The Miraculous Bear Wind
–Day of December 14th–
It took twenty strong young men to drag the body of the giant bear, wrapped in grapevines, two hundred meters to the snowy road and makeshift sled below. Heaving and hoeing and gasping for breath, they managed to get the mountain of the bear onto the sled. They stumbled into a song based on the killing of the bear.
After a while, they tried to transfer the bear to a sled pulled by Tsuji Hachikura’s finest horses, which were waiting below. However, the horses recoiled and backed away, afraid of the bear even in death. So instead the young men picked up the reins of the sled and prepared to drag it the five kilometers downstream to the Sankenbetsu Young Mens’ Hall.
“It’s snowing!” shouted somebody, looking up at the sky.
Snow. Snow was dancing about them, tiny flakes riding on the wind.
It was about ten thirty in the morning, and they had just picked up the reins. The sky, blue until that moment, blew up into a sudden storm. The wind speed measured on that day was forty or fifty meters per second. The trees in the forest were beaten back in waves, and thick-trunked trees were felled one after the other. Grasping the reins tightly, the men crept forward like a line of ants.
The way the old-timers tell it, which goes beyond what was reported in the newspapers, the violent gale blew some people clear off the ice bridges, even when they tried crawling across on their bellies. Let’s take a look at what newspapers had to say at the time. Here’s the Hokkaidō Times (now called the Hokkaidō Newspaper):
Coast Guard Damaged by Violent Winds
December 22, 1915
The violent gale on the fourteenth, as previously reported, brought terrible waves which struck the coast with excessive intensity. They reached heights of over twenty feet, and countless homes and fishing industries were washed away. These were then swept back to shore, destroyed, causing great confusion amongst those in shelter. It is said to be a tragedy such as has not been seen in some years.
Enbetsu Damaged By Violent Winds
December 22, 1915
The violent gale of the 14th, with great fervor, completely destroyed sixteen houses, left thirteen half standing, and damaged the roofs of forty others. Damages estimated to top 5,000 yen.
Severe Damage in Tomamae
December 28, 1915
The violent storm, which blew up at about ten in the morning on December 14th, broke electrical poles, ripped roofs to shreds, and toppled houses with unprecedented ferocity. Planks from storehouses were set aflight and struck those on the road. Fishing facilities were swept away or destroyed. Due to giant waves surging all the way into the city center, lines to the north were rendered useless and the region remained without communications until the 18th. Fifty students of the elementary school in Hirotaka spent the night in school buildings, and the Rikibiru school building was totally destroyed. In summation, terrible damage has occurred. Damages in Tomamae and Rikibiru are estimated at 50,000 yen.
The violent storm whipped up on the northwest coast of Hokkaidō looked as though it was beginning to weaken after night fell, but it continued raging the next day. The farmers of Sankebetsu called this the “Bear Wind,” and they would speak of it to their children for years afterwards. “The bear’s actions incurred the wrath of heaven, and the storm blew up to drive it into hell,” they would whisper, or, “the bear’s anger summoned up a storm.” Even today, in Sankei (which back then was Sankebetsu), parents imparted to their children these sorts of scary stories to get them to be quiet when a storm like the Bear Wind arises: “Many years after the disaster people came in to survey the frontier. While they slept in their tents, they heard, night after night, spirits about, or the ghosts of women and children begging for assistance…”
It brings to mind some words from a volume on life in the snowy, northernmost reaches of the country: “According to the mountain villagers, a horrible storm visits the mountain whenever two or three bears are killed—or even one, if he is old and venerable. We call this a bear’s rage. For this reason the farmers of the mountain village do not hunt bears for pleasure. We even see accounts in ancient records of the spiritual powers of bears.”