More wreath-laying diplomacy should follow Obama's visit to Hiroshima
MATSUO Fumio / Journalist
June 21, 2016
It was an "historic moment" for an incumbent President of the United States to lay a wreath for the first time at the Atomic Bomb Memorial in Hiroshima, but President Obama enacted it without histrionics. As he started to speak about "the means mankind possessed to destroy itself", his expressions did not betray the emotions that might have been stirring in his mind when he saw minutes earlier the proofs of the destruction at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Nor was there the intense fervor with which he declared "As the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act" in his speech on a world without nuclear weapons in Prague in 2009.
The somber ambiance of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park was a far cry from the frenzy of the massive crowds who packed Hradcany Square in Prague fully and echoed Obama's call "Yes, we can", which had been kept under seal until then since his assumption of office. President Obama only repeated his appeal to "have the courage to pursue a world without nuclear weapons." In contrast, his references to the Koreans and American POWs who had fallen victim to the atomic bomb revealed the realistic considerations weighing in his mind.
What was brought into sharp relief was the challenging situation regarding nuclear disarmament, which continues to deteriorate as arms control negotiations are stalled and North Korea develops its nuclear weapons. Just before the President's visit to Hiroshima, a hope was floated that he might make an ambitious proposal for nuclear disarmament, but it was dashed. There was also talk about an idea to have former American POWs on the Philippine front accompany the President, a scenario designed for the American pubic. It did not come to pass either. Those were indicative of the realities of the Presidency with only eight more months in office. One could only wish that his visit to Hiroshima had taken place in the course of on his earlier visits to Japan.
That said, we should appreciate highly the significance of the ceremony for the repose of the soul, whereby President Obama mourned not just the victims of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki but also all the victims of the World War. To many Japanese, this was like burning the proverbial incense sticks for the deceased. I say this because I saw it as the Japanese version of the "Dresden Reconciliation", which I personally had been advocating for years. In the ceremony held by Germany, the United States and Great Britain on the 50th anniversary of the indiscriminate bombing of Dresden, Roman Herzog, then President of Germany, said in his forthright and dignified speech, "One cannot offset life against life". By clearly rejecting the logic that Nazi atrocities justified the Allied killing of non-combatant German civilians, he sublimated apology into reconciliation. The Dresden bombing, just three months before Germany's defeat, had been known as the "Hiroshima of Europe".
Today, Japan should take some diplomatic actions in return. It is desirable that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe moves beyond his reconciliation speech to the Joint Meeting of the U.S. Congress in April last year and visits the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, which symbolizes the memories of the war, to lay a wreath. As China keeps pointedly warning us "not to forget that Japan was the perpetrator", there should be wreath-laying in Chongqing, where more than 10,000 people fell victim to Japan's trans-oceanic bombing, and Nanking, where, the Japanese side does not deny, the massacre of a certain number of civilians had taken place. With the Republic of Korea, the process of translating into action the agreement on the issue of comfort women at the end of last year into remains suspended in midair, and Prime Minister Abe can send a new letter to expedite it. Serious consideration of some such decisive actions toward reconciliation in East Asia is called for.
Prime Minister Abe is on exceptionally friendly terms with President Putin of Russia. It is strongly desired that Prime Minister Abe appeals to President Putin to lay a wreath at the Memorial Cenotaph for the Deceased Japanese erected in Khabarovsk in memory of estimated 50,000 Japanese soldiers and civilians who had perished under confinement in Siberia. Japan can make an active proposal for wreath-laying diplomacy in this instance.
President Obama's visit to Japan brought the Japan-U.S. relationship into a new stage.
At the same time, we should not forget that problems abound, such as the case of the suspected abandonment of a girl's corpse in Okinawa and the debate in the course of the U.S. presidential campaigns, where the presumptive Republican candidate Donald Trump takes fundamental issue with the current Japan-U.S. security arrangements.
Fumio Matsuo is former Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief of Kyodo News. This article first appeared in the Kyodo News on May 31, 2016.
The somber ambiance of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park was a far cry from the frenzy of the massive crowds who packed Hradcany Square in Prague fully and echoed Obama's call "Yes, we can", which had been kept under seal until then since his assumption of office. President Obama only repeated his appeal to "have the courage to pursue a world without nuclear weapons." In contrast, his references to the Koreans and American POWs who had fallen victim to the atomic bomb revealed the realistic considerations weighing in his mind.
What was brought into sharp relief was the challenging situation regarding nuclear disarmament, which continues to deteriorate as arms control negotiations are stalled and North Korea develops its nuclear weapons. Just before the President's visit to Hiroshima, a hope was floated that he might make an ambitious proposal for nuclear disarmament, but it was dashed. There was also talk about an idea to have former American POWs on the Philippine front accompany the President, a scenario designed for the American pubic. It did not come to pass either. Those were indicative of the realities of the Presidency with only eight more months in office. One could only wish that his visit to Hiroshima had taken place in the course of on his earlier visits to Japan.
That said, we should appreciate highly the significance of the ceremony for the repose of the soul, whereby President Obama mourned not just the victims of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki but also all the victims of the World War. To many Japanese, this was like burning the proverbial incense sticks for the deceased. I say this because I saw it as the Japanese version of the "Dresden Reconciliation", which I personally had been advocating for years. In the ceremony held by Germany, the United States and Great Britain on the 50th anniversary of the indiscriminate bombing of Dresden, Roman Herzog, then President of Germany, said in his forthright and dignified speech, "One cannot offset life against life". By clearly rejecting the logic that Nazi atrocities justified the Allied killing of non-combatant German civilians, he sublimated apology into reconciliation. The Dresden bombing, just three months before Germany's defeat, had been known as the "Hiroshima of Europe".
Today, Japan should take some diplomatic actions in return. It is desirable that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe moves beyond his reconciliation speech to the Joint Meeting of the U.S. Congress in April last year and visits the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, which symbolizes the memories of the war, to lay a wreath. As China keeps pointedly warning us "not to forget that Japan was the perpetrator", there should be wreath-laying in Chongqing, where more than 10,000 people fell victim to Japan's trans-oceanic bombing, and Nanking, where, the Japanese side does not deny, the massacre of a certain number of civilians had taken place. With the Republic of Korea, the process of translating into action the agreement on the issue of comfort women at the end of last year into remains suspended in midair, and Prime Minister Abe can send a new letter to expedite it. Serious consideration of some such decisive actions toward reconciliation in East Asia is called for.
Prime Minister Abe is on exceptionally friendly terms with President Putin of Russia. It is strongly desired that Prime Minister Abe appeals to President Putin to lay a wreath at the Memorial Cenotaph for the Deceased Japanese erected in Khabarovsk in memory of estimated 50,000 Japanese soldiers and civilians who had perished under confinement in Siberia. Japan can make an active proposal for wreath-laying diplomacy in this instance.
President Obama's visit to Japan brought the Japan-U.S. relationship into a new stage.
At the same time, we should not forget that problems abound, such as the case of the suspected abandonment of a girl's corpse in Okinawa and the debate in the course of the U.S. presidential campaigns, where the presumptive Republican candidate Donald Trump takes fundamental issue with the current Japan-U.S. security arrangements.
Fumio Matsuo is former Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief of Kyodo News. This article first appeared in the Kyodo News on May 31, 2016.
The English-Speaking Union of Japan
オバマ氏の広島訪問に続いて献花外交を
松尾 文夫 / ジャーナリスト
2016年 6月 21日
オバマ米大統領は、現職大統領として初めて広島の原爆慰霊碑に献花するという「歴史的瞬間」を淡々とこなした。直前に訪れた原爆資料館で目にした約７１年前に「人類が持った自らを破壊する道具」と、演説で切り出した証拠の数々に接した感慨は、その表情に見られなかった。２００９年にプラハで行った核兵器のない世界の演説の中で、米国には最初に核兵器を使った唯一の核保有国として行動する道義的な責任があると言い切った時の高ぶりはどこにもなかった。
平和記念公園のたたずまいは、プラハの広場を埋め尽くし「イエス、ウィー・キャン」の大統領就任以来封印していたオバマ節も登場して湧いた大群衆の熱狂的な興奮とは縁遠かった。「核兵器なき世界を追求する勇気を持とう」という呼びかけが繰り返されただけで、逆に韓国人犠牲者や米軍捕虜の犠牲者などの言及など、現実的な配慮が目立った。
軍縮交渉の行き詰まり、北朝鮮の核開発などによって、事態の悪化が続く核軍縮を巡る厳しい状況を浮き彫りにした。広島訪問直前に流れた、野心的な核軍縮提案をするという観測は裏切られ、さらにフィリピン戦線での元捕虜を帯同するという国内向けの演出も姿を消し、任期８ヶ月を残すだけの大統領が直面する現実を示している。大統領の広島訪問が過去の訪日の機会に実現していれば、とつくづく思う。
しかし、大統領が広島、長崎の原爆犠牲者のみならず、あの大戦の犠牲者全てに追悼の言葉を述べ、日本流に言えば線香をあげる鎮魂の儀式を行った意義は大きく、評価しなければならない。なぜならば、私が長年主張してきた「ドレスデンの和解」の日本版だったと思うからである。ドレスデン無差別爆撃５０周年に米英とドイツとの間で行われた式典では、「ナチスが犯罪行為を行ったのだから、ドイツ民間人が死んでも仕方ない」との「相殺論理」をヘルツォーク・ドイツ大統領の剛直な演説ではっきりと否定し謝罪を和解に昇華させた。ちなみに、ドイツの敗北３ヶ月前に行われたドレスデン爆撃は「欧州のヒロシマ」と呼ばれていた。
今日本外交に求められているのはお返しの行動である。やはり、安倍晋三首相には昨年４月の米上下両院合同本会議での和解演説を進めて、戦争の記憶を象徴する真珠湾のアリゾナ記念館での献花を実現してほしい。「日本は加害者という立場を忘れてはならない」くぎを刺した中国に対しては、日本軍による渡洋爆撃により１万人を超える犠牲者を出した重慶、一定数の民間人の虐殺があったことを日本側も認める南京での献花を、そして韓国には昨年末の合意の履行が宙に浮く従軍慰安婦問題での新たな「首相書簡」など、思い切った東アジア和解への「決定打」が検討されてしかるべきだろう。
安倍首相が異例な友好関係を保つロシアのプーチン大統領には、ハバロスクにある推定５万人のシベリア抑留日本兵や民間人の死者を追悼した「日本人死亡者慰霊碑」への献花などを是非実現するよう求めてほしい。つまり、日本による積極的な「献花外交」の提案である。
オバマ大統領の広島訪問で日米関係は新しい段階に入った。しかし、沖縄での女性遺棄事件、さらには米大統領選挙戦で、現在の日米安保体制の在り方に根本的な異議を唱えるトランプ共和党大統領候補の台頭など、問題が山積していることを忘れてはならない。
(筆者は、元共同通信ワシントン支局長。本稿は２０１６年５月３１日に共同通信に寄稿されたものである。）
平和記念公園のたたずまいは、プラハの広場を埋め尽くし「イエス、ウィー・キャン」の大統領就任以来封印していたオバマ節も登場して湧いた大群衆の熱狂的な興奮とは縁遠かった。「核兵器なき世界を追求する勇気を持とう」という呼びかけが繰り返されただけで、逆に韓国人犠牲者や米軍捕虜の犠牲者などの言及など、現実的な配慮が目立った。
軍縮交渉の行き詰まり、北朝鮮の核開発などによって、事態の悪化が続く核軍縮を巡る厳しい状況を浮き彫りにした。広島訪問直前に流れた、野心的な核軍縮提案をするという観測は裏切られ、さらにフィリピン戦線での元捕虜を帯同するという国内向けの演出も姿を消し、任期８ヶ月を残すだけの大統領が直面する現実を示している。大統領の広島訪問が過去の訪日の機会に実現していれば、とつくづく思う。
しかし、大統領が広島、長崎の原爆犠牲者のみならず、あの大戦の犠牲者全てに追悼の言葉を述べ、日本流に言えば線香をあげる鎮魂の儀式を行った意義は大きく、評価しなければならない。なぜならば、私が長年主張してきた「ドレスデンの和解」の日本版だったと思うからである。ドレスデン無差別爆撃５０周年に米英とドイツとの間で行われた式典では、「ナチスが犯罪行為を行ったのだから、ドイツ民間人が死んでも仕方ない」との「相殺論理」をヘルツォーク・ドイツ大統領の剛直な演説ではっきりと否定し謝罪を和解に昇華させた。ちなみに、ドイツの敗北３ヶ月前に行われたドレスデン爆撃は「欧州のヒロシマ」と呼ばれていた。
今日本外交に求められているのはお返しの行動である。やはり、安倍晋三首相には昨年４月の米上下両院合同本会議での和解演説を進めて、戦争の記憶を象徴する真珠湾のアリゾナ記念館での献花を実現してほしい。「日本は加害者という立場を忘れてはならない」くぎを刺した中国に対しては、日本軍による渡洋爆撃により１万人を超える犠牲者を出した重慶、一定数の民間人の虐殺があったことを日本側も認める南京での献花を、そして韓国には昨年末の合意の履行が宙に浮く従軍慰安婦問題での新たな「首相書簡」など、思い切った東アジア和解への「決定打」が検討されてしかるべきだろう。
安倍首相が異例な友好関係を保つロシアのプーチン大統領には、ハバロスクにある推定５万人のシベリア抑留日本兵や民間人の死者を追悼した「日本人死亡者慰霊碑」への献花などを是非実現するよう求めてほしい。つまり、日本による積極的な「献花外交」の提案である。
オバマ大統領の広島訪問で日米関係は新しい段階に入った。しかし、沖縄での女性遺棄事件、さらには米大統領選挙戦で、現在の日米安保体制の在り方に根本的な異議を唱えるトランプ共和党大統領候補の台頭など、問題が山積していることを忘れてはならない。
(筆者は、元共同通信ワシントン支局長。本稿は２０１６年５月３１日に共同通信に寄稿されたものである。）
一般社団法人 日本英語交流連盟