A tale of two Americans

2米人の身柄引き渡し問題

Mr. Fischer has openly engaged in anti-American propaganda in recent decades while Mr. Jenkins is alleged to have done so. Both are fighting deportation. The similarities end there. As far as the Japanese government and public are concerned, the two cases are like night and day.

Mr. Fischer, famously vitriolic and uncooperative, has the sympathy mainly of a few chess fans and critics of U.S. policies. He languishes in a detention cell and has complained of being deprived of sunshine and being exposed to secondhand smoke.

On the other hand, Mr. Jenkins, frail and diffident, with a Japanese wife who many people feel has suffered quite enough as a former abductee in North Korea, appears to have the support of the entire country, from the prime minister on down. He is receiving first-class medical care in a Tokyo hospital.

Do the disparate feelings that the public may have toward the men and the different ways in which the government is responding to them at present have anything to do with justice? They would if justice took a person's likability — or even an apparent inoffensiveness — into account.

Mr. Jenkins is something of an unknown quantity, having said little since leaving a closed society in which he spent decades. From the time he arrived in Jakarta last month with his two North Korean-born daughters, his public image has been that of a simple, devoted husband and father in poor health: the very picture of pathos. Public feeling is running in favor of not dividing, for the second time, a family that has presumably endured enough trauma.

Mr. Fischer, by contrast, is very much a known quantity, with little — other than his fairy-tale chess career — that reflects well on him. Particularly inexcusable is his outspoken anti-Semitism: He has called Jews "lying, thieving bastards"; declared that Israel and the Jews were behind the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, which he applauded; referred to "the filthy Jew-controlled U.S."; and called the Holocaust "a complete hoax." Only his last statement — if he holds to it — is illegal, and only in Germany. That could affect Mr. Fischer's reported attempt to claim German citizenship. Still, by any measure of propriety, Mr. Fischer's views would put him beyond the pale in every civilized society.

As it happens, however, justice should be blind to all this — pathos, trauma, ill health, bigotry. Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Fischer are not facing charges for their opinions, their character or their circumstances, and they are not entitled to a reprieve on the basis of them. They are facing charges for specific actions, and the law's only interest is in determining guilt and assessing a penalty. Feelings are not supposed to have anything to do with their status. Nor does the plight of either one's relatives. A nice old guy can be guilty, a nasty one can be innocent, and many families suffer when somebody goes to prison. Where would society be if things were otherwise?

For better or worse, the same constraint governs Japanese authorities as they decide whether to turn the two men over to the United States as requested. Mr. Fischer's Japanese lawyer argued that her client's outrageous beliefs should not be at issue in the deportation proceedings. We believe she is right. But the government should not be able to have it both ways. Extra-judicial considerations are either allowable or not. They can't be ruled in or out according to whether they will produce a politically popular outcome. Or can they?

Mr. Fischer's lawyer conceded earlier this month that, human nature being what it is, her client's offensive beliefs could well have a negative impact on his case. Conversely, it appears increasingly likely that Mr. Jenkins' family situation will end up having a positive impact on his. That may strike many people as satisfactory. But is it justice?

The Japan Times Weekly
Aug. 21, 2004
(C) All rights reserved

      元チェスの世界王者フィッシャー氏は、強敵であるロシアのボリス・スパスキー氏との対局のため1992年に旧ユーゴスラビアに入国し、米国の対ユーゴ制裁違反容疑で起訴されている。

      ジェンキンス氏は、1965年在韓米軍から北朝鮮に亡命、脱走罪に問われている。

      両氏とも身柄引き渡しを拒んでいるが、それぞれを取り巻く日本の状況は大きく違っている。

      フィッシャー氏は、強硬な反米思想の持ち主で、チェスファン、反米活動家に支持されている。入管施設に収容されている氏は太陽の光を浴びることもなく、受動喫煙に悩まされているという。

      病身のジェンキンス氏は、北朝鮮による拉致被害者である日本人妻と共に、日本国民の同情を集めており、東京の有名病院で治療を受けている。氏は、北朝鮮生まれの2人の娘と来日したが、日本国民は、せっかく再会した家族がまた分かれることのないよう願っている。

      フィッシャー氏は、強硬な反ユダヤ主義者で、同時多発テロにイスラエルとユダヤ人が関与していると主張しており、ナチスドイツによるユダヤ人大虐殺は「でっち上げ」という立場を取っている。

      フィッシャー氏もジェンキンス氏も個人的思想、性格、状況に関係なく、具体的行為のために起訴されたのだから、その処遇は感情を交えずに決定されなければならない。

      フィッシャー氏の個人的信条は身柄引き渡し問題には関係ないはずで、政治的に問題のない決着を図るため超法規的考慮がなされるべきではない。

      反米信条のため、フィッシャー氏の立場は不利になりそうだと弁護士は言う。一方、ジェンキンス氏の場合は、家族状況が処遇について有利な判断の根拠になる可能性が高い。それでよいという人も多いだろうが、公正かどうかは疑問である。