Ogata Sadako’s Epitaph
CHINO Keiko / Journalist
November 5, 2019
I first interviewed Madame Sadako Ogata at a send-off party for her when she was appointed to be the first woman Minister at the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations. It was in fact the women sending her off that were excited at this “brilliant” appointment, and Madame Ogata herself was calmly talking about her plans and aspirations for the new job.
She was born into a diplomatic family, with a former Prime Minister, Inukai Tsuyoshi as great-grandfather and a former Foreign Minister, Yoshizawa Kenkichi, as grandfather. For her, who had grown up as a child in the richly cosmopolitan environment of America, China and Hong Kong, there was little that was special about the United Nations.
After her term as Minister at Japan’s UN mission, the UN continued to be the field of her active engagement where she served as the Japanese government’s representative to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, in addition to her career as a university professor.
In her life, it was during her term as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) (1991~2000) that she exerted her potential to the utmost and did so with brilliance. The end of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union brought about the intensification of ethnic conflicts, sharply increasing the number of refugees fleeing these conflicts beyond the 5 million mark in the 1980s before Madame Ogata assumed office. When she stepped down ten years later, the number had ballooned to 22million. This was truly the beginning of the age of refugees.
Madame Ogata consistently pursued an on-site, hands-on approach instead of remaining sedentary in her office in Geneva. She was quick in decision-making, action-oriented, and exerted strong and clear leadership. Thus UNHCR, till then a relatively small and unobtrusive presence in the UN system, quickly came into prominence.
The image of this petite lady who would venture into dangerous disputed areas wearing a helmet and bulletproof vest won her the accolade “diminutive giant” among the Western media.
Beneath her on-site, hands-on approach lay her unshakable commitment to the protection of refugees, based on her firm belief that human lives must be saved. “If they stay alive, they can be given the next chance”, she wrote in her book “My Work”.
She also kept saying, “We must never forget conflicts”, because if we do, we will be abandoning refugees.
She carried her on-site, hands-on approach on to the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), of which she was appointed the first woman President. She actively dispatched young JICA officers to actual sites of international cooperation to gain field experiences. It was apparently based on her wish to revitalize JICA and her high expectation for Japan’s international cooperation.
In the interview conducted in connection with the feature “My choice of the 10 biggest news items in the 20th century” of Sankei Shimbun dated August 20th, 2000, she said, “I wish to see Japan play a big humanitarian role. Can Japan live and prove its worth any other way? I would like Japan to tackle global issues in a larger context of the world.”
Her ideas subsequently bore fruit in the form of the initiative for “Human Security”.
Today, however, conflicts continue to become more complex and enlarged, and refugees continue to increase. Amidst all this, is Japan taking the lead in its humanitarian role and tackling global issues on the big stage of the world? Ogata Sadako was so concerned about the inward-looking tendency of Japanese society and the decline of the principle of international cooperation. Now, it is more important than ever before to carry out her earnest wishes.
It would be amiss if I did not mention her husband Shijuro, who was an Executive Director at the Bank of Japan and passed away in 2014. He proudly declared himself to be the “house husband”, and was more pleased than others about his wife’s appointment as UNHCR in Geneva. He appeared often at press conferences held at the Japan National Press Club, and always asked questions.
When I said to him “You act like an exemplary journalist”, he replied, “ I am always thinking about what questions to ask, so that Sadako can approve.”
Ogata Sadako kept a calm, poised presence without losing her broad perspectives amid the harsh conditions of conflict areas. Behind her was the reassuring, cheerful and witty Shijuro.
Chino Keiko is a freelance journalist and Guest Columnist of the Sankei Shimbun. This is a revised version of the article that appeared in the Sankei Shimbun of October 30th , 2019.
She was born into a diplomatic family, with a former Prime Minister, Inukai Tsuyoshi as great-grandfather and a former Foreign Minister, Yoshizawa Kenkichi, as grandfather. For her, who had grown up as a child in the richly cosmopolitan environment of America, China and Hong Kong, there was little that was special about the United Nations.
After her term as Minister at Japan’s UN mission, the UN continued to be the field of her active engagement where she served as the Japanese government’s representative to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, in addition to her career as a university professor.
In her life, it was during her term as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) (1991~2000) that she exerted her potential to the utmost and did so with brilliance. The end of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union brought about the intensification of ethnic conflicts, sharply increasing the number of refugees fleeing these conflicts beyond the 5 million mark in the 1980s before Madame Ogata assumed office. When she stepped down ten years later, the number had ballooned to 22million. This was truly the beginning of the age of refugees.
Madame Ogata consistently pursued an on-site, hands-on approach instead of remaining sedentary in her office in Geneva. She was quick in decision-making, action-oriented, and exerted strong and clear leadership. Thus UNHCR, till then a relatively small and unobtrusive presence in the UN system, quickly came into prominence.
The image of this petite lady who would venture into dangerous disputed areas wearing a helmet and bulletproof vest won her the accolade “diminutive giant” among the Western media.
Beneath her on-site, hands-on approach lay her unshakable commitment to the protection of refugees, based on her firm belief that human lives must be saved. “If they stay alive, they can be given the next chance”, she wrote in her book “My Work”.
She also kept saying, “We must never forget conflicts”, because if we do, we will be abandoning refugees.
She carried her on-site, hands-on approach on to the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), of which she was appointed the first woman President. She actively dispatched young JICA officers to actual sites of international cooperation to gain field experiences. It was apparently based on her wish to revitalize JICA and her high expectation for Japan’s international cooperation.
In the interview conducted in connection with the feature “My choice of the 10 biggest news items in the 20th century” of Sankei Shimbun dated August 20th, 2000, she said, “I wish to see Japan play a big humanitarian role. Can Japan live and prove its worth any other way? I would like Japan to tackle global issues in a larger context of the world.”
Her ideas subsequently bore fruit in the form of the initiative for “Human Security”.
Today, however, conflicts continue to become more complex and enlarged, and refugees continue to increase. Amidst all this, is Japan taking the lead in its humanitarian role and tackling global issues on the big stage of the world? Ogata Sadako was so concerned about the inward-looking tendency of Japanese society and the decline of the principle of international cooperation. Now, it is more important than ever before to carry out her earnest wishes.
It would be amiss if I did not mention her husband Shijuro, who was an Executive Director at the Bank of Japan and passed away in 2014. He proudly declared himself to be the “house husband”, and was more pleased than others about his wife’s appointment as UNHCR in Geneva. He appeared often at press conferences held at the Japan National Press Club, and always asked questions.
When I said to him “You act like an exemplary journalist”, he replied, “ I am always thinking about what questions to ask, so that Sadako can approve.”
Ogata Sadako kept a calm, poised presence without losing her broad perspectives amid the harsh conditions of conflict areas. Behind her was the reassuring, cheerful and witty Shijuro.
Chino Keiko is a freelance journalist and Guest Columnist of the Sankei Shimbun. This is a revised version of the article that appeared in the Sankei Shimbun of October 30th , 2019.
The English-Speaking Union of Japan
墓碑銘：緒方貞子さん 防弾チョッキの「小さな巨人」
千野 境子 / ジャーナリスト
2019年 11月 5日
緒方貞子さんを初めて取材したのは、1976年に日本初の女性国連公使に選ばれた際の歓送会だった。送る女性たちの方が「快挙」と興奮気味で、緒方さんはむしろ淡々と抱負を語っていた。
曽祖父は犬養毅元首相、祖父は芳沢謙吉元外相で、外交官の家庭に生まれ、幼少期をアメリカ、中国、香港と豊かな国際環境の下で育った緒方さんには、国連といえども特別な存在ではなかったのだ。
国連公使の後も大学教授の傍ら、国連人権委員会の日本政府代表を務めるなど国連は緒方さんのフィールドであり続けた。
そんな緒方さんが生涯でもっとも力を発揮し、また輝いたのは、やはり国連難民高等弁務官時代（91年～2000年）だろう。米ソ冷戦の終焉は民族紛争の激化を招き、就任前の80年代に初めて500万を突破した難民は、10年後の退任時には2200万にも膨らんだ。まさに難民の時代の始まりだった。
緒方さんはジュネーブの事務所で席を温める間もなく、一貫して現場主義を貫いた。迅速な決断と行動力、明快なリーダーシップ。それまで国連機関の中でも小さな目立たない組織だったUNHCRは一変した。
防弾チョッキにヘルメット姿で紛争現場に臆することなく入っていく小柄な緒方さんを、欧米メディアは「小さな巨人」と感嘆したものだ。
現場主義の根底には何よりも「人の生命を助ける」という緒方さんの難民保護への揺るぎない判断基準があった。「生きてさえいれば、彼らには次のチャンスが与えられる」（著書『私の仕事』）のだ。
「紛争を忘れてはいけない」とも繰り返し語った。難民が見捨てられるからだ。
現場主義は女性初の理事長となった国際協力機構（JICA）にも受け継がれた。若い職員を国際協力の現場へ積極的に送り出し、鍛えた。機構の活性化、そして日本の国際協力への大いなる期待があってのことだったと言える。
産経新聞の「私が選んだ20世紀の十大ニュース」（2000年8月20日付）のインタビューで緒方さんは「日本は人道的な役割で大きな役割を果たしてもらいたい。他に（日本の）生きようがあるでしょうか。もっと大きなところで世界的取り組みをしてもらいたい」と述べている。
提言はその後の日本と国連による「人間の安全保障」へと結実した。
しかし今日、紛争は複雑、肥大化し、難民も増え続ける。そこにあって日本は人道的役割の先頭に立ち、大きな舞台で世界的な取り組みを行っているだろうか。日本社会の内向き志向や国際社会における国際協調主義の衰退を危惧していた緒方さんの志を受け継ぐことが今ほど大切な時はないと思う。
夫、四十郎氏（元日銀理事、2014年没）の存在も最後に付言したい。「主夫」宣言し、妻のジュネーブ赴任を人一倍喜んだ。日本記者クラブの会見にしばしば顔を出し、必ず質問した。
「まるで記者の鑑ね」と筆者が言うと「僕はね、貞子に褒めてもらえるよう何時も質問を考えているの」と答えた。
厳しい紛争の地でも沈着で大局観を失わなかった緒方さんの後ろには、このように明るく機知に富んだ四十郎氏がいた。
筆者はフリーランス・ジャーナリスト。 本稿は産経新聞10月30日付記事に補筆した。
曽祖父は犬養毅元首相、祖父は芳沢謙吉元外相で、外交官の家庭に生まれ、幼少期をアメリカ、中国、香港と豊かな国際環境の下で育った緒方さんには、国連といえども特別な存在ではなかったのだ。
国連公使の後も大学教授の傍ら、国連人権委員会の日本政府代表を務めるなど国連は緒方さんのフィールドであり続けた。
そんな緒方さんが生涯でもっとも力を発揮し、また輝いたのは、やはり国連難民高等弁務官時代（91年～2000年）だろう。米ソ冷戦の終焉は民族紛争の激化を招き、就任前の80年代に初めて500万を突破した難民は、10年後の退任時には2200万にも膨らんだ。まさに難民の時代の始まりだった。
緒方さんはジュネーブの事務所で席を温める間もなく、一貫して現場主義を貫いた。迅速な決断と行動力、明快なリーダーシップ。それまで国連機関の中でも小さな目立たない組織だったUNHCRは一変した。
防弾チョッキにヘルメット姿で紛争現場に臆することなく入っていく小柄な緒方さんを、欧米メディアは「小さな巨人」と感嘆したものだ。
現場主義の根底には何よりも「人の生命を助ける」という緒方さんの難民保護への揺るぎない判断基準があった。「生きてさえいれば、彼らには次のチャンスが与えられる」（著書『私の仕事』）のだ。
「紛争を忘れてはいけない」とも繰り返し語った。難民が見捨てられるからだ。
現場主義は女性初の理事長となった国際協力機構（JICA）にも受け継がれた。若い職員を国際協力の現場へ積極的に送り出し、鍛えた。機構の活性化、そして日本の国際協力への大いなる期待があってのことだったと言える。
産経新聞の「私が選んだ20世紀の十大ニュース」（2000年8月20日付）のインタビューで緒方さんは「日本は人道的な役割で大きな役割を果たしてもらいたい。他に（日本の）生きようがあるでしょうか。もっと大きなところで世界的取り組みをしてもらいたい」と述べている。
提言はその後の日本と国連による「人間の安全保障」へと結実した。
しかし今日、紛争は複雑、肥大化し、難民も増え続ける。そこにあって日本は人道的役割の先頭に立ち、大きな舞台で世界的な取り組みを行っているだろうか。日本社会の内向き志向や国際社会における国際協調主義の衰退を危惧していた緒方さんの志を受け継ぐことが今ほど大切な時はないと思う。
夫、四十郎氏（元日銀理事、2014年没）の存在も最後に付言したい。「主夫」宣言し、妻のジュネーブ赴任を人一倍喜んだ。日本記者クラブの会見にしばしば顔を出し、必ず質問した。
「まるで記者の鑑ね」と筆者が言うと「僕はね、貞子に褒めてもらえるよう何時も質問を考えているの」と答えた。
厳しい紛争の地でも沈着で大局観を失わなかった緒方さんの後ろには、このように明るく機知に富んだ四十郎氏がいた。
筆者はフリーランス・ジャーナリスト。 本稿は産経新聞10月30日付記事に補筆した。
一般社団法人 日本英語交流連盟