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| 日本語版 文書番号：７ 執筆日：2002年６月23日 |
| 2002年６月23日、わたしは新聞を隅々まで読み（実は２紙分）、テレビのニュースも欠かさず見ました。そこでは正午を期して行われた「沖縄戦没者追悼式典」で演説する首相、沖縄県知事、遺族代表、そして「有事三法」に反対する地元住民の姿が映し出されていました。自衛隊の軍事行動を容認する有事法案は確かに見直しが必要なものであり、それに反対する住民の姿にも共感を覚えましたが、わたしはどのメディアにも「牛島」という名前が出てこないのでがっかりしました。 1945年６月23日午前４時ごろ、沖縄・摩文仁の丘（糸満市）にあった第32軍司令部は、ついに最後のときを迎えていました。 第32軍司令官・牛島満大将と参謀長・長勇中将は並んで岩場の上に正座し、軍刀を握って静かに海を眺めていたといいます。戦い終えて最後のときを迎え、彼らの心の中には何が去来していたことでしょう。軍人・軍属あわせて９万５千人、一般島民15万人を犠牲にしてしまったことへの謝罪だったでしょうか。それとも、生き地獄ともいえる責め苦から、ようやく解放されるという安堵感であったでしょうか。軍司令官の最後の言葉は、部下に対する「今まで、本当にありがとう」だったそうです。 あれから57年を経て、沖縄は多くの米軍基地をかかえ、まさに苦難の戦後を歩んできました。そして今でも景気は全国のうち最悪で、真の発展を取り戻したとはいえない状態です。それでも沖縄の人々が、少しでも本土に追いつこうと、精魂を傾けて地域の発展のために働いてきたことは称賛に値します。 さて、沖縄は琉球と呼ばれた昔より数多くの支配を受け、まさに苦難の歴史を歩んできたわけですが、そのうちでも最大なのは、1945年４月から約３ヶ月にわたって続いた沖縄戦だと思います。そしてそれを実際に率いた人物の名前すら一般には知られていないことに対して、わたしは本当に、日本人は沖縄戦のことを覚えているのかと憤ってしまいます。「日本の兵隊は島民を守ってなどくれなかった」という話はよく聞きますし、事実、痛ましいことではありますが、そのトップにいた人は、本気で島民を守ろうとしていたのです。 第32軍が編成を完了し、西部軍に編入されたのは1944年５月。もう日本は敗色濃厚で、もはや沖縄は持ちこたえられないだろうという風潮が流れていました。それは指導部の無為無策が作りだしたものであり、彼らの責任以外の何物でもありません。そうした中で２代目として第32軍にやってきた牛島軍司令官は、気の毒としか言えません。上から「死ね」と命令されたにも等しいからです。 上層部の無為無策に振り回される形で沖縄に送り込まれ、絶望的ともいえる物量の差を前に、どうやって島民や部下を守ればいいのか、上に立つ者としての苦悩はいかばかりであったでしょうか。それでも彼はつとめて冷静に、決して感情を表に出さなかったといいます。上に立つ自分が動揺しては、部下にも不安を与えると考えたからでしょう。わたしも小規模ながら数人の部下をもつ身ですから、そうした彼の態度には学ばされるものがあります。 しかし上層部はそんなことは考えもせず、沖縄にあった兵隊たちをどんどん持ち去ってしまいました。それでどうやって沖縄を守れというのか、これは無為無策以上に、軍司令官の苦闘を嘲笑するかのような愚行です。今の企業でも、リストラなどでどんどん人が減る一方で、これまで以上の収益を求める。あれとこれと、どこが違うのでしょうか。リストラは、辞めさせられるほうも地獄ですが、残ったほうも地獄なのです。 やはり戦いは圧倒的な米軍の物量を前に、日本軍の敗退に終わりました。犠牲者は軍民合わせて20万人以上。 牛島軍司令官は、自分の自決にあたっての場所は、できるだけ人目につきやすいところを望んだそうです。自分の死によって、一日でも早く、こんな無駄なことは終わりにしてもらいたい、と思ったのでしょうか。戦後かなり戦争責任について議論された時期があったようですが、旧日本軍の司令官を、戦争の直接の責任者として糾弾する声はなかったそうです。 「悲惨な戦争」の代名詞である沖縄戦にも、こうした側面があったことをもっと知ってもらいたいものです。 |
| English version ： “Another "severe battle of Okinawa" ” Document number: 7 Writing day: June 23, 2002 |
| I read a newspaper to all the corners (in fact, it is a part for 2 papers),
and did not try not to miss the news of television on June 23, 2002, either.
The figure of the prime minister who makes a speech at "the mourning
ceremony of the war dead of Okinawa" held by expecting noon, the Okinawa
governor, survivor's representation, and the local residents that are opposed
to "emergency 3 method" had projected there. Though the emergency
bill which admits the military action of the Self-Defense Forces needed
to be looked again to be sure and sympathy was memorized also in the figure
of the residents who are opposed to it, since the name of a "Ushijima"
did not appear in all media, either, I did stripes disappointedly. The 32nd army headquarters located on the hill in the Mabuni (Itoman-shi) in Okinawa had seen the time of the last at last around 4:00 a.m. on June 23, 1945. It is said that the 32nd army commander and the army general Ushijima Mitsuru, and the chief of staff and an army lieutenant general Isamu Cho were located in a line, sat straight on rocks, grasped the military sword, and were looking at the sea calmly. It will be that finished fighting, the time of the last came around, and what was coming and going into their heart. Probably, it was the apology to having sacrificed 95,000 a military man and army civilian employees in all, and 150,000 ordinary residents. Or was it a feeling of relief of being released from the torment which can say it also as a hell on earth at last? It is said that the language of an army commander's last was "being thank you very much until now" to a subordinate. Okinawa held many U.S. bases 57 years after from that, and the postwar period of distress has just been followed. And it is in the state which cannot be said that business was the worst among the whole country and regained true development even now. It deserves praise that people of Okinawa leaned energy in order to catch up with a mainland, and they have still worked for development of an area. Now, though Okinawa received much rule and has just followed the history of distress from the ancient times called Ryukyu, I think it the Okinawa game which continued over about three months from April, 1945 that it is the maximum but. And I will be angry at Japanese people with whether you remember the thing of the Okinawa game truly to generally even the name of the person who actually commanded it not being known. Though the talk "the Japanese soldier did not protect the residents of an island" was often heard and it was a fact and a sad thing, the person who was at the top was earnest, and was going to protect residents. It is that the 32nd army completed organization and was included in the western corps in May, 1944. Japan is just before defeat and the trend that Okinawa will not be stood has already flowed. The lack of policy of the Guidance Department makes it, and it is not exactly their responsibility. The army commander Ushijima who came to the 32nd army as the 2nd generation under these circumstances can call it only the poison of mind. It is because it is equal also to "to die" from a top having been ordered. Was the suffering as those who will stand on good one and a top if residents and a subordinate are protected how with the difference near at hand of the amount of resources it is sent into Okinawa in the form brandished by the lack of policy of the upper levels, and it can be said that is hopeless a loan when going? He still says calmly that he never took out feeling to the table as much as possible. It will be because it thought that uneasiness was also given to a subordinate if itself who stands upwards was shaken. Since it is the body in which I also have several persons' subordinate with a small scale, there is a thing it is made to study in such his attitude. However, such a thing does not carry out an idea, either but the upper levels have rapidly the soldiers who were in Okinawa away. Then, it is a folly as if this laughed how it would say "Protect Okinawa" at the hard struggle of an army commander more than lack of policy. While people decrease in number rapidly by restructuring etc., the profit more than the former is searched for also in the present company. Where differs from that and this? The way by which restructuring is retired, and the way which remained though it was hell are hell. With the amount of resources near at hand of the overwhelming U.S. Forces, fighting finished with defeat of a Japanese corps too. Victims are the 200,000 or more military and civilians in all. It is said that the place where, as for an army commander Ushijima, he commits suicide desired a place which is easy to attach to the public notice as possible. Did I wish to do such a useless thing finally early at least one day according to my death? It is said that there was no voice which impeaches the commander of the old Japan army as a direct person in charge of war though it seems that there was time when it argued about war responsibility considerably after the war. I want to get to know more that there was such the side also in the Okinawa game which is the pronoun of "a miserable war." |