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(回答先: ＜エコノミスト誌＞米国における小泉首相の靖国参拝への懸念高まる ― 英メディア報道① 投稿者 gataro 日時 2006 年 7 月 02 日 11:20:01)
「フィナンシャル・タイムズ」紙６月３０日付はグレースランドも靖国もともにすべてを語っていないとして、小泉首相の訪米について次のように報じている。
「フィナンシャル・タイムズ」紙によると両者の共通性：
並ぶ者のない名声を博した後に薬物中毒で死んだロック歌手の華美な邸宅と、きわめて理解しがたいことだが、日本兵の魂が集うといわれる神道の聖地との間に明確な接点はほとんどない。だが、グレースランドと靖国には外見ほどには類似性がないわけではない。
東京のテンプル大学国際学科のジェフ・キングストン教授によれば、両者は歴史を美化する点で共通している。
グレースランドは、プレスリーが薬物依存や肥満で悲劇的な死を遂げた、暗い側面を隠して、プレスリーが裸一貫から大金持ちになるアメリカン・ドリーム物語だけを現わしている。
靖国神社においては、とくに付設の遊就館においては、日本兵が決して侵略者ではなく、しばし美しく咲いた桜のように、栄誉に充ちた解放者であり犠牲者であると美化して、参拝者に示される。
さらに遊就館の展示についてこう報じている。
日本の化学兵器使用や人体実験、そして韓国人の性奴隷への言及がすべて省かれているのに、例えば、南京大虐殺は解放として展示されている。真珠湾については、エルビスが記念碑を造るのに65,000㌦費やした場所だが、爆撃は連合国の封鎖によって強いられたもの、としているのだ。
駐日大使のトーマス・シーファー氏は、小泉首相の靖国参拝を批評するのを控えながらも、遊就館を嫌悪していること認め、「遊就館が非常に不穏なものだ」と述べている。
このように遊就館に代表される靖国神社の歴史観に、中国や韓国だけでなく、米国の政府当局者も懸念し、不快に感じていることが「フィナンシャル・タイムズ」紙の記事からうかがえる。
「フィナンシャル・タイムズ」紙の該当記事の全文は次のとおり（G-Searchデータベースから転載）。
THE AMERICAS: Graceland and Yasukuni: two shrines and two national myths They do not tell the full story of the rock legend and the war heroes, says David Pilling
By DAVID PILLING
Financial Times Asia , Asia Ed1 ed , p6 , Friday , June 30, 2006
It is oddly fitting that Junichiro Koizumi, a prime minister whose five-year term has been shaped by his annual pilgrimage to a controversial shrine dedicated to Japan's war dead, should end his farewell US trip worshipping at the shrine of an American fallen hero: Elvis Presley.
When George and Laura Bush walk side by side with Japan's most famous Elvis fan today through the ornate front porch at Graceland and into a house full of green shag-pile carpet (some of it on the ceiling), the understated Japanese beauty of Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine will be far from their minds.
Indeed, there is little obvious connection between a garish mansion where America's most famous rock star died of a drugs overdose after a life of unrivalled fame, and a sacred Shinto shrine where the souls of 2.5m, mostly obscure, Japanese soldiers are said to gather. Yet the similarities between Graceland and Yasukuni are not as absurd as they appear.
Both are monuments to the eternal spirit, and both present an idealisation of the national essence, says Jeff Kingston, professor of international studies at Tokyo's Temple University. "They both beautify history."
At Graceland, we get the rags-to-riches story of the American dream shorn of its darker side, in this case the tragic descent into obesity, drug-dependence and untimely death.
At Yasukuni, particularly at the adjacent Yushukan museum, visitors are presented with a whitewashed view of history in which Japanese soldiers, like fleetingly beautiful cherry blossoms, were glorious liberators and victims but never aggressors.
"The two museums represent degrees of revisionism," says one Washington observer.
The leaders of the world's two biggest economies, who fly down to Memphis on Air Force One today, will not get special treatment at Graceland. As always, the upstairs of the house, including the bathroom where Elvis died, will be discreetly cordoned off.
Jack Soden, the thoughtful chief executive of Elvis Presley Enterprises, defends the partial view of Elvis's home, saying: "There is no respectful or dignified way to include it in a tour of the house."
The official Graceland version of events has Elvis dying, at 42, of cardiac arrhythmia, shortly after he played two of his favourite songs on one of the mansion's several pianos. Or, as it says on Elvis's gravestone in a phrase that would not be entirely out of place at Yasukuni: "God saw that he needed some rest and called him home to be with him."
Elisa Brewer, who has visited Graceland, says: "I think he fell off the toilet and suffocated in vomit, or in the shag carpet."
The receptionist at Graceland's corporate office will only say: "They say he died of a heart attack. So that's what we go by."
So far as airbrushing history goes, this is mild stuff. The same, say critics, cannot be said for the Yushukan museum, with its proud displays of Zero fighter aircraft and glorification of war. The museum, updated in 2002, presents a view of history that most Chinese, South Koreans and (sotto voce) American officials find entirely distasteful.
The Nanjing massacre, for example, is presented as a liberation, while all mention of Japan's use of chemical weapons, human vivisection and Korean sex slaves is omitted. The bombing of Pearl Harbor, where Elvis spent Dollars 65,000 constructing a memorial, is presented as forced by the allied blockade.
Thomas Schieffer, the US ambassador to Tokyo, concedes he dislikes the museum. But he refrains from criticising Mr Koizumi's pilgrimages to Yasukuni, even though war criminals convicted by the Americans are honoured there. "I think the museum is very disturbing, but I think the museum and the prime minister's visit to Yasukuni are separate issues," he says.
Mr Koizumi is widely expected to make his final pilgrimage to Yasukuni as prime minister on August 15, the anniversary of the war's end and the most controversial possible day for a visit.
Mr Bush will certainly not be accompanying him. But the US ambassador is delighted that Mr Koizumi is going to Graceland.
"It's a part of America, and to have the prime minister get a feel for it will be fun. It will also give him a better idea of what America is all about."
Copyright (c) 2006 Financial Times Ltd.
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