President Obama's Hiroshima Speech was a Test of Maturity for the People of Japan and America
NISHIKAWA Megumi / Journalist
July 8, 2016
The US President's visit to Hiroshima had been a test, not for Barack Obama as a leader, but for the citizens of Japan and the United States. That is how I came to see the visit a week after the event.
During the President's visit to Hiroshima, we strained our ears and eyes, seeking to capture every word he uttered, follow his every move. How close will his words come to issuing an apology, how will he express his sincerity as he lays down the wreath and takes a moment of silence, what form will his encounter with the hibakusha, survivors of the atomic bombing, take…? Many people in both Japan and the United States must have watched the simulcast of the ceremony with strong interest.
For President Obama, it must have been a precarious mission akin to walking a thin line through a minefield. One misstep, and he was met by vehement protest from conservatives at home, who believed America was justified in dropping the bomb, while stepping off the path to the other side brought accusations from the Japanese side that the visit was merely perfunctory and lacked substance.
But President Obama pulled it off with grace. His speech began with the words "Seventy-one years ago, on a bright, cloudless morning, death fell from the sky and the world was changed." It evoked the past in people's minds and immersed them in deep thought. While there were no clear words of apology, his words of mourning for the victims and expressions such as "we can tell our children a different story" came close to an apology.
In the end, we were made to realize it was not the President who had undergone a test, but the people of Japan and the United States. We had been tested for our maturity. Will we continue to dwell on the past and refuse to move forward until we hear an apology? Or, will we walk the path of nuclear disarmament as our common future? The subsequent response from the two countries seemed to demonstrate sufficient maturity on either side.
Another point I noticed when re-reading the speech was how he knelt down to the audience. This was not a speech directed at global leaders and politicians, but a message for ordinary people. Throughout the lengthy speech, words describing the atomic bomb or nuclear weapons were mentioned only four times. Instead, we find expressions such as "death," "a terrible force unleashed," "a mushroom cloud that rose into these skies," and "the splitting of an atom." The entire speech was charged with symbolism and emotion, and it was evident the President had sought to appeal to people's imagination to convey the inhuman and unethical nature of nuclear weapons.
If I may add another observation, faced with setbacks on the road to nuclear disarmament, it almost felt as if President Obama was pinning his hopes on ordinary citizens, as if he wanted people to close in on their governments towards realizing a nuclear-free world. If that were so, Hiroshima and Nagasaki will become a base from which to rouse the imagination of citizens around the world.
Megumi Nishikawa is contributing editor for the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper. This article originally appeared in the morning edition of the Mainichi Shimbun on June 3, 2016.
During the President's visit to Hiroshima, we strained our ears and eyes, seeking to capture every word he uttered, follow his every move. How close will his words come to issuing an apology, how will he express his sincerity as he lays down the wreath and takes a moment of silence, what form will his encounter with the hibakusha, survivors of the atomic bombing, take…? Many people in both Japan and the United States must have watched the simulcast of the ceremony with strong interest.
For President Obama, it must have been a precarious mission akin to walking a thin line through a minefield. One misstep, and he was met by vehement protest from conservatives at home, who believed America was justified in dropping the bomb, while stepping off the path to the other side brought accusations from the Japanese side that the visit was merely perfunctory and lacked substance.
But President Obama pulled it off with grace. His speech began with the words "Seventy-one years ago, on a bright, cloudless morning, death fell from the sky and the world was changed." It evoked the past in people's minds and immersed them in deep thought. While there were no clear words of apology, his words of mourning for the victims and expressions such as "we can tell our children a different story" came close to an apology.
In the end, we were made to realize it was not the President who had undergone a test, but the people of Japan and the United States. We had been tested for our maturity. Will we continue to dwell on the past and refuse to move forward until we hear an apology? Or, will we walk the path of nuclear disarmament as our common future? The subsequent response from the two countries seemed to demonstrate sufficient maturity on either side.
Another point I noticed when re-reading the speech was how he knelt down to the audience. This was not a speech directed at global leaders and politicians, but a message for ordinary people. Throughout the lengthy speech, words describing the atomic bomb or nuclear weapons were mentioned only four times. Instead, we find expressions such as "death," "a terrible force unleashed," "a mushroom cloud that rose into these skies," and "the splitting of an atom." The entire speech was charged with symbolism and emotion, and it was evident the President had sought to appeal to people's imagination to convey the inhuman and unethical nature of nuclear weapons.
If I may add another observation, faced with setbacks on the road to nuclear disarmament, it almost felt as if President Obama was pinning his hopes on ordinary citizens, as if he wanted people to close in on their governments towards realizing a nuclear-free world. If that were so, Hiroshima and Nagasaki will become a base from which to rouse the imagination of citizens around the world.
Megumi Nishikawa is contributing editor for the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper. This article originally appeared in the morning edition of the Mainichi Shimbun on June 3, 2016.
The English-Speaking Union of Japan
日米両国民の成熟度が試された広島のオバマ演説
西川 恵 / ジャーナリスト
2016年 7月 8日
オバマ米大統領の広島訪問で試されたのは指導者としてのオバマその人ではなく、我々日米両国民だったのではないか。１週間たって振り返る時、そう思う。
我々は広島を訪れた大統領の言葉一つ一つ、一挙手一投足に耳と目を凝らした。どこまで謝罪に近い言葉を発するのか、献花と黙とうにどこまで真摯（しんし）さが表れるのか、被爆者との接触はどういう形で行われるのか……。日米両国で多くの人々が強い関心を持ってテレビの同時中継を見つめたはずである。
オバマ大統領にとって地雷原の中の細い一本道を行くがごとき難しい任務だっただろう。少しでも踏み外せば、原爆投下を正当化する米国の保守派の猛反発を受け、反対側に踏み外せば「形だけの訪問で意味がない」と日本側で反発が起きた。
しかし大統領は優雅にそれをやってのけた。「７１年前のよく晴れた雲のない朝、空から死が降ってきて世界は変わった」で始まるスピーチは、人々の中に歴史を呼び起こし、深い思いに浸らせた。明確な謝罪の言葉はなかったが、犠牲者を悼む言葉や、「我々は過去の過ちとは異なる物語を子どもたちに語ることができる」といった表現は、謝罪に近いものを感じさせた。
結局のところ試されたのは大統領ではなく、日米両国民だったのではないかと気づかされる。何を試されたかというと両国民の成熟度である。過去にこだわり、謝罪を得るまでは前に進まないのか。それとも核廃絶の未来に向けて一緒の道を歩むのか。その後の両国の反応は、十分な成熟を思わせるものだった。
もう一つ、演説文を読み返して感じるのは、演説の目線は低く、これは世界の指導者や政治家に向けてではなく、一般の人々に向けられた内容だということだ。長い演説の中で、原爆、核兵器という英単語はわずか４カ所にしか出てこない。代わりに使われているのが「死」「解き放たれた恐ろしい力」「空に上がったキノコ雲」「原子核の分裂」といった表現だ。演説全体が象徴性と情緒性にあふれ、オバマ大統領は人々の想像力に働きかけることで核兵器の非人間性、非道徳性を訴えようとしたのが分かる。
加えて言うなら、核の削減・廃絶の道が頓挫している時、大統領は一般の人々に期待をかけているのではないかとも感じる。反核に向けて人々が政治を包囲してほしい、と。その場合、広島・長崎は世界の人々の想像力をかきたてる拠点としての役割を担うことになる。
(筆者は毎日新聞客員編集委員、本稿は２０１６年６月３日付毎日新聞朝刊に掲載された。）
我々は広島を訪れた大統領の言葉一つ一つ、一挙手一投足に耳と目を凝らした。どこまで謝罪に近い言葉を発するのか、献花と黙とうにどこまで真摯（しんし）さが表れるのか、被爆者との接触はどういう形で行われるのか……。日米両国で多くの人々が強い関心を持ってテレビの同時中継を見つめたはずである。
オバマ大統領にとって地雷原の中の細い一本道を行くがごとき難しい任務だっただろう。少しでも踏み外せば、原爆投下を正当化する米国の保守派の猛反発を受け、反対側に踏み外せば「形だけの訪問で意味がない」と日本側で反発が起きた。
しかし大統領は優雅にそれをやってのけた。「７１年前のよく晴れた雲のない朝、空から死が降ってきて世界は変わった」で始まるスピーチは、人々の中に歴史を呼び起こし、深い思いに浸らせた。明確な謝罪の言葉はなかったが、犠牲者を悼む言葉や、「我々は過去の過ちとは異なる物語を子どもたちに語ることができる」といった表現は、謝罪に近いものを感じさせた。
結局のところ試されたのは大統領ではなく、日米両国民だったのではないかと気づかされる。何を試されたかというと両国民の成熟度である。過去にこだわり、謝罪を得るまでは前に進まないのか。それとも核廃絶の未来に向けて一緒の道を歩むのか。その後の両国の反応は、十分な成熟を思わせるものだった。
もう一つ、演説文を読み返して感じるのは、演説の目線は低く、これは世界の指導者や政治家に向けてではなく、一般の人々に向けられた内容だということだ。長い演説の中で、原爆、核兵器という英単語はわずか４カ所にしか出てこない。代わりに使われているのが「死」「解き放たれた恐ろしい力」「空に上がったキノコ雲」「原子核の分裂」といった表現だ。演説全体が象徴性と情緒性にあふれ、オバマ大統領は人々の想像力に働きかけることで核兵器の非人間性、非道徳性を訴えようとしたのが分かる。
加えて言うなら、核の削減・廃絶の道が頓挫している時、大統領は一般の人々に期待をかけているのではないかとも感じる。反核に向けて人々が政治を包囲してほしい、と。その場合、広島・長崎は世界の人々の想像力をかきたてる拠点としての役割を担うことになる。
(筆者は毎日新聞客員編集委員、本稿は２０１６年６月３日付毎日新聞朝刊に掲載された。）
一般社団法人 日本英語交流連盟