Miscellany (cont’d)
Severance Pay and Human Trafficking (cont’d)
Yakichi became Oshin’s lover, moved from the sawmill in Wattsburg to Cranbrook, and started to stay in Hashimoto’s cave as if he was sticking there. This shocked Tsurumi from Kumamoto Prefecture, working at Matsumoto’s sawmill. “What are you going to do with the relationship you developed with me while you were living at Matsumoto’s place? This is before you moved to Hashimoto’s place. Are you going to break our promise?” Tsurumi displayed his anger and tried to make something out of it. In fact, he initiated this negotiation privately. However, Tsurumi did not have courage to do this job by himself, and according to rumor he asked his friend, who came from Revelstoke, to negotiate with Oshin. I think this is a fact.
It is a famous story that Tsurumi received 150 dollars cash from Oshin. This is to say, Oshin’s body was sold to Murata at 150 dollars.
This solved the problem and Yakichi Murata acquired Oshin. However, as the debt relationship between Oshin and Kitty still exists, this can be understood as Kitty’s free call to move a relationship incidental to Oshin’s body from Tsurumi from Kumamoto Prefecture to Murata from Shiga Prefecture. This is an unbearably shameful story. However, Oshin had a wish to leave Kitty’s hand and visited Fernie to see her once or twice to negotiate. To deal with this issue, even a man called Saburō Egawa traveled all the way from California. Egawa is Oshin’s sister’s husband and also runs a cave in Sacramento. Apparently, he responded to a telegram, visited the interior, and made a deal. Oshin wanted to move to the States with Egawa but it was difficult to cross the border and she still stays in this country. What is funny is the words Egawa used to negotiate with Jirō: “As Matsumoto’s number three, you are supposed to supervise Oshin under your responsibility and take care of Kitty’s prostitute. So why did you approve Oshin’s relationships with Tsurumi and Murata? These simply added monetary burden for Oshin. This is outrageous. Clarify your responsibility.” His manner of negotiation was quite intimidating.