Friday 16 November 2012

What I learned at work yesterday... (or reason #74563 why I love my job)

In the expanses of Japanese-controlled Manchuria, trains were the major source of transportation of just about anything. The company history of the Southern Manchurian Railway Company includes a fare and tariff chart that lists the prices for various types of items.

In the early 20th century it cost 30 sen (100 sen in 1 yen) per mile (not km, which is interesting as Japan is most definitely metric now) to transport dead bodies. Children were half price (just as live children riding trains in Japan today). Passengers (live ones, sitting in passenger cars) cost considerably more, depending on the class of carriage they chose. Cremated remains cost significantly less, the same price as small (live) animals such as chickens or dogs. In addition, dead bodies could be left at stations for periods of time up to six hours (although this was later extended, with a fee being charged per every 24 hour period the body was held by the station).

I was told all this by a delighted coworker, who rushed to make copies of the pages from the history so she could use it in some later research. We giggled over the painstakingly detailed instructions and rules (and complete lack of hiding behind polite euphemisms as would be common in modern society, especially here in Japan), ignoring the obviously sad message, that the railway likely carried a fairly large number of bodies, especially during the war.

Either way you look at it, however, how can you say historical documents are dry and boring?

10 comments:

  1. I love this entry, and I wanted Japanese people to read it, so I translated it into Japanese in my Japanese weblog (http://goo.gl/AfY7o).

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    1. Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the post and am honoured you decided to translate it!

      There is fascinating information available in shashi and so few people - Japanese or not, know about them!

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    2. I'm a serious fan of Soseki Natsume, so I'm interested in the president of Mantetsu, Zeko Nakamura, who was one of Soseki's friends from his school days. I don't know about Zeko, so I want to check about him by the shashi of Mantetsu.

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    3. The best spot to look up shashi is the Kanagawa prefectural Kawasaki library. They have a huge collection and you should be able to read to your heart's content!

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  2. "Cremated remains cost significantly less, the same price as small (live) animals such as chickens or dogs."

    A dead me and an alive chicken cost the same? That's not fair! I think I should be cheaper, since I'm sure an urn with ash is smaller than a chicken. :D

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    1. A you that has been cremated a la Japanese is still going to have bones and bits, so there will still be a fair amount of you left! And while you are likely to be a whole less smelly than a chicken, there is still the worry of you haunting the train, isn't there?!

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    2. Oh, yes, I forgot about the bones. Although, if I'm travelling in the same car as living barking drooling dogs ...

      OK, I'll stop now.

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    3. You think the dog owners should have to pay more or ensure their dogs won't break free and get into your urn to start chewing on your bones?! (Now who's being sacrilegious?! :D

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  3. That is a truly fascinating piece of imperial Japanese history! Thanks for sharing. Cath

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    1. Your welcome! I'll keep my ears open for more tidbits like it!

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