【205ページ】終戦になったものの、煙草の配給などというものは少なかった。一カ月に2、30本ではなかったかと思う。みんな煙草を3本ぐらいに切って、即ち１本を2センチくらいにして吸ったが、それでも足りない。従って煙草の葉は貴重なものだった。
煙草の葉は土人の畑にしかない。彼らは畑をガーデンと称し、日本兵には決してその場所を教えない。なにしろジャングルの中にちょこんとあるのだから、探すのは大変なことである。ところがどうしたわけか、ぼくは土人に好かれるタチだったから、すっかり信用されてガーデンでしばしば案内された。案内されるとすかさず煙草の葉の下の方をもらって帰る。彼らはどうしたわけか中頃の葉を好み、下葉は価値なしとする。
ぼくは下葉が甘くて好きだったから、持てるだけ持って兵舎に帰り、戦友に干してもらうのだが、他の兵隊たちがぼくを魔法使いのように思っていたようだ。即ち、普通でないと思われていたのだろう。ぼくの名が出るとたいてい笑う。
［ken］昭和30年代、福島県南部の農村では、男衆の大半が「しんせい」や「ゴールデンバット」などの両切りたばこを吸っていました。1本を3本までにはしていませんでしたが、2本に分けて農作業の合間に、爪を立てギリギリまで、美味しそうに吸っていた姿を鮮明に覚えています。また、葉たばこの下葉について、専門家におたずねしたところ、「甘み、というのは正確にいうと違っています。下葉は薄いので、ニコチンやタールの成分が少なく、まろやかな味と表現するのが、より的を得ています」とのことでした。
[page 205］
Although the war ended, rationing of cigarettes was scarce.
I think it was 20 to 30 cigarettes a month. Everyone smoked three cigarettes, that is, each cigarette was about two centimeters long, but even that was not enough.
Therefore, tobacco leaves were very precious.
Tobacco leaves could only be found in the fields of the native people.
They called their fields gardens and never told the Japanese soldiers where they were.
They were located in the middle of the jungle, so it was very difficult to find them.
For some reason, however, I had a tendency to be liked by the natives, so they trusted me completely and often showed me around the garden.
Whenever I was shown around, I would immediately take the bottom part of a cigarette leaf and leave.
For some reason, they preferred the middle leaf and considered the bottom leaf worthless.
I liked the lower leaves because they were sweet, so I took as much as I could and went back to the barracks to have my comrades-in-arms dry it for me. The other soldiers seemed to think I was a magician, in other words, they thought I was unusual. Whenever my name was mentioned, they usually laughed.
［ken] In the 1950s, most of the men in the farming villages of southern Fukushima Prefecture smoked double-cut cigarettes such as "Shinsei" and "Golden Butt" cigarettes; although they did not limit one cigarette to three, I vividly remember them splitting it into two and smoking it with relish between farm work, just barely clawing it out.
I remember vividly how he smoked them with his fingernails clenched and his mouth full. When I asked an expert about the lower leaves of leaf tobacco, he replied, "Sweetness is not exactly the same thing.
Since the lower leaf is thinner, it contains less nicotine and tar, so it is more accurate to describe it as having a mellow taste.
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