The Formation of the Greater Exterminators
–Night of December 12th–
The frontier had been totally evacuated. The schoolhouse in neighboring Sankebetsu had been shut indefinitely. Every farmer shut his doors tight, readied his weapons, and prepared for another sleepless night. There was no work to be done except to watch out for one’s neighbors. Therefore, community leaders from all over the area—village elders, police, teachers—gathered to discuss the situation. They resolved to contact the Haboro police department, the Haboro chief of the Imperial Forestry Agency, the mayor of Tomamae, and anybody else along the railway and petition them for urgent assistance.
News of the awful events of December 9th and 10th reached the Hokkaidō prefectural government on the 12th. The Public Security Office wired orders to Haboro police inspector Kan Kumi: “GIVE WHOLE COOPERATION TO MENS’ GROUPS OR AINU OR WHOEVER STOP HUNT IT DOWN STOP.” Chief Kan encouraged his Haboro staff and others under his jurisdiction to lend their assistance. In particular, the head of the Tomamae Farmers’ Association, Kamisugi Harutarō, deserves special mention for his contribution of firearms and foodstuffs. And so on the evening of the 12th, a militia of boys’ groups, firefighters, and valiant farmers from Haboro and far-off Kodaira entered the frontier. This early in the story, the exterminators looked like a peasant revolt: some had swords at their hips or spears under their arms, but most had machetes, axes, hatchets, saws, scythes, or rifles left over from the Russo-Japanese War.
Ōgawa Yosakichi’s house, adjacent to the Rokusensawa frontier, was chosen as the headquarters for the exterminators. Chief Kan Kumi was put in charge. The second-in-commands were telegraph operator Kido Yasunobu and Matsuda Sadaichi, currently a teacher and a former army second lieutenant. But Kido, whose familiarity with the land made him popular with the farmers, was the de facto leader. Kan found the mass delivery of unregistered hunting rifles to the frontier unusual, even for the time. These measures served to unnerve the villagers even more.
The number one goal of the exterminators was simple: do not let the bear cross the Sankebetsu River. If the beast were to reach the long, narrow village of Sankebetsu, they would be helpless to stop its path of destruction. To this end, a number of sharpshooters and beaters were positioned at every possible crossing of the river, forming a watertight defensive line.
However, their foe was not one to be taken lightly. It possessed any number of hiding places in the Imperial Forest around the frontier. The game went over and over: if they attacked to the east, it went west; if they attacked west, it went to the east. The bear was of unusually high intelligence; no pattern could be discerned from its appearances. Adding to this struggle were the heavy December blizzards. It was a struggle even to move in these snows. Following tracks was all but impossible. The exterminators were constantly worried that they would be trapped in the frontier until the April thaw. Therefore they resolved all the more to catch the bear in the next few days.
Doctor Sawatani Fusakichi arrived in the frontier by carriage on the 12th, escorted by a local policeman. He had been brought in to examine the scene of the crime and perform autopsies. On the way in, along the mountain path to Rokusensawa, they spied an unusual sight.
“Would you look at that! That’s bear poop, isn’t it?”
A close examination of the droppings revealed human bones, hair, and undigested flesh.
In the afternoon Sawatani, along with Kimura Shin’nosuke, a police doctor dispatched by the Hokkaidō Government Police, performed autopsies on the victims.