Kappa by Akutagawa Ryuunosuke, Chapter Eight

CHAPTER EIGHT

I was oddly fond of the glass company president, Gehru. He was a capitalist's capitalist. Not to be rude, but among kappa he had the largest belly. His wife resembled a lychee and his children cucumbers, but they seemed to have good fortune in life. With a judge named Pepp and the doctor Chak I went to dinner at Gehru's house. Taking his letter of introduction, I visited various factories where Gehru had connections.

I was most interested in a certain publishing house. A young engineer kappa showed me inside, how it was powered by hydroelectricity. When I gazed at a huge machine, I wondered at how industrial progress was coming in the kappa world. In one year, they could print seven million books. But what surprised me more was not the number of books, but how simple it was to produce them. To make a book in this country, paper, ink, and an ash-gray powder was poured into a funnel. In less than five minutes, these raw materials were turned into infinite books of various sizes.

I stared at a waterfall of books coming out. I asked the slouching engineer what the powder was. Standing before a glossy black machine, he answered in a monotone, "This? This is donkey's brain. Well, it's dehydrated and ground up. Its current value is two or three sen per ton.”

Of course the wonders of book printing was not all. There was also a painting factory and a music factory that were run the same. Gehru told me that in this country, an average of seven or eight hundred machines were invented, able to mass produce faster than by hand. A few hundred former factory workers had been let go. It had gotten to be so that every morning when you read the newspaper, another strike would be announced. I found this strange, and when invitted to dinner with Peppu and Chack I asked why.

"It's so everyone can eat,” Gehru said casually after dinner, lighting a cigar.

But I couldn't understand what he meant by “to eat.” Then pince-nez wearing Chack explained more thoroughly for my benefit.

"Those factory workers are killed, and turned into meat for everyone. Look at the newspaper. This month exactly 64,765 workers were let go, so meat has become that much cheaper."

“The factory workers are killed to shut them up?"

"That's what comes of making a racket. It's the Worker Butchery Act." From behind a potted sapling, Peppu spoke with a bitter expression. Of course I felt uneasy. But Gehru was the head of the household, and Peppu and Chack also seemed to find it natural. Chack actually scoffed while speaking to me.

“Basically, the point is to eliminate the national problems of starvation and suicide. If one sniffs a little poisonous gas, there is barely any pain."

"But to eat that meat -- “

"Don’t get started on that. If that Magg were to hear you, he would laugh out loud. In your country, don't the daughters of the poor become prostitutes? If you grow indignant at the thought of butchering factory workers, it's only sentimentalism."

Gehru, listening to this exchange calmly, offered me a sandwich from the table. "Would you like some? This is also factory worker meat."

Of course I shrunk back. No, more than that. I fled from Gehru's parlor to the sound of Peppu and Chack laughing. No light could be seen in the houses I passed, and the night had grown stormy. In that darkness I returned to my dwelling, and began to vomit unceasingly. In the dark my vomit flowed like pouring ash.