[英語] 豪州慰安婦像を強く支持する知日派 （ストラスフィールド）

オーストラリア、ストラスフィールドの慰安婦像問題。設置を市が認めるか否か、いよいよ明日決まる。推進派と反対派が持論を展開する予定だが、ここで像の設置を強く支持する自称「知日派」の言い分を紹介しておこうと思う。当日までに訳すことが出来なかったので、申し訳ないが、原文のまま。

日本を良く知ると自負するこうした外国人が、実は全然分かっていないという良くあるパターン。反日ではない、日本と縁があり、日本を思えばこそ今の日本の歴史修正主義を許せないのだという外国人は多い。そういった外国人は、ジャパンタイムスの中にもいるし、187人声明に名を連ねた日本研究者にもそういった人が少なくなかったろう。ケントギルバートだって、そうだったはずである。しかし、これは彼らだけの問題ではない。

私の周りにいる普通の日本人は安倍首相らとは違う、事実の歴史を否定する事を恥だと思っている！と、この著者は信じているようだが、実際そうなのだろう。日本人自身が歴史に無頓着であったことが、そもそもいけなかったのだ。

Dear Luke、

I would be prepared to speak on Tuesday August 11 at 6.30pm at the Council Meeting.
I believe I have some background that may assist with the presentation.

Firstly my children attended Sydney Japanese School at Terrey Hills for 6 years each.
Our Family developed close relations with the School Board、Principals and Teachers - as well as scores of Japanese or part-Japanese Families.
And the many Business and Government members of the Japanese Communities - as this school was originally established for the Education of the children of Japanese expats - and then opened to the Australian community.
This was a close knit community and both our children and ourselves（Yulita and I）have retained good friendships with many of those people to this day.

We also developed other friendships with Japanese people and families over the years.
Three of our close friends today are Japanese Women who married Australians、made their lives here and brought up wonderful children.
They are dignified women who we greatly admire and respect.

Our Family has also hosted Japanese Students through our local High Schools（St Ives and Killara）over the years.

We have also been involved with Japanese Community Projects over the years and have had contacts with the Consul General、Consuls and Trade Consuls from time to time.

I have personally visited Japan for business and pleasure many times、and I still maintain strong business and personal friendships there.

During all this time、I have had the opportunity to discuss history with scores of Japanese people from all walks of life - and dozens in extremely influential positions in Industry and Government.
Most Japanese are fully aware of and ashamed of their evil history and would like to see the issues opened、admitted、and apologised for - to enabler them to move on to harmonious relationships with all the nations around them.

Naturally、we have discussed business、community and politics with all our friends and contacts。
A common concern of these decent everyday people is their shame at the past Japanese atrocities and their desire to bring the past into the open、and make proper apologies to those affected.
All these people believe that pretending such horrendous events did not occur、only makes them look very bad.
Their rationale is that、if these events are fully disclosed and admitted、responsibility can be attributed as appropriate and the average Japanese can be absolved of these crimes - allowing them to continue to forge bonds with other communities throughout the world。
Of course、the average Japanese people were no more responsible for these crimes than the average Germans were for Hitler's atrocities.
But denying obvious history actually makes them look complicit - and they want to clear this up.
Most of these people believe the current Japanese Prime Minister Shinozu Abe、is living in a world of 'denial and is also denying the Japanese people the opportunity to deal with this part of their history correctly.
Indeed、we have not met any who support him in his current position on ware crimes.
And I am talking about residents of Japan as well as residents of Australia and other countries.

So I can say、with the authority of more than 40 years of close association with many Japanese communities here、in Japan and abr​​oad、that the overwhelming majority fully support disclosure、recognition and apology.

Like my Japanese friends and contacts、I remain dismayed by the attitudes of PM Abe and his followers.
One certainty we have learned in life is that denial of blatantly obvious、well-proven and totally indisputable events is a recipe for festering hatred。
On the other hand、admission and apology breaks down hatred、fear、lingering anger and simmering resentment - and clears the way for developing harmonious relationships now and in the future.

The proposed Comfort Women Statue is a sympathetic、dignified and honourable solution to this long-running issue.
To endorse it、is to provide closure to the issue and comfort to the remaining victims and the families of those who have passed on。
And to provide a reminder for the future of the sacred and inviolable role of women in our community.

To oppose it、is to glorify - that is glorify - war atrocities.

The world will be watching for the Councillor's votes.
They will be individually accounted for.

[The Korean Society of Sydney, Australia BBS][２]

追記：　ストラスフィールド市は、像は設置しないことに決定。

豪州：慰安婦像の設置認めず　ストラスフィールド市議会

　オーストラリア・シドニー近郊のストラスフィールド市議会は１１日、韓国系団体などが求めていた旧日本軍の従軍慰安婦問題を象徴する少女像の設置の是非を判断する特別議会を開き、設置を認めないことを全会一致で決めた。

　賛成、反対両派から意見を聞いた上で、利害関係がある韓国系市議を除く市議６人で決定した。
　市には像の設置をめぐる指針があり、オーストラリアの歴史に関わることなどの基準を定めている。市が６月に実施した世論調査では、回答者６０５人のうち、何らかの形で設置に賛成したのは３３％にとどまり、市は「指針にもそぐわない」として設置を認めないよう議会に提言した。

毎日（共同） 2015.8.11

NYTと朝日に寄稿したメアリー・マッカーシー（MARY McCARTHY）は腹を割っていない

日本軍性奴隷話を本気にしているのかしてないのか、
日本人読者に曖昧にしたまま

「撤去を求める日本側の姿勢が米国民の言論・表現の自由を侵すものとさえ解釈される」・・・グレンデールでは（古参の）日系人米国人すらそういう反応を見せていたから、メアリー・マッカーシー（ドレイク大学准教授）のアドバイスは傾聴に値する。ようするに、頭から反発するのではなく、じっくりと話し合ってアメリカ人を説得せよということだろう。

ただし、である。この人は一年前ニューヨークタイムズにどの様なことを書いていたか。・・・例によって、インドネシアで発生したオランダ人女性に対する性暴力事件の話を冒頭に、この女性が日本帝国軍に性奉仕を強制された主に朝鮮人からなる20万人の（慰安婦の）一人に過ぎないと解説し、日本政府は河野談話で謝罪するまで何十年にも渡り公式に否定していたと書いたのである。一年以上前のものであるから、この間に考えが変わったのかもしれないが、この人は2001年から日本の歴史修正主義を研究し、日本政治を教える専門家である。

彼女は、近所の噂を真に受けてAさんの悪口をコミュニティ紙に書いたのである。Ａさんは、それは事実無根だと怒っている。怒るのでなく話し合いの中でご近所の理解を得よと正論を言う前に、自分が書いた事を今でも事実と信じているのか、それとも早とちりだったかもしれないと思いつつ、今のようなやり方では理解されないと忠告してくれているのか、日本人読者に明確にすべきだろう。

朝日新聞に掲載された彼女の忠告は真っ当なものだが、彼女がニューヨークタイムズに書いた内容を訂正したという話は聞かない。彼女は日本人読者に対して腹を割って話していない。

（私の視点）慰安婦問題　米社会の見方知り対話を　メアリー・マッカーシー

旧日本軍慰安婦の問題について、米国では２００７年に下院が日本の首相に謝罪するよう勧める決議を採択している。このころはまだ、慰安婦問題が与える日米関係への影響は限定的だった。

しかしいま、元慰安婦をめぐる米国世論の関心は当時より高まっている。慰安婦の碑や像が米国各地の公園など公共空間に設置され、日本側が撤去を求めている問題が注目を集めているからだ。

慰安婦の碑や像は韓国系米国人らのロビー活動により、１０年にニュージャージー州で初めて設置され、ニューヨーク州、カリフォルニア州と続いた。日本の議員らは碑に刻まれた文言が事実ではないとしているが、こうした姿勢が米国で理解されるのは難しいだろう。慰安婦問題の是非とは関わりなく、碑や像に対する米国民の見方が米国のアイデンティティーそのものに関わってくるからである。

米国では、各移民の歴史やそれぞれの先祖から受け継いだ記憶を碑や像で示すことが珍しくない。今回の問題のようにデリケートな論争が移民の母国を含めて国内外で交わされる場合もあるが、碑や像は米国が世界のどの国より多くの移民を受け入れてきたことの表れである。設置することで過去の記憶をたどり、現在や未来にも思いをいたす。つまり、米国民の間で慰安婦の碑や像は、日本への攻撃ではなく、韓国系移民の間で語り継がれてきた歩みの投影だとみられているのである。

撤去を求める日本側の姿勢が米国民の言論・表現の自由を侵すものとさえ解釈されるのは、こうした米国の価値観が傷つけられたという思いが根底にあるからだ。

私がいま日本に望むのは、このような米国民の受け止め方を受けいれるとともに、米国の地域社会で積極的に慰安婦問題についての対話と教育を実践することだ。

慰安婦をめぐる米国での議論はいま、歴史的事実や法の枠を超え、ナショナリズムや女性の権利、人身売買などあらゆる現代の問題に広がっている。簡単なことではないが、米国の地方自治体や学校、韓国系米国人社会にも入って議論を交わしたらいい。碑の文言や表現をめぐってかみ合わないことも多いだろうが、そうした論争が生まれた背景を対話と教育の場で考えることにも意味がある。

単に撤去を求めるのではなく、共に議論し、共に考えていくことこそが米国社会に快く受け入れられてもらえるはずだ。

（Ｍａｒｙ　ＭｃＣａｒｔｈｙ　米ドレイク大学准教授）

朝日 2014.5.20

これは、マッカーシーが昨年ニューヨークタイムズに寄稿したもの。

Japan Can Champion Women’s Rights
By MARY M. McCARTHY

“THEY started to drag us away, one by one. ... I hid under the table, but was soon found. ... The Japanese officer ... took his sword out of its scabbard and pointed it at me, threatening me with it, that he would kill me if I did not give in to him. I curled myself into a corner, like a hunted animal that could not escape.”

Thus, Jan Ruff O’Herne, a Dutch woman born in Java in 1923, recounted the abuse she suffered at the hands of the Japanese military as a World War II “comfort woman,” or sexual slave, at a 2007 U.S. House subcommittee hearing.

This was only the first of the rapes that she would endure every day and night for months after she had been “forcibly seized” from a Japanese civilian internment camp at age 19 and brought to a brothel for Japanese servicemen. O’Herne was one of up to 200,000 mostly Korean, but also Chinese, Dutch, Japanese, Filipino, Indonesian and other women coerced into sexual servitude by the Japanese Imperial Armed Forces.

In 1993, after decades of official denials, Yohei Kono, the chief cabinet secretary, issued a formal admission and apology to the women following an extensive government study. Many conservatives in Japan have never accepted the so-called Kono Statement, most notably Shinzo Abe, the new prime minister. On Thursday, the new chief cabinet secretary of the Abe government, Yoshihide Suga, said that historians and other experts should re-examine the Kono Statement. Knowing the shaky ground on which the apology stands amid longstanding conservative calls to rescind or revise it, what many comfort women have sought is an official Japanese government apology (a cabinet decision) and state compensation. This seems as far from becoming reality as it has in the last two decades.

This type of revisionist atmosphere has become a significant obstacle to smooth relations between Japan and its neighbors. It is also of profound concern to the United States, two of whose most important allies in the region are Japan and South Korea, which are at odds over the comfort women issue.

But this is not only a matter of Japan’s foreign relations, U.S. strategic interests, or history. Its global import is inextricably tied to the real-life circumstances of women and girls in conflict-ridden zones and other unsafe situations throughout the world today.

When the U.S. House passed a resolution in 2007 calling on Japan to acknowledge and apologize for the “coercion of young women into sexual slavery” during the 1930s and 1940s, the comfort women issue was immediately reframed as one of women’s rights and human rights. Since then, the comfort women issue has gained wide support nationally and internationally because of the plight of women and girls caught up in the brutal business of human trafficking. The United Nations reports that there are 2.4 million current victims of human trafficking, 80 percent of whom are being used as sexual slaves. Sexual violence (defined by the U.N. as including rape and forced prostitution) also continues to be part of the reality of armed conflict, as we have seen in Bosnia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Libya.

This is not a history issue, nor solely a Japan-South Korea issue. It is a human rights and women’s rights issue.

Last month, Japanese voters put the Liberal Democratic Party back in power. One of the characteristics that Japanese citizens clearly thirst for in the new government is leadership. Thus far, Abe has chosen to display his leadership qualities, in part, by emphasizing historical revisionism. This will probably not take him very far, as evidenced by his previous short-lived stint as prime minister in 2006-2007. During that one-year term, Abe challenged claims that women had been coerced into becoming comfort women but later apologized to the women “as prime minister” and ultimately stood by the Kono Statement.

Given the mood of the Japanese public, it is unlikely that there will be much movement on the comfort women issue by this government. Still, an opportunity exists to transform the debate, to instill national pride in the country’s young people by making Japan a protector of human rights and a defender of the disempowered on the global stage, and to take concrete steps so that problems of sexual servitude and rape in war actually do become issues of history.

Mary M. McCarthy is an assistant professor of politics and international relations at Drake University and a Mansfield Foundation U.S.-Japan Network for the Future Scholar.

ニューヨークタイムズ 2013.1.1