Onoda’s main task was to manage his staff. He woke up at around 5:00 am in the morning and then pumped cow’s milk with the cowboys. The baby cows were separated into a special area the night before. The next morning, the mother cows would　worry about their babies and move close to the area with milk for them. At that time, Onoda checked the health condition of the cattle and also treated them if needed. After that, he supervised the cowboys and then came back to his house to have breakfast with his wife.

Around 7:00 am his employees reported to the farm where they would graze and drive the cattle. They patrolled the farm while riding on horses to check if any cattle were injured, diseased or pregnant. Around the farm, the cattle had enemies like wild animals such as poisonous and large snakes, leopards, eagles and even humans who were cattle thief. In addition, they needed to check the condition of fences which prevented the cattle from going outside his farm.

At around 11:00 am he had lunch and rested by 1:00 pm.  After that, he continued working but, the content of his job was the same as what he did in the morning. He sometimes drove a car and spent much time going to the capital city. He needed to visit the bank or the government office to file documents, purchase components, fuel for tractors and bulldozers and other daily necessities. During his busy time, the sun went down and the temperature became low to where it was the opposite of the hot daytime.

 By 7:00 pm he took a shower and enjoyed having dinner with his wife. He could not drink liquor so he drank milk instead. The dinner was a Japanese-style meal and he could buy Japanese foods such as miso, soy sauce, tofu, and Japanese vegetables because the Japanese immigrants planted and produced them in Brazil

Onoda worked from 5:00 am to until night and then he studied Portuguese and other important things which he did not know yet, he also sent mail to Japan. Finally, he could sleep immediately while snoring loudly.

At the start of his business, Onoda had some difficulties in relation to labor rights. The Brazilian society is like a contract society, their salary was low but there were lots of labor rights and much was needed to have contracts for their jobs. Onoda and his wife got confused in this world which was different from Japan. Sometimes, the Japanese immigrants had labor cases because the local workers pointed out some flaws in the contracts and squeezed or threatened them. In Onoda’s case, there were few laborers who signed the agreement with a smile when they left his farm, even though they did something wrong, they claimed their rights. Basically, Onoda worked for the great nature, it did not match the laws made for urban society, thus, Onoda treated his staff carefully.

In Brazil, people would not be happy until their earned money went into their account, because they had potential risks of having cash being stolen by criminals or receiving bounced checks. Onoda was living in Brazil, so he adjusted his way of thinking towards the Brazilian culture.

The local workers caused Onoda a great hassle, they did not work as he expected. He was wondering maybe it was because of the language barrier or their cultural differences. They did not check nor overhaul the bulldozer and then they overused it so that oftentimes the bulldozer broke down. The spare parts were expensive because they were not made in Brazil so he needed to import them from overseas. Onoda had to fire nine local operators one after another until a skilled operator was found. Businesses using a bulldozer were scarce.

Some laborers were absent without notice, some found unlimited reasons and violated their commitment. The most serious case was that a local laborer made false documents with a lawyer and then squeezed Onoda.

There were serious troubles with people in his business. An armed group came to his farm and tried to take cattle away, in addition, they appeared again and told him that a few of their cattle strayed into his farm. They were accompanied by the police. Onoda’s staff members gave evidence so they asked him to return their cattle. He refused to do it and fought a legal battle, which turned out to take over 3 years to resolve the situation. He finally won the case but, he spent much time and money. His employees were connived with the armed group and then they tried to steal his cattle legally.

When the armed group came to his farm to make contract with him, Onoda was standing with his light machine gun beside him until the finalization of the agreement. His stock farm was called General’s farm. It worked as a deterrent against bad people.

 His business was based on grazing so his cattle grew up in his farm naturally, therefore, the climate affected the cattle greatly. During the dry season, there was no rainfall so pastures did not grow. Usually, each cattle had 30 kg of pasture per day. The cattle could not eat grass so as a result they became thin. In addition, the cold wind sometimes came into the area. There were a few cattle which died, but Onoda and his cattle coexisted with great nature so they sometimes had to battle with its harshness.

The basic process of running a stock farming business is that first, you have to make a good pasture which was the most important thing, and then you improve the birth rate of the cattle. The first 4-5 years, there was no pure income. During this time, you keep female cows and make them give birth, and then sell bulls when they are 4 years old. The business was based on such a repetitive process for a long time. It was like a recurring business cycle day in and day out.

After he put his farming business on track, he found a new challenge he had to do as his final mission in life.

N E X T

CHAPTER 20. FINAL MISSION FOR MOTHERLAND