Chapter 1 Kazuo died at work

"Where is Kazuo now?"

"What is he doing?"

Wearing s pink caddie uniform and caddie shoes with a golf cap clasped in her hands Hisako was suddenly taken from the golf club to the hospital.

That day, November 6th,1993, was a perfect day for playing golf. The golf club was bustling with golfers from early morning. In the caddies waiting room forty or bore caddies were ready. Hisako was to work with the first group to play that day. "Good morning, sir. I am Hisako Suzuki. How do you do?" "How about cigarette? " "Now let us start." Hisako was ready for the day's work. Let us get on with it. She went out to the first tee eagerly carrying four bags. Autumnal day is clear and high. The air is refreshing. She put a telephone conversation with her son the previous night totally out of her mind.

Suddenly she was called. A fellow caddy Nami appeared in a buggy with Mr. Sakai from administration. "Suzuki s-a-a-n, I t-a-a-k-e over from you. Knock off at once please", she shouted.

"What for?"

Without knowing the reason, she got in the golf cart and returned to the main office where she was told that her son had been seriously injured at his workplace. "Please hurry to the hospital.

The hospital was not crowded on that Saturday. Two men in Nappa clothes (workers' uniform) and muddy boots were walking to and They were factory manager of Shirakaba Crushed Stone (Mr. Fujita) and a labor and a social security attorney (Mr. Kitagawa).

Hisako desperately clung to me. She kept shouting "For God's sake let me see Kazuo!" Beyond the hospital bench both Fujita and Kitagawa shook their head and indicated that it was not possible by crossing their hands. "No way", she cried. Tightly holding her shoulder I said, "Let us wait now. the doctors are trying hard to save Kazuo -san". At this time people wearing suits and carrying s large suitcases and boxes crowded through the main entrance. It turned out later that they were detectives.

The hours had passed without their knowing what was going on.

The mortuary was near the operating theater . Hisako's piercing cry filled the hospital as if from the far end of hell. Kazuo was lying there as if reposing as usual. Death from suffocation had been induced by pressure on the chest. He was found to have been buried alive in the sand in s 4m hopper.

　Hisako’s eldest brother Kouichi, also a worker from Brazil in the same prefecture had immediately run to the site of the accident. He was angry when he heard the workers saying he had been killed because he entered a forbidden dangerous place. Then he had inspected the hopper and been told by the people nearby that the hopper was set up so that it would not move unless three types of soil were thrown in, but the machine had moved when a single material was in it. He had became angrier when he heard that the hopper machine had not been moved after a previous fault.

Kazuo was wise enough never to have willingly entered this dangerous place. He had previously been missed by a hammer and been hit with a stone. This time he might have been killed by someone.

(End of Part Ⅰ-１）

Next title: Part-2, 3, 4