Man or Bear?!
–Night of December 13th–
The feared brown bear, having ravaged its way through all the homes it could get its paws on, at last approached the feared confluence of the Sankebetsu River. It was apparent that if by some chance the bear were to cross the river and enter the village, the bear’s rampage could go on unchecked. Headquarters was doubly nervous, and everybody felt as though things were coming to a head.
Around eight o’clock on the night of the 13th, the members of the exterminators who were staking out the crossing point felt as though something was amiss and ran, breathless, back to headquarters.
On the banks of the river there were the stumps of six great willows. One of the party members, looking at the stumps for no particular reason, counted one extra in the darkness. And it looked as though the extra stump was faintly moving. It could be the bear searching for the bottom as it tried to cross.
However, there was also the possibility that it was somebody from the Imperial Forestry Agency patrolling this government-owned land. If it was the bear, it would flee immediately when they called out to it. As they hesitated, there was an odd creaking and groaning, as though the ice bridge of snow and branches was being trod upon. There was no time for questions.
“Man or bear?!”
Three times the Haboro police chief and headquarter director called out the challenge. If there was no response after three times, shots would be fired.
There was no reply.
Ten Murata rifles fired at once. The chief fired as well; he possessed a double-barreled rifle, rare in those days.
At that instant, a black mass turned all at once to run back towards the snowy field from which it had come. The exterminators could only marvel at its nimbleness.
Headquarters had had the bear in the palm of their hand and for the third time they had botched the execution. It was now past eight, far too late to do anything, and so they waited for the light of day and planned for a coordinated attack on the morrow. What was strange about this night’s occurrences was that there were again many people who had not fired their weapons, including some who had obeyed orders previously. This indicated that many, including the matagi hunters, were losing confidence.
Talk of surrender and omens spread among the exterminators: “We can’t catch the bear. He has the power of the devil behind him!” “He’s the guardian of this place. Shoot him and you’ll be cursed!”
On the other hand, the farmers’ rage at the irritation and blunders inspired action and they rounded on the headquarter director: “How undisciplined! You’re supposed to kill the bear, not give it a merry chase! Do you know how to use a gun?!”
At the same time anger over the rifles had erupted. They were betrayed by their earlier mantra of ‘give me a rifle and I’ll get that bear from a hundred yards away.’ In those days, rifles spoke to state-of-the-edge military technology which would never fail to hit its target.