姉妹都市解消 慰安婦像が信頼関係を損ねた
2018年10月06日 06時00分
相手の誠意ある対応が望めない以上、長年の友好関係にピリオドを打つのはやむを得まい。
大阪市が、米サンフランシスコ市との姉妹都市提携を解消した。民間団体から寄贈された慰安婦像と碑文を、サンフランシスコ市が公有化した。大阪市がその撤回を求めたが、聞き入れられなかったためだ。
碑には「性的に奴隷化された数十万の女性と少女の苦しみを証言する」「ほとんどが捕らわれの身のまま亡くなった」といった文言が刻まれている。
史実を歪曲わいきょくした内容である。大阪市が「不確かな主張を一方的に真実かのように記している」と抗議を繰り返したのは当然だ。
サンフランシスコ市からは、期限内に何ら回答がなかった。
国家同士の関係では、時として国益がぶつかり合う。これとは異なり、あくまで友好親善を目的に、市民相互の交流を図るのが、自治体同士の姉妹都市関係だ。
今回、友好促進に欠かせない信頼が損なわれた。提携解消しか選択肢はなかったと言えよう。
両市が提携関係を結んだのは、1957年だ。半世紀以上にわたり、市長の相互訪問や、学生の交流事業で親交を深めてきた。
両市の関係悪化が深刻になった昨年末以降、これらの交流は全て中止になった。民間交流への補助金支給も停止された。
一部の民間団体の反日的な活動をきっかけに、培ってきた友情が無に帰してしまう。相手側に非があるとはいえ、残念な事態だ。
サンフランシスコ市では、一定の割合を占める中国系米国人が強い影響力を有している。市の対応が鈍かった要因ではないか。
慰安婦像の設置は世界各地で相次いでいる。今年8月には台湾南部の台南市でも設置され、除幕式には野党・国民党の馬英九前総統が出席した。政治色が強い動きであることがうかがえる。
独フライブルク市に慰安婦像設置の計画が持ち上がった際、姉妹都市の松山市は「慰安婦問題は韓国政府との間で最終的かつ不可逆的に解決している」と説明した。これにより、フライブルク市が計画を中止した例もある。
旧日本軍や官憲による組織的強制連行を裏付ける資料は発見されていない。誤った歴史認識の拡散を抑えるため、政府は粘り強く情報発信を続けねばならない。
慰安婦問題の実証研究書である秦郁彦氏の「慰安婦と戦場の性」が英訳出版された。日本の主張を支える有力な材料となろう。
2018年10月06日 06時00分 https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/editorial/20181006-OYT1T50000.html
Comfort women statue destroys Osaka-San Francisco ties of trust
8:34 pm, October 06, 2018
The Yomiuri Shimbun
It is unavoidable for one side to end longtime friendly relations as long as a sincere response cannot be expected from the other side.
The city of Osaka has terminated its sister-city relationship with San Francisco. The city of San Francisco made the comfort women statue with its inscription, which had been donated by a private group, into public property. Osaka’s demand that the action be retracted fell on deaf ears.
On the inscription are carved these words: “This monument bears witness to the suffering of hundreds of thousands of women and girls, euphemistically called ‘comfort women,’ who were sexually enslaved.” and “Most of these women died during wartime captivity.”
The inscription distorts historical facts. It is natural for Osaka to have protested repeatedly, saying, that the inscription presents “uncertain and one-sided claims as historical facts.”
There was no response from San Francisco until the deadline set by Osaka.
In nation-to-nation relationships, clashes of national interests occur at times. Different from this, the primary goal of sister-city relationships between two municipalities is to plan mutual exchanges of their citizens to foster friendship and goodwill.
The relationship of trust, which is indispensable to the promotion of friendship, has been destroyed this time. One can say there was no alternative but to end the partnership.
The two cities established the sister-city relationship in 1957. They had deepened their friendship over more than half a century through mutual visits by mayors and student exchange programs.
Dispatch correct information
All these exchange programs have been canceled since late last year when the bilateral relations worsened. The provision of subsidies for private-level exchanges has also been halted.
Anti-Japan activities by some private groups have led to the cultivated friendship returning to nothing. Though San Francisco is to blame, this is a regrettable consequence for Osaka.
In San Francisco, Chinese Americans, who account for a certain percentage of the city’s population, have strong influence. This apparently is a factor behind the city’s slow response to the issue.
Statues depicting comfort women have been erected one after another in various parts of the world. One such statue was installed in the city of Tainan, Taiwan, in August, with previous Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou of the opposition Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) attending an unveiling ceremony. This signifies that there is a strong political motivation related to this action.
When a plan came up to install a comfort woman statue in Freiburg, Germany, its Japanese sister city of Matsuyama explained that the comfort women issue has been “finally and irreversibly resolved” with the South Korean government. As a result, the German city canceled the plan.
No materials have been found to substantiate the allegation that women were forcibly and systematically taken away by the former Imperial Japanese Army and police authorities. To curb the dissemination of mistaken perceptions of history, the government must persistently continue to transmit correct information.
“Comfort Women and Sex in the Battle Zone,” an English version of a book on empirical research on comfort women written by Ikuhiko Hata, has been published. The book is expected to be prime material to back up Japan’s assertions on the issue.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Oct. 6, 2018)Speech
https://web.archive.org/web/20181006140739/http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0004878244
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