屯田兵と西南戦争 : 屯田兵の戦没者慰霊と遺族扶助

北海道大学大学院文学研究科北方研究教育センター

北方人文研究

In this article I have a look at the actual condition and characteristics of the memorial of Tondenhei, the soldiers for developing and guarding Hokkaido, who died in battle, illness, and accident during the period from the departure to the Seinan War until the return to Hokkaido after the war ending. The number of Tondenhei who were recognized as the people killed in the war reaches 37 people, but 3 out of 8 people who were recorded as the dead in the war actually were drowned. There were 28 soldiers who were reported to die from a disease, and most of them died due to cholera.There was a Tonden soldier who publicly was recorded as an unexpected death by Hokkaido Development Commission, but the fact was that he was murdered by a soldier from his hometown on the just day when he would go to war. While at that time, Tokyo Invitation Company didn't enshrined people who died from the disease in a war, Hokkaido Development Commission intended to console the spirits of the Tondenhei who died in the war by treating drowned Tondenhei as the death in battle and those who died from the disease as people who should be enshrined together. On the other hand, in the spot, Sapporo, the Tondenhei memorial monument was built, and in the epigraph on the monument, the names of the war dead of all 37 people including an unexpected death got written That brought the characteristics of Sapporo Gokoku-jinja shrine. The intention of Hokkaido Development Commission for the above memorial came from the special natures of Tondenhei different from the Japanese Army. And the most important nature of them is that a tonden soldier was a householder as well as a soldier. Therefore, the death of a tonden soldier meant the death of a householder, which was a serious problem to the important role that they would play in the development of Hokkaido as well as as a tonden soldier. The memorial of Tondenhei who were killed in the war had to be held not only from the point of view of the public recognition of its honor but also from the point of view of the protection for the surviving families, and just that was needed in order to certainly move on the development of Hokkaido that had just started.