがとな。ありがと。おやじが一生懸命働いてくれたからひもじい思いしなかった。もうすぐ着くから。ありがとな。待ってろな」

　電話を終えると、彼は乗客に頭を下げた。

　みんなホッとしたようだった。私と同じように、心温まる思いをしたことだろう。

 I watched a  heartwarming program on TV today. It was an incident that took place on a night train.

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   One night, I was riding on a train. There were a few passengers in the car. A middle-aged couple, looking pale and worried, were sitting opposite my seat. They seemed to be quarreling. The wife was saying something like “Please call the hospital.” Her husband responded, “No, I can’t.” She didn’t give up but insisted on his calling. The man said, “I can’t. I can’t.” She said, “But your father is in a critical condition. Please call the hospital. You might regret this. You might never see him.”  

Judging from their conversation, the man’s father was seriously ill and they were on their way to the hospital. She wanted him to call his father now on the train, but the man refused to call the hospital because it was embarrassing to do so in front of the passengers.

  I looked around. It seemed every passenger was worried about the couple and wanted him to call the hospital. I wanted to stand up, go to him, and say, “Please call your father,” but I didn’t have the courage to do so. A depressing span of time lasted for some more time, when suddenly a young woman sitting near me stood up, went to them, and said in a clear and kindly voice, “Please call him. It’s all right with us.”

   The man looked at her for a moment, and resolutely took out his phone and called the hospital.

   “Father, father, can you hear me? This is Tadashi. Thank you. Thank you. Because you worked hard, we didn’t go hungry. I’ll be seeing you soon. Thank you, father. Wait for me.”

   After he finished talking into the phone, he looked around and bowed deeply to the surrounding passengers.

   Every passenger seemed to be relieved. They might have had a heartwarming moment, too.

謹賀新年 A HAPPY NEW YEAR

 謹賀新年

今年の年賀状です。

A HAPPY NEW YEAR

This is my new year's card.

I will be 78 years old this February. I have become an old man in the blink of an eye. I am as fine as an average 77-year-old man. I have two sons and five grandchildren.

As usual, I am reading and writing novels both in Japanese and English. I have been practicing the Japanese martial arts of Jodo (a stick as a weapon) for the past 29 years. I make it a rule to walk at least 5,000 steps a day.

Last year, my short story titled “Otosan no ki” (my dad’s tree) was chosen by the Nagoya Culture Development Association and uploaded on the Internet. Please google “Otosan no ki.” I have a blog named “MAT’s EYE.” Recently I wrote in it under the title of “Look!  A Wrinkled Old Man.”

May this year bring you health and happiness.

January 1, 2021       Hiroshi Matsuoka