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耐え難い歴史に目を背けてはいけない
国連の調査に対して、ある韓国人女性は、幼いころ日本軍によってら致され、従軍慰安婦として強制的に働かされたと証言した。これまでにも元従軍慰安婦によって数々の証言がなされてきたが、どれも皆、聞くに耐えない話ばかりだ。だからといって事実を否定してはいけない、と筆者は言う。
Japanese Can'T Deny an Unbearable History
By DOUGLAS LUMMIS
One spring day a 13-year-old girl, out on an errand for her parents, was kidnapped by a soldier, taken to a police station, and gang-raped. "When I shouted they put socks in my mouth and continued to rape me. The head of the police station hit me in the eye because I was crying. That day I lost my eyesight in my left eye."
Bosnia? Rwanda? Guatemala? No, Korea, 1934. This is the 1995 testimony of Chong Ok Sun to a United Nations investigator describing the day she was "recruited" as a "comfort woman" for the Japanese military.
Ms. Chong told how she was then sent to a Japanese military camp, where she was raped (without her consent, what else can you call it?) by as many as 40 soldiers a day. (I imagine the men lined up outside her tent, trying not to notice the thin stream of blood trickling out the door and into the mud under their boots.) Girls who protested, she testified, were tortured and killed, generally with swords. Twice she escaped, but was caught and brought back. After five years she was left for dead on a mountainside. She survived and returned to Korea.
There are many stories like this. Reading them is unbearable. It seems that many Japanese today who cannot bear to think that such things happened have decided to think that they did not. "There is no evidence that they were forced," they say. "There is only their own testimony, but no documents." These people don't understand what a document is. All historical documents are based on the experience of participants and witnesses. Testimonies of people like Chong Ok Sun, written down, are documents. In this case her testimony is part of a United Nations document. It even has a document number: E/CN.4/1996/53/Add.1.
Of course some say that the testimonies of these many victims from many countries are all lies, and the fact that they are all so similar is the result either of coincidence or conspiracy. We hear this claim often these days: the Nanjing massacre was a made-up story; the Holocaust was a made-up story ― will we be hearing that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a made-up story?
Much of the historical record is unbearable, and our lives would be happier if we could rewrite it as a happy myth. But denying reality won't work. What happened, happened. The Japanese government used sex slaves. Many were little children, virgin girls who hadn't known what the sex act was. One of the army's methods of disease control (these U.N. documents tell us) was to kill the girls who got diseases.
Chong Ok Sun testified that about half the girls in her camp were killed. Many of those who survived, broken in body and spirit, died after the war. But some lived long enough to tell their stories. Listen to them. Their testimony is one of the most important documents of our time.
One spring day a 13-year-old girl, out on an errand for her parents, was kidnapped by a soldier, taken to a police station, and gang-raped. "When I shouted they put socks in my mouth and continued to rape me. The head of the police station hit me in the eye because I was crying. That day I lost my eyesight in my left eye."
Bosnia? Rwanda? Guatemala? No, Korea, 1934. This is the 1995 testimony of Chong Ok Sun to a United Nations investigator describing the day she was "recruited" as a "comfort woman" for the Japanese military.
Ms. Chong told how she was then sent to a Japanese military camp, where she was raped (without her consent, what else can you call it?) by as many as 40 soldiers a day. (I imagine the men lined up outside her tent, trying not to notice the thin stream of blood trickling out the door and into the mud under their boots.) Girls who protested, she testified, were tortured and killed, generally with swords. Twice she escaped, but was caught and brought back. After five years she was left for dead on a mountainside. She survived and returned to Korea.
There are many stories like this. Reading them is unbearable. It seems that many Japanese today who cannot bear to think that such things happened have decided to think that they did not. "There is no evidence that they were forced," they say. "There is only their own testimony, but no documents." These people don't understand what a document is. All historical documents are based on the experience of participants and witnesses. Testimonies of people like Chong Ok Sun, written down, are documents. In this case her testimony is part of a United Nations document. It even has a document number: E/CN.4/1996/53/Add.1.
Of course some say that the testimonies of these many victims from many countries are all lies, and the fact that they are all so similar is the result either of coincidence or conspiracy. We hear this claim often these days: the Nanjing massacre was a made-up story; the Holocaust was a made-up story ― will we be hearing that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a made-up story?
Much of the historical record is unbearable, and our lives would be happier if we could rewrite it as a happy myth. But denying reality won't work. What happened, happened. The Japanese government used sex slaves. Many were little children, virgin girls who hadn't known what the sex act was. One of the army's methods of disease control (these U.N. documents tell us) was to kill the girls who got diseases.
Chong Ok Sun testified that about half the girls in her camp were killed. Many of those who survived, broken in body and spirit, died after the war. But some lived long enough to tell their stories. Listen to them. Their testimony is one of the most important documents of our time.
Shukan ST: Feb. 28, 1997
(C) All rights reserved
- Denying
- 事実として認めない
- unbearable
- 耐え難い
- out on an errand
- お使いに出かけて
- was kidnapped
- ら致された
- police station
- 交番
- (was)gang-raped
- 輪姦された
- lost my eyesight
- 視力を失った
- testimony
- 証言
- United Nations investigator
- 国連調査員
- describing 〜
- 〜 を描写する
- was "recruited"
- 「雇われ」た
- comfort woman
- 従軍慰安婦
- Japanese military
- 日本軍
- camp
- 野営地
- without her consent, what else can you call it?
- 本人の同意がないのだから、ほかに呼びようがないだろう
- lined up
- 列をなした
- trying not to notice the thin stream of blood trickling out the door and into the mud under their boots
- (彼女の)血が細々としたたって、扉の外へ、そして自分たちの軍靴の下の泥へと流れてくるのを無視しようとしながら
- protested
- 反抗した
- she testified
- 彼女は証言した
- were tortured
- 拷問された
- generally with swords
- たいていは刀で
- escaped
- 脱走した
- was left for dead on a mountainside
- 死んだものと思われ、山腹に置き去りにされた
- survived
- 生き延びた
- cannot bear to think that such things happened
- そういうことが実際にあったなんてつらくて考えられない
- have decided to think that they did not
- そういうことはなかったんだと決めこんだ
- evidence
- 証拠
- were forced
- 強制された
- documents
- 書類
- historical
- 歴史上の
- are based on 〜
- 〜 に基づいている
- participants
- 関係者
- witnesses
- 証人
- victims
- 犠牲者
- lies
- 嘘
- (are)similar
- 似ている
- result either of coincidence or conspiracy
- 偶然の一致か共謀の結果
- claim
- 言い分
- Nanjing massacre
- 南京大虐殺(1937年に日本軍が中国人に対して行なった略奪暴行事件)
- made-up story
- 作り話
- Holocaust
- ユダヤ人大虐殺(第2次世界大戦時にナチの強制収容所で行なわれたヨーロッパ在住ユダヤ人の大量虐殺)
- bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- (1945年夏の米軍による)広島と長崎への原爆投下
- record
- 記録
- myth
- 神話
- reality
- 現実
- won't work
- 通用しない
- What happened, happened.
- 事実は事実だ
- sex slaves
- 性的奴隷
- virgin
- 処女の
- sex act
- 性行為
- One of the army's methods of disease control
- (兵士の間で)性病を蔓延させないための方法のひとつ
- broken in body and spirit
- 身体や精神を壊して
- stories
- 体験談
- Listen to them.
- 彼女たちの話に耳を傾けよう
- time
- 時代