Japan in Their Own Words (JITOW)/日本からの意見

Obama and Francis: Reflections on the Hiroshima Speech
UENO Kagefumi / Professor (non-tenured), Kyorin University

July 26, 2016
The speech given by President Barack Obama in Hiroshima on May 27 resonated deeply in people’s hearts. I, too, felt as if I had come in touch with the “soul” of President Obama, who had no doubt spent many hours crafting the speech. The speech, which touched on a variety of important issues, has already been widely critiqued both in Japan and abroad. These critiques have covered most of the major perspectives, such as Japan-US relations, de-nuclearization, and civilizational and human history. Here, I would like to focus on some perspectives that—in my understanding—have not yet been addressed.

In his historic speech, Obama stressed the importance of giving full thought to the individual victims of the Hiroshima bombing.

“Why do we come to this place, to Hiroshima? . . . We come to mourn the dead. . . . Their souls speak to us. . . .

“. . . We stand here, in the middle of this city, and force ourselves to imagine the moment the bomb fell. We force ourselves to feel the dread of children confused by what they see. We listen to a silent cry. We remember all the innocents killed across the arc of . . . the wars that would follow. . . .

“. . . [W]e can . . . know that those same precious moments took place here seventy-one years ago. Those who died—they are like us.”

In short, Obama called on us to put ourselves in the victims’ shoes and look squarely at the reality of war, complete with the faces and stories of victims. Reading between the lines, Obama presumably had this message to convey: Past wars were predicated on massive casualties, and the human cost has been disregarded by those responsible for formulating national strategies and military operations. It is immoral, however, to design strategies and operations without giving thought to the countless victims. When planning an operation, one must have the imagination to foresee whether it will take a large human toll and refrain from executing immoral operations.

“We must change our mindset about war itself,” the president said, concluding that the international community should begin a “moral awakening.” As he gave his address, Obama’s demeanor evoked the image of a civil society activist or a post-modernistic thinker, rather than the commander-in-chief of his country’s armed forces. It was evident that Obama keeps his distance from the Trumanistic logic of war, though he did not articulate this.

Incidentally, there is another super-leader who has been remarking along similar lines: none other than Pope Francis. The pope urges politicians and bureaucrats to be “constantly conscious of the fact that . . . [they] are dealing with real men and women who live, struggle and suffer” when dealing with political and economic programs (speech to the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015). He points out that “acts of destruction are never . . . abstract. . . . They always have a face, a concrete story, names” (September 2015 speech at the Ground Zero Memorial in New York).

Pope Francis is equally outspoken about his views on such issues as economic disparity and poverty. “[Poverty] has a face! It has the face of a child, it has the face of a family. . . . It has the face of forced migrations. . . . Without faces and stories, human lives become statistics and we run the risk of bureaucratizing the sufferings of others” (address to the Executive Board of the World Food Programme in June 2016).

In a speech he gave two and a half years ago, President Obama quoted a remark by the pope that had struck a chord with him: “How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?” Obama further described the pope as an “extraordinarily thoughtful and soulful messenger of peace and justice,” according to a Los Angeles Times article on December 25, 2015.

When the man who holds the highest seat of power in the secular world finds himself on the same wavelength as the highest authority in the spiritual world, that is a rare and precious meeting of minds. Although the president has tended to stand at odds with the conservative Catholic church on issues relating to life and family ethics, the two men appear to think alike when it comes to social and economic issues. This is no coincidence. Look at their careers. They reveal that both are strongly field-oriented, committed to protecting the weak: Obama possesses a hands-on perspective stemming from his experience as a civil society activist, while Pope Francis comes from the “front lines of the Church,” a monastic order.

Two super-leaders with the most clout in the world, both of whom came from the field, repeat the message that we must think of the weak and the victims, sounding the alarm that strategies and plans formulated by state bureaucrats at times overlook those in the “field”—the weak. -This “collaboration” is an “asset” to the international community—a point deserving more attention—that the international community should capitalize on.

Reference: Ueno Kagefumi, Bachikan no sei to zoku: Nihon taishi no 1,400 nichi [The Sacred and Secular in the Vatican: 1,400 Days of a Japanese Ambassador] (Kanagawa: Kamakura Shunjusha, 2011).

Kagefumi Ueno is a civilizeational essayist and former Amb. to the Holy See.
The English-Speaking Union of Japan




オバマとフランシスコ(広島演説を振り返る)
上野 景文 / 杏林大学特任教授

2016年 7月 26日
 5月27日のオバマ広島演説は、心の奥底に響く演説であり、私自身、演説の推敲を重ねたオバマ氏の「魂」に触れた思いであった。多くの重要な論点が込められた同演説に対しては、既に、日米関係の文脈、核廃絶の観点、文明論的観点、人類史的観点などのメジャーな論点を中心に内外で多くの論評が出された。本稿では、これまで取り上げられていない(と私が理解している)観点に絞って、論じてみたい。

 この歴史的な演説の中で、オバマ氏は、(広島における)個々の犠牲者のことに十分に思いを馳せるべきだとして、こう述べた。

「なぜ私たちは広島を訪れるのか。・・・・・・死者を悼むために訪れる・・・・彼らの魂が私たちに語りかけます。・・・・・・・私たちは・・・・・市の中心に立ち、原子爆弾が投下された瞬間を想像しようと努める・・・・・・混乱した子供たちの恐怖を感じようとします・・・・声なき叫びに耳を傾けます・・・それ以降の戦争で殺されたすべての罪なき人々を思い起こします。・・・71年前、(犠牲者にも)大切な時間がここにあったことを知ることが出来ます。亡くなった人たちは、私たちと変わらないのです。」

つまり、犠牲者の目線に立ち、犠牲者の顔や物語を踏まえた戦争の実態を直視せよと言っている訳だ。発言の行間を読めば、氏はこう言いたかったものと見る。「旧来、戦争と言えば、多くの犠牲者を出すものとの前提があった。これまで国家戦略や軍事作戦を策定した人達は、そうした犠牲者のことは度外視して来た。だが、多くの犠牲者に思いを馳せずに戦略や作戦を練ることは、非道徳的だ。作戦策定の際は、多くの犠牲者を出すことになるか見通すだけの想像力を持ち、非道徳的作戦は控えるべきだ」と。

大統領は、更に、「・・・私たちは、戦争そのものへの考え方を変えねばならない・・・・(国際社会は)道徳的に目覚める(べきだ)」と続けた。このように語りかけるオバマ氏からは、軍の最高指令官としての顔よりは、市民運動家として顔、或いは、ポストモダニズムの思想家としての顔の方が、表出しているように感じられた。明言こそしていないが、トルーマン的な軍事論から距離を置いていることは確かだ。

ところで、オバマ氏と同旨の発言を続けているスーパー指導者がもう一人いる。他ならぬローマ法王フランシスコだ。法王はこう力説する。「政治家や官僚は、(紛争などに対処するに当たって)生身の子供たちや男女の命がかかっていることを肝に銘じなければならない」(昨年9月、国連総会での演説)、「(戦争やテロと言った)破壊行為は・・・抽象的・・・なことではなく…そこには、人の顔があり、実際の物語、名前がある」(昨年9月、NY市グラウンドゼロでの発言)と。

法王は、経済格差、貧困などとの関連でも、同様の主張を緩めない。「貧困には顔があります。子供の顔、家族の顔、・・・強制移住させられた・・・人々の顔・・・・その顔や物語が見えなければ、人の命は統計値になってしまい・・・・他人の苦しみを官僚的に眺める危険があります」(本年6月、WFP(世界食糧計画)理事会での演説)と。

2年半前、オバマ大統領は、「遺憾なことに、ホームレスが路頭で死んでも報道はないが、株価が2ポイント下がると報道される」との法王の指摘に共感し、演説の中でこれを引用すると共に、「(法王は)平和と正義に関する特別の使者だ」と評したと言う(2013年12月25日、LAタイムス)。

世俗社会の最高権力と精神世界の最高権威の波長が合うと言うのは、またとない組み合わせだ。元来、生命家族倫理の問題につき、保守的なカトリック教会とそりの合わない大統領ではあるが、社会経済問題については、似た波長と言うことのようだ。それは偶然ではない。二人の経歴を見れば分かることだが、オバマ氏は市民運動家として「現場主義」の眼を有し、法王も「現場(修道会)育ち」ということで、共に弱者擁護、「現場」重視の姿勢が強い。

世界でも最も影響力がある二人のスーパー指導者が、共に「現場」育ちで、国家官僚が創る戦略や計画が「現場(弱者)」への配慮を欠く場合があることに警鐘を発し、「弱者・犠牲者に思いを馳せろ」との主張を続けている。この「二人の共演」は、国際社会にとってひとつの「資産」と言えるが、この点は、もっと注目されて良いし、国際社会はこれをもっと活かすべきであろう。

【参考】上野景文著「バチカンの聖と俗(日本大使の一四〇〇日)(かまくら春秋社)

筆者は文明論考家、元バチカン大使
一般社団法人 日本英語交流連盟


English Speaking Union of Japan > Japan in Their Own Words (JITOW) > Obama and Francis: Reflections on the Hiroshima Speech