It’s insane that Lieutenant Tsurumi has such a clear, real-life model.【Golden Kamuy】
Information from the author’s column in the fan book:
・The character was modeled after the grandfather of one of the author’s father’s old friends. His name was literally Hasegawa Tokushirō.
・After his death, a military service record and the little finger bone of a child were found among his belongings.
・According to the service record, he was conscripted in Niigata and joined the army, but was discharged soon afterward. He then suddenly opened a photography studio in Tsukisappu, Hokkaido. After closing that business, he later opened another photography studio in Russia.
・None of his family or relatives knew that he had operated a photography studio in Russia.
・After investigating his background, the author’s father and his friend consulted experts and historians, and they came to the conclusion that he may have been involved in espionage.
I was surprised at how directly this acquaintance’s background and history were used for Lieutenant Tsurumi. Usually authors change details at least a little, lol.
Even the theory that he may have had a wife in Russia — based on the discovery of the child’s little finger bone — seems to have been incorporated into Tsurumi’s character setting.
Other anecdotes:
・After the war, a Russian man came to Tokushirō’s house selling bread, and Tokushirō suddenly started speaking Russian with him. His daughter was shocked because she had never known he could speak Russian.
・By his twenties, he had already opened four photography studios. In modern terms, this would have required an enormous amount of money — likely worth hundreds of millions of yen today — yet the source of the funding remains a mystery.
・Tokushirō was first conscripted into the Second Division in Niigata, the same division Lieutenant Tsurumi belonged to. The Russian city where he operated a photography studio, Vladivostok, was also connected to the Niigata Second Division’s sphere of activity.
・The first place where he opened a photography studio was the same location associated with Tsukisappu Anpan.