はじめに

２０１５年９月１７日，米サンフランシスコ市議会で慰安婦像を設置するメモリアルの建立に関する決議の審議が行われました。監理委員会に判断を仰ぐ前に小委員会で監理委員ら３名が多くの参考人を呼んで審議に臨みました。その中で唯一，発言した日系団体に向けて「恥を知りなさい」("Shame on you"）と叱責した委員がカンポス監理委員（Supervisor David Campos) でした。その前後含め全文を書き起こしました。

『調和』のありかたについて

I would like to thank all the people who have waited to speak, from all sides here, of this issue. And let me begin by first addressing my friends in the Japanese American community who spoke out against this resolution, including Commissioners Ito and Nakajo.

I have a lot of respect for the Commissioners and for all the people who spoke. I understand the point about the importance of 'harmony'. And what I would say is that no one is, in my view, questioning the need to maintain 'harmony'. And 'harmony', certainly among San Fransicans, not only within Asian American community, but all of us, is important.

I think we have a difference of opinion in terms of how we attain that 'harmony'. I believe that 'harmony' requires acknowledgement of truth, of what happened, and I don't think that we can have 'harmony' without acknowledgement of what actually took place. And I think it is in that spirit that I am proud to support this resolution.

誰もが過ちを犯してきた

I'm a student of history and I love reading about history. And what's interesting about the discussion around the need for reparations for Japanese Americans is that a lot of interesting arguments were made in favor of it or against that. 

And one of the things that kept coming as I am reading some of the articles that were written about this is that people opposed reparations for Japanese Americans and opposed the U.S. government for doing anything about that because, among other things, they said, "You know, it wasn't just the U.S. that did that thing." There was a Senator, pretty ultra-conservative Senator Jessie Helms, who said, "I would only support reparations if we acknowledge all the horrible things that Japan did."

The reality is that human beings, as Supervisor Christensen said, 'on all works of life do bad things to one another. ' And in this case, what happened? So many horrible things were done by people on all sides. 

But the fact that that is the truth doesn't mean we should not acknowledge what happened here. And that's the point. That by acknowledging what happened here, we're not saying that no one else did anything wrong. To the contrary, something wrong was done.

And so to those folks, the good people, including many good people who happened to be Japanese Americans, I hope that you take this in that spirit. And as this item goes forward, which I think it will go forward and will pass on to the Board, that you use the opportunity of the monument of the statute as a way of coming together, because I think we have more in common than we do differences.

敬愛の念を込めた叱責

I do like to address some of the members of the audience that came here, though, and spoke to deny what happened. And I say this with a great deal of love and respect, but shame on you. Shame on you. Shame on you for denying what happened, and shame on you for the personal attacks on this woman, Grandma Lee, who had the courage to fly from another side of the world to come here to speak her truth.

You know it is amazing… and by the way I hope that the Japanese government is not 'behind' some of these denials. I give credit to this government. I hope that they're not involved because if they are it's a double offense. It adds insult to injury.

戦後ドイツで行われた「忘れさせない」努力

Those who study history and what happened in World War II and look what happened in Europe know that when the Allies liberated a number of concentration camps in Europe in the occupied Nazi Germany. They made a point of having some of the German residents of these nearby towns to bring them into the concentration camps so that they could see for themselves what was happening.

And some of the reasons had to do with that even then when they knew that as much as the facts were there, that hey would be people who in the future who would deny that the holocaust happened. And sure enough, there are people, to this day, who deny that some of those atrocities happened.

歴史を否定しなくても決議に反対はできる

For those of my friends who are against this resolution, I think it's important for you to differentiate yourself and make yourself - separate yourself - from some of the comments that were made here today.

I think that you can be against this memorial or this resolution without being in favor of denying history. I think that the denial of what happened is a disservice to the Japanese American community. I think it's a disservice to the people of Japan, I think it's a disservice to all of us, actually, as human beings.

「忘れさせないこと」の正しさ

And to Grandma Lee, I just wanna say I am sorry that that was said. But the thing about this country, as a democracy, we have freedom of speech, and as part of freedom of speech, people are free to say hateful things. People are free to say things that are baseless. 

But the thing about the lies and the ignorance is that the more that those people deny what happened and the more those people go after you, the more they prove the point that we do need a monument. Because if people are denying it after all these years then it's important that we have a testament to what happened.

グランマ・リーへの謝辞

And so on behalf of the people that I represent, in District 9, and behalf of myself, a San Fransiscan, I wanna thank you for your courage, thank you for what you're doing, and San Francisco is forever indebted to you. And God Bless you. 

And you can see that this is a just country. This is a just city. Justice is an important part of who we are as a city. And so thank you very very much.

さいごに

And the last thing that I would say is, I was looking at… to those who feel that may be something negative can come out of this, I'm a big believer in the truth and I will end with a quote from Mahatma Gandhi, who said, 

"Truth never damages a cause that is just".

Thank you.

訳者あとがき