Page:The Cannery Boat.pdf/157

Rh Such was the decision come to by six peasant farmers and forty-one tenants.

Forty-seven homesteads from Yotani (“The Hermit’s Valley”) sought out the local branch of the Suihei (“Despised Peasants”) in Otsu, and set up a branch in the village of Osawa.

The peasants who did not join the organization because they were dazzled by the big price of one thousand yen offered them by the company to quit (the average price prevailing at that time being two hundred yen), rapidly came to terms with the company and bade farewell to their friends and left the village.

The company offered the remaining peasants a small plot of land each to build on in the hamlet of Shimaji, three hundred yen each for leaving Yotani and more land at rent for thirty years in Shimaji.

This offer roused great argument. Thirty-six persons wanted to accept it, and eleven were against it, and these eleven were the very poorest of all the tenants.

“Your lives are different from ours, that’s why you’re so obstinate. We have to keep big families, old parents and children. How are we to live here? Think it over!” said Todoroki, his president of the Suihei branch, with tears in his eyes.

“I have a family of nine. I even wanted to sell my daughter to the Otsu brothel, to keep things going for a while. I told Kattyan of Motomura I would, but she said fourteen years is too young. How are we to live? If it goes on like this we shall die of hunger.” Grandfather Kisida sniffed.