終戦直後、昭和天皇の驚愕発言
今回の記事ホイットニー文書は昨年5月にも記事にしたものだが、改めてこの文書を単独で掲載した。
1978年米国での機密解除された文書の中で、この箇所だけは、日本国民に与える影響が大きすぎるとして日本のマスメディアが公開していない。然し、多くのブロガーがこの文書を記事にしてきた。私もその中の一人である。
『変遷する靖国神社とは』
さて、本題
この文書も昭和天皇の驚愕的な発言記録
A Secret Message from the Showa Emperor
Whitney's papers
昭和天皇の秘密のメッセージ
ホイットニー文書
The document poses some unusual problems for scholars.
Typed in English, classified "Top Secret," and covering a little more than three double-spaced pages, it is devoted entirely to summarizing the emperor's opinions as conveyed through an intermediary.
この文書は、学者にとって珍しい問題を提起している。
Until the early 1970s, it was in the personal possession of MacArthur's former aide and personal confidant, General Courtney Whitney, although it is not mentioned in either Whitney's or MacArthur's memoirs. Whitney's papers were turned over to the MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk, Virginia, and declassified in 1978.
1970年代初めまでは、それはマッカーサーの前補佐官であったコートニー・ホイットニー将軍が個人的に所有していた。だが、このホイットニー文書の存在は、ホイットニーやマッカーサーの回顧録には記されていない。
The Text of the Memorandum
[Verbatim reproduction of the original English typescript]
覚書文書
[元の英語の字形の逐語的な再現]
He said that the Emperor wanted him to explain the basis for the latter's remark of a couple of weeks ago that he hoped the Occupation would not be too short. The Emperor felt that there were still many remnants of feudalism in the Japanese mind and that it would take a long time to eradicate them. He said the Japanese people as a whole were lacking in education which was necessary for their democratization and also that they were lacking in real religious feeling and were accordingly easy to sway from one extreme to the other. He said that one of the feudalistic traits was their willingness to be led and that they were not trained like Americans to think for themselves.
He said the Tokugawa regime had been built on the theory that people should follow their leaders and should not be given any reason therefor except loyalty. Thus the average Japanese faced a traditional handicap in trying to think for himself. With his instinct to follow rather blindly, the Japanese were now eagerly endeavoring to adopt American ideas but, as witness the labor situation, they were selfishly concentrating their attention on their rights and not thinking about their duties and obligations. Part of the reason for this stems from the long-standing habit of clannishness in their thinking and attitudes. The days when the Japanese people were divided into clans are not really over. The average Japanese considers his relatives as friends whose interests he would pursue, and other people as enemies whose interests do not merit consideration. Part of the reason for this stems from the long-standing habit of clannishness in their thinking and attitudes. The days when the Japanese people were divided into clans are not really over. The average Japanese considers his relatives as friends whose interests he would pursue, and other people as enemies whose interests do not merit consideration.
天皇は、徳川政権では人々が指導者に従うべきであり、忠誠を除いていかなる理由も与えられてはならないという理論に基づいていると述べた。
こうして、日本の平均的な人は、自主性であろうとすると、伝統的なハンディキャップに直面した。
かなり無分別に従うという本能をもって、日本人はアメリカの思考を取り入れようと熱心に努力していたが、然し、労働者の状況を見れば、彼らは利己的に自分の権利に注意を集中させ、彼らの任務や義務については考えなかった。
この理由の一部は、彼らの思考や態度の長期的な排他的習慣から生じる。日本人が社会集団として一族に分かれた時代は本当に終わったわけではない。平均的な日本人は、彼の親戚を彼の利益を追求する友人とみなし、他の人は利益を考慮しない敵として考える。
He said the Emperor had talked a great deal lately about the lack of religious feeling among the Japanese. The Emperor did not consider Shinto a religion. It was merely a ceremony and he thought that it had been greatly over-rated in the United States. It still had some dangerous aspects, however, because most Shintoists were ultra-conservative and they and ex-soldiers and others who had identified Shintoism with ultra-nationalism had a tendency to cling together. This was dangerous now the Government was without any means of supervusing [sic] them because of its strict observance under orders of the freedom of religion. The Emperor thought that the Shinto elements and their fellow travelers would bear watching because they were anti-American.
これは政府が信教の自由の秩序を厳格に遵守する立場にあり、彼らを監督する手段がなかったため危険であった。神道勢力と彼らの信奉者は反米だから目を離せない。
The Emperor felt that this was no time to talk about whatever virtues the Japanese people possessed but rather to consider their faults. Some of theirfaults were indicated in the foregoing general outline of the Emperor's thoughts which had brought him to the conclusion that the Occupation should last for a long time.
天皇は、日本人が持っていた美徳が何であっても話している暇はなく、むしろその欠点を考えることだと感じていた。それらの欠点のいくつかは、占領が長続きすべきとの結論に至った前述の天皇の考えの一般的な概要に示されていた。
He said that the Emperor was very greatly impressed with General MacArthur and what he was doing. I said that General MacArthur was one of our greatest Americans who in his devotion to American and Allied interests at the same time, as the Emperor knew, had the best interests of the Japanese people at heart. I said that we Americans believed that Allied objectives for Japan were in the best interests of the Japanese as well as the world at large and we looked forward to the development of a democratic and economically sound Japan which would respect the rights of other nations and become a cooperative member of the commonwealth of nations.
彼は、天皇はマッカーサー元帥と元帥の行っていることに非常に大きな感銘を受けたと言った。私は、マッカーサー元帥は私たちの最も偉大なアメリカ人の一人だと言った。元帥は同時にアメリカと連合国の利益に献身していて、天皇が知っているように、心から日本人のためを一番に思っていた。
私たちアメリカ人は、日本に対する連合国の目標は日本人にとって最善の利益であると信じており、同様に、民主的で経済的に健全な日本の発展を楽しみにしていた。この日本とは他国の権利を尊重し、民主国家の共同体となることだ。
In response to an inquiry in regard to reparations, I said that General MacArthur is extremely anxious to have this question settled as soon as possible so that the Japanese industrialists could get down to work and produce goods needed for the purpose of paying for imports of food and for consumption in this country. I said that the General and his staff were doing everything they could to hasten the achievement of economic stability in Japan and I added some remarks in regard to the industry and thrift of the Japanese people and the need that they exert their best efforts for improvement of the economic situation.
賠償に関する質問に対して、マッカーサー元帥は、この問題のできるだけ早期解決を切望した。日本の実業家たちが仕事に就くことができ、目的に必要な物品と食料の輸入の支払いと消費の為に必要な商品を生産することができるように、と、私は言った。
私は、総理と彼のスタッフが、日本の経済安定の達成を促進するためにできること全てをやっていると言い、そして日本の産業と倹約、経済状況の改善に最善の努力を払う必要性についていくつかの発言を加えた。
He said the Emperor appreciated very much the American attitude taken in the Allied Council, and felt that it had a stabilizing effect. But he was nowconsiderably worried over the labor situation in this country and hoped that the coal strike in the United States would be settled soon because the Japanese laborers, in their imitative way and in their selfish seeking of their rights without regard to their obligations, were being adversely affected by the American coal strike.
天皇は、連合評議会のアメリカの姿勢を非常に高く評価し、安定化効果があると感じたと述べた。しかし、天皇は現在、この国の労働状況についてかなり心配しており、そして、彼らの義務に拘わらず、彼らの模倣的やり方と自分の利己的な権利の追求する日本の労働者は、アメリカの石炭ストライキによる悪影響を受けるので、米国の石炭ストライキがすぐに解決されることを望んでいた 。
He said the Emperor had remarked to him several times that the name given his reign--Showa or Enlightened Peace--now seemed to be a cynical one but that he wished to retain that designation and hoped that he would live long enough to insure that it would indeed be a reign of "Splendid Peace".
彼は言った。天皇は、天皇の治世に与えられた名前 - 昭和または啓蒙主義（昭）の平和（和） - が今では皮肉的であるように見えたが、その称号を保持することを望み、 "素晴らしい平和"の治世になることを確実にするために天皇の地位で十分に長く存続することを望んでいると彼に数回言った。
He said that the Emperor was distressed over the loss by Admiral Suzuki, whom he had named to head the Cabinet to prepare for the surrender, of not only his Naval pension, which was understandable, but also his pension as a civil official. He had been Lord Chamberlain to the Emperor for a number of years, had done his job well in laying preparations for the surrender and, while his rank as Admiral and wartime status as Prime Minister naturally subjected him to purge, he was not prevented from receiving his pension due him from his position in the Imperial Household. The Emperor was perturbed not only for the sake of Admiral Suzuki personally but also because such deprivations, which were not understood by the Japanese, created anti-American feelings which were not in the interests of the Occupation or of Japan itself.
彼は、天皇が鈴木提督の犠牲に苦しんでいたと言った。それは、降伏の準備をするための内閣を率いるために天皇が命名した鈴木提督の海軍年金だけでなく、それは理解できたが、公務員としての恩給までも失ったことだ。
彼は何年もの間、侍従長を務め、降伏の準備をうまくやっていて、提督としての彼の地位と戦時の首相としての地位で当然に追放されたが、 彼の皇室における彼の地位からの年金（恩給）を受け取ることができなかった。
JOHN W. DOWER is Elting E. Morison Professor of History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II
（原文）
Bulletin ofConcerned Asian Scholars,
アジア太平洋地域の奨学生
Vol. 31, No.4 (1999): 19-24
ISSN 0007-4810 Cl BCAS (Cedar, Michigan)
A Message from the Showa Emperor
昭和天皇のメッセージ
全文 p19～p24
ホイットニー文書 p22・p23
General Whitney to C-in-C, dated 24 April 1946 [re discussion on 22 April 1946 with Professor Colegrove]
