"When I was a little older, I often heard my parents talk about the Shimada family. Mrs. Shimada's mother had died of an illness that year. Her father had been a big shot, but at the time, he'd been reduced to doing backbreaking labor for others. Her older brother was bedridden and couldn't do anything, and Mrs. Shimada had to take care of him. A few years later, her father passed away too. I heard afterward that her brother had killed himself. He did it while Mrs. Shimada was away washing clothes and working as a maid. When she got home, she found her brother's body. It had already gone stiff...
"My parents said the Shimada family had met such a fate because of one of Mr. Shimada's friends. His name was Nakamura, and he'd opened a shop next door to the Shimada family's home. The two families had been close, and their sons were about the same age. They'd grown up together. When the young master of the Nakamura family came of age, his family arranged a marriage for him with a young woman from a neighboring town. Both families had agreed to it. At the time, there was a war going on and people were being drafted... I heard an officer passed through the neighboring town, took a liking to the young woman, and wanted to take her away with him. I don't know exactly what happened. By the time we heard about it, the story was that Nakamura had killed the officer. The young woman's family moved away in the middle of the night, and Nakamura fled too. Later, a group of people smashed up the Nakamura family's home. His family were all thrown in jail. Young Master Shimada was arrested over the incident as well...
"Both