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7月4日付の英タイムズ紙（電子版）は久間防衛大臣の引責辞任を次のように伝えた。
久間防衛大臣は原爆投下を「しょうがない」と発言し、辞任に追い込まれたが、選挙対策のための辞任であるとして、被爆地の怒りを鎮めることにはならなかった。
久間大臣は辞任に当たっての会見で、「しょうがない」という言葉が原爆投下の容認と誤解されたとし、表現の仕方が拙かったと弁明。かえって深い反省がないことを露呈してしまった。
また大臣は「しょうがない」発言が被爆者たちに与えた心痛のためではなく、「誤解」のために7月29日投票の参院選で与党に打撃を与えるのではないか、と懸念して辞任することにしたと説明した（この弁明では原爆投下容認発言を心から反省しているとは考えられないのも当然である）。
安倍政権にはすでにダメージとなっていることだろう。発足9ヶ月にしてスキャンダルと失言が連続し、最近農水大臣が自殺したこともあって、安倍政権の支持率は急下降している、と政治評論家は指摘する。
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英文元記事は次のとおり。
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2020379.ece
From The TimesJuly 4, 2007
Minister forced to resign after atomic gaffe
Leo Lewis, Tokyo
An “unforgivable” gaffe has forced the resignation of Japan’s first Defence Minister and exposed the rawness of the wounds caused by atomic bombings more than 60 years ago.
Fumio Kyuma’s sudden resignation yesterday has done little to calm the outrage felt in Nagasaki, the city he represents, and Hiroshima, because of his apparent lack of remorse.
His resignation was accepted by Shinzo Abe, the Prime Minister, who was keen to distance himself from his Defence Minister before crucial elections this month. Mr Kyuma is succeeded by Yuriko Koike, who is the first woman to take charge of Japan’s Armed Forces.
Mr Kyuma’s remarks, made during a lecture in the city of Chiba, appeared to some to justify the United States’ use of nuclear weapons in 1945.
Mr Kyuma concluded that the attacks had brought the Second World War to an early end and that the bombings, which killed more than 210,000 people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, were shou ga nai, or “something that we just have to accept”.
In a farewell speech yesterday Mr Kyuma insisted that the phrase (described by linguists as a “verbal shrug” implying, “It’s not good, but what can you do?”) had been misinterpreted as an endorsement of the bombings.
“I have said that the atomic bombings should not have happened but I used the words ‘couldn’t be helped’, and [some] interpreted my expression as linked to the bombings because of my careless words,” he said.
But his explanation did not satisfy many groups in Japan who feel keenly that the atomic bombings have no justification. On Monday the Nagasaki prefectural assembly unanimously accepted a resolution describing the Kyuma gaffe as being “in no possible way acceptable”.
Mr Kyuma indicated that he was resigning not because of the emotional pain caused by his gaffe but because he did not want any “misunderstanding” to hurt the ruling party’s chances in the House of Councillors election on July 29.
Nevertheless, political analysts say that the damage may already have been done. In the nine months since he became Prime Minister, Mr Abe’s popularity has plunged and his Cabinet has crumbled under a barrage of scandals, gaffes and the recent suicide of the Agriculture Minister.
Mr Kyuma’s resignation brings disgrace to a political position that was created this year when Mr Abe, in one of his first moves as Prime Minister, upgraded Japan’s former defence agency to ministerial status.
Ms Koike is an Arabic-speaking MP who previously served as Environment Minister and ran national security affairs under the Government of Junichiro Koizumi.
- 原爆投下「しょうがない」発言の久間氏が辞任／後任防衛大臣は右派（英ガーディアン紙） gataro 2007/7/06 13:21:44
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