Bheela’s Blog -020
03 April 2021
Episode 19 Recap
Oshin had to face a Police inquiry at a local Police station at the age of eight. She is a brave child.
Finally, she returns home to her mother.
Here is a link to the Episode 19:
https://bheela-wadehra.medium.com/bheelas-blog-019-8ab8f9e954bc
Episode 20
Oshin gets hurt as her father hits her; thus, her cheeks and lips are swollen. She is lying on the floor surrounded by her parents and grandma. Mom, Fuji puts a wet cloth to decrease her fever as well as get the swelling reduced. Fuji is upset with her husband, and she tells him how he could do this to their child. This was no way a father should act. Grandma is worried; she calls Oshin to wake her from her unconscious state.
Father is still angry. He thinks Oshin should not be allowed in the house. She made him lose his face in front of the villagers. Fuji replies in a firm voice that whatever he thinks, she will take care of Oshin; Oshin is her daughter too! Father is taken aback; how can Fuji go against his decision. Fuji argues with the father, and she asks him what Oshin’s fault is? What wrong has Oshin done? At her age, she shouldn’t be working away from home. She tells her husband that it is their own fault; they have done wrong to Oshin. She then tries to explain to him that Oshin had no idea if the man was a deserter. She liked him. Grandma also joins trying to reason with her son, and she says that if the man hadn’t saved Oshin, she would have been dead! Grandma says that the man was our benefactor, an angel to us. Mom continues, ‘he fed Oshin and took good care of her; it is only natural that Oshin is grateful to him.’.
Fuji blames herself for causing grief to Oshin by sending her out to work at such a young age. She then addresses Oshin and apologizes to her. Oshin still is unable to respond. Fuji continues that she will give Oshin meals from now on, and she will also let Oshin sleep next to her. The father gets too upset; he throws a tool on the floor, gets up, and goes out of the house.
Snow hasn’t melted yet, although winter is not that severe now. Grandma takes the two younger siblings of Oshin for a walk, and she finds Oshin cleaning the heavy utensil near the streamlet.
Her face is still swollen, and her lips ache. Grandma is concerned if Oshin is still in pain, and she asks Oshin not to overwork herself. Oshin replies that she is better and cannot let her mother do all the work. Grandma feels bad and curses her rheumatism that she is unable to work and share the household chores. Oshin lovingly tells her grandma not to worry.
All of a sudden, some village kids call out to Oshin. They tell her that she was with a deserter who was killed by the military police. They accuse Oshin and tell her that she, too, should have been killed. Then the kids start pelting stones at Oshin; they shout and tell Oshin, ‘You should Die! You Should Die!!’
Grandma wards the kids off and checks on Oshin if she was hurt by the stones. Meanwhile, Shouji, Oshin’s brother, returns from work. Grandma asks him to let those terrible kids off. Shouji is defiant; he says that what the villagers say is all true. People have started hating them now. He starts blaming Oshin for being with the deserter.
(In that period, Japanese people considered that being deserter is the most hated crime one can commit. Nationalistic fervor was imposed on the citizen as Japan went to war with Russia. This was before the first world war)
Oshin retaliates and fights with her brother. She cannot hear a word against Shunsaku. She tells her brother that even if he was a deserter, he fought in the war as a soldier. He had killed many enemy soldiers, and he was an honorable wounded veteran.
Shouji repeats what he heard from the villagers, and he tells Oshin that the man was a coward since he ran away. Oshin gets emotionally hurt by listening to such words for Shunsaku; she pushes Shouji and asks him not to call Shunsaku a coward. She wants Shouji to apologize for speaking disrespectfully of Shunsaku. As she starts a fist-fight with Shouji, Grandma stops and separates them somehow.
Oshin is deeply hurt; she goes to the shed, closes the sliding door, and takes out the harmonica gifted by Shunsaku. She starts playing the tune which her brother Shunsaku was so fond of.
With continuous practice, she has now mastered the music. At the same time, she misses her big brother terribly.
A man walks on the lane, and he listens to the music; he slides open the door. Oshin looks at him, and her face is lit up with a glow of a sparkling fire. It is Matsuji who is standing at the door. Matsuji enters the shed and tells her that he heard the harmonica tune and understood that it must be Oshin. He asks her to come out since this wasn’t a good place for them to talk. Oshin keeps the harmonica safely inserting into a heap of straw, closes the door, and walks behind Matsuji.
They go to an isolated place where villagers cannot see them. Oshin asks him if being a deserter is a bad thing? Matsuji replies that it is against the Emperor’s law to run away from the Army. Oshin innocently asks him if Matsuji is a criminal too, like her brother Shunsaku? She is puzzled if what the villagers are saying is true. Matsuji then replies by saying that Shunsaku was not a criminal. Oshin again asks him why then he was killed as a deserter? Matsuji confirms that he did run away from the Army, but it wasn’t because he was scared of fighting. He tells Oshin that Shunsaku was from an old Samurai family.
(Most of us know that Samurai is a form of sports. However, initially, they were a highly respected military nobility and officer caste of medieval Japan. By early 1900, when the Meiji era had ended, Samurai also changed its feudal role. More from Wikipedia about Samurai
Matsuji tells Oshin the entire background of Shunsaku, which he could never share with anyone else. He tells her that Shunsaku’s father and brothers were military officers. They all had great respect for the Japanese military system.
It all changed when Shunsaku was on the front lines at Port Arthur. He saw thousands of people killed, not only the enemy side (Russians) but all his friends and comrade in arms. He began wondering what all the killings were for? He knew that enemy and friends alike, the dead had families who waited for their dear ones to return alive from the war. He began hating the war. There was a Russian fort on Hill 203, which was impregnable. Tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers died as they tried to attack Russians inside the fort and conquer Hill 203. Shunsaku got wounded too. He learned that his supervisors were going to ship him back to the front line when he got better. So, he escaped from the hospital before he was completely healed. He could not recall how he got away. Matsuji tells Oshin that as Shunsaku was lying passed out up in the mountain, he is the one who found Shunsaku. Shunsaku was almost dead from the fever due to his wounds. Matsuji took him to his hut, and he wanted to protect Shunsaku as long as he could. In Shunsaku, he could see his own sons’ faces, whom he lost in the Hill 203 war.
Matsuji regrets that he could not protect Shunsaku. Oshin, who listened to Matsuji’s words very carefully, feels terrible. Blaming herself, she tells Matsuji that he might still be alive if he hadn’t saved Oshin. Matsuji brushes Oshin aside and says, ‘Oh come on! You made Shunsaku happy! You made me happy too!’ Matsuji further says that Shunsaku was on the run and was very lonely. He felt guilty constantly and unhappy with the enemies whom he killed himself and ordered his subordinates to fight, eventually being responsible for their deaths. He was living with this burden, and his life was a living hell for him. Oshin remembers the Kannon figure statues Shunsaku had carved out of forest wood in the memory of killing people on the battlefield.
(Kannon figures are specific to the patterns of statues build by Japanese sculpture in ancient times. In the earlier episode, we had seen Shunsaku carving out statues based on the Kannon pattern using forest wood. More on Kannon statues available in the link: https://www.japanvisitor.com/japanese-culture/kannon )
Shunsaku had a hard time blaming himself for the deaths of fellow men. Matsuji regretfully says that maybe it was the best that he died suddenly. Maybe, he is better off now in heaven, at peace with himself. Oshin then shares with Matsuji that Shunsaku had told her not to worry if he was dead as he was going to a better place. Matsuji is not surprised to know that Shunsaku said this.
Matsuji asks Oshin to always remember that Shunsaku wasn’t a coward; he just hated wars. Oshin tells Matsuji that Shunsaku told her never to hate anyone. He also had said to her that one day she will face battle and asked her to resist. After hearing the whole background of Shunsaku from Matsuji, Oshin finally understood what Shunsaku meant when he was giving lessons to her. It was the war that made him what he was. Matsuji tells Oshin that even if people call Shunsaku a deserter, Oshin should understand him for what he was. Otherwise, he will not rest in peace.
Oshin now makes a promise to herself that she did not care what the villagers say. Shunsaku was a good man. To her, he was the most extraordinary person. This understanding was enough for Oshin. Matsuji is very happy that he came to the village and met Oshin; he wanted to share Shunsaku’s life events with Oshin. Oshin asks him to visit again, and she will wait for him. Matsuji then tells Oshin that he does not live up those mountains anymore. He will probably never come this way again. Oshin asks him where he will go from here? Matsuji does not answer about his following location. With teary eyes, he tells her that he was happy with her and Shunsaku. He will never forget the happiness Oshin brought in his life. He also gives a lesson to Oshin before he goes, never give up no matter how many difficulties she faces in the future. He wants her to live like a waterfall that never freezes and continues to flow. He wants her to be alive to carry on the principles of Shunsaku. He takes this promise from Oshin and walks off.
PRESENT TIMES
Oshin is sharing with Kei details of her past, which she remembers so vividly. She is standing against a window of the hotel where they are staying. After listening to her life events, Kei comments that Oshin had seen much cruelty when she was just seven!! Oshin replies that by then, she had turned eight. Kei smiles and says that does not make any difference; he tries to recall what he was doing when he was just eight years old. Oshin laughs and remembers that Kei’s Mom complained that all he wanted to do was to play. He never wanted to do his homework. Kei agrees and says that he wasn’t like Oshin at all. Oshin faced difficult times; she was denied education and learning! Oshin comments that nowadays, Parents have to beg their kids to study! Kei says that now there is no more draft (a rule which compulsorily sent students to the Army); hence this generation is lucky. Oshin recalls that the second and third sons of a farming family had no choice but to join the Army to ensure their families could meet the two ends. It was just after the terrible Russo-Japanese war, deserters were considered the lowest of the low. They were disgraced and disrespected by ordinary people of Japan.
As Kei says, what a terrible time it was, Oshin interrupts and tells him that Japan has reached where they are now because of what they went through and endured. Kei pours drinks for his grandma and himself. Oshin looks at a distance and comments that it was the most important of times for her. She got to meet somebody wonderful like Shunsaku. He taught her, and she remembers so clearly, that one didn’t need money or things to be happy as long as one has a warm heart. She also learned how terrible war could be. Shunsaku taught her all that. She shouldn’t have to be reminded of these things in her old age.
Then with that, she takes a sip of the drink which Kei prepared for her.
Kei observes that she has always done her best; she has also done well for everyone. Oshin brushes Kei’s praises aside and tells him that he won’t understand what was taught to her by Shunsaku at her impressionable age.
Oshin was looking back upon herself. She wanted to return to her former self again, especially the carefree time she spent up the mountain. She wanted to live her life differently, all over again. As she was narrating her past to Kei, she gets filled once again with regret and nostalgia.
What happened after Matsuji left? Was there any change in Oshin’s life?
Episode 21 will take us further into those times.