ボーアタルジ 久子 Boa Tarde, Hisako！（Hello, Hisako！）

Part IV (5 continued) Returned to Japan and Damage Suit (5) Damage suit

　During the hearing it was necessary to communicate with Kazuo's wife and Hisako by letters. The two quotations which follows are from the lawyers' letters.

(Original of the first letter was written all in hiragana.)

(Quotation 1)

_____________________________________________________________________________

　April 21, 1995

　Report to Mrs. Hisako Suzuki

　How are you? The first hearing of the case against Shirakaba Crushed Stone concerning the death of your son was held today (April 21, 1995). From now on the two sides will dispute whether Kazuo's side has a valid case and then how compensation should be calculated for Brazilian-Japanese worker.

　Meanwhile we would like you to establish whether your son's wife and children intend to reside in Japan. Please ask her the questions written in the separate sheet (abbr. here) and returned it to us. Also, we send to you the document submitted by Shirakaba Crushed Stone for this trial (prepared by Mr. Kitagawa) * (abbr. here). Please carefully consider whether it is correct or not.

　Take care of yourself. Good-bye.

　_____________________________________________________________________________

(End of quotation 1)

(* Note by the author: the document asserted that it was unlikely that Kazuo's family intended to stay for a long time when they visited Japan as his wife was uneducated and would not get on well in Japan.)

(Quotation 2)

　_____________________________________________________________________________

　September 8, 1995

　We report about today's judicial proceedings. Plaintiff submitted the following documents as evidence.

　1. Application for travel permit (the reasons for the travel to Japan)

　2. The letter from Kazuo's* wife, Simone, to Kazuo. (*Note: corresponds to Altemar in the suit)

　3. The letter from Simone to lawyers.

　4. The sentence which Kazuo had written on the back of a photograph which was sent to Simone. These documents had previously been sent to us from Brazil.

　We asked Mr. Heki, an interpreter at Brazilian Embassy to translate them into Japanese.

　The defendant summitted the relevant status and the addresses of the foreigners working for the Shirakaba Crushed Stone including Altemar's* (*Note: Kazuo's registered first name in Brazil, and used in the court), as evidence. The defendant succeeded in establishing that not many foreigners lived in Japan as 'fixed domicile residents' in the apartment house intended to stay permanently.

　Hearing from the plaintiff's evidence the judge seems to have concluded

　that Altemar's wife Simone was taking her two children with her she intended to stay in Japan longer than other Japanese descendants who were qualified for 'fixed domicile' status.

　From the next hearing the examination of witness will begin. First the manager Fujita will be summoned on February 22, 1996. And Suzuki-san or Mr. Takagi will be examined thereafter.　______________________________________________________________________________

(End of quotation)

　In the court the plaintiff argued that the Altemar's death was caused by the negligence of Shirakaba's employees and therefore the company was liable to pay damages in compensation.

　The plaintiff's court claim mentioned the following fact. The factory had halted the normal operation on the day of accident due to mechanical failure. Because of that there was no requirement to do that. In this case it was not Maruki who threw in the sand, but another person substituting for him who had been overseeing the other hopper which dealt in rough stone. He had only started to throw in the sand for the first time the previous day. (The fact that he was slow to see what was happening was not presented to the court.) The company had instructed Maruki to operate the shovel loader without the legally required license. This company has caused several grave labor accidents including fatal ones in a short period：

　① A heavy machine operator had died underneath the vehicle in October 1991.　

　② A worker had died crushed between the tanker and shovel loader when refueling in November 1991.

　③ The wall of the sedimentation facility had collapsed, and the dirt had thrown over the national road in June 1992.

　But eventually the plaintiff's claim was not enough to persuade the judge of the responsibilities of the defendant. The suit was not successful, despite the lawyers' effort. (Thirty years later I learned that it was a 'defeating settlement.')

　The court trial involving two countries costs much time, trouble, or travel expense, and more than anything it has a language barrier. I had followed the progress of the suit through letters, documents, or telephones from Hisako or lawyers until I had to leave the Kanto area for personal reasons. I very much regretted that I could not be present for the result.

　In March 1998 I had a sorrowful call from Hisako saying that she had lost the case. "I will come to Osaka during the consecutive holidays in May. I will tell you in detail then." But from then on, the contact between us has been broken for some unknown reasons.

　I wrote to Brazil several times, but the letters were not delivered and had been sent back. A recent letter was returned with a label saying that the international mail fee would be returned.

(End of section 5)