Edmond-Club-ET29

A Small Picture

     Two Japanese diplomats and an Iraqi driver were shot and killed in northern Iraq on November
29, 2003. The diplomats’ names were Katsuhiko Oku and Masamori Inoue. First of all, the writer
would like to offer his condolences for their deaths. Incidentally, many Japanese people were afraid
that such a tragedy would be caused someday, and it was realized as they had expected. What is
described in the sentences that follow is not to criticize the two diplomats’ personalities and acts,
but to pursue the question of the government’s responsibility.
     The attitude the Ministry of Foreign Affairs took toward the murder case was like they were
carrying on the legacy of the deceased. Next, a rugby team of Waseda University, which the late
Oku graduated from, prayed silently before a big game. Although many people offered their
condolences for their self-sacrifice, few voices were heard that blamed the Ministry of Foreign
Affaires for leading them to death. The writer could obediently understand that the late Mr. Oku’s
and Inoue’s alma maters mourned over their deaths. However, he could not understand why neither
teachers nor students of their alma maters had their doubts about the two diplomats’ deaths, and
why they did not get angry at their absurd deaths. Probably, the two diplomats’ deaths may be
grasped simply, like virtual reality such as a computer game. Some real evidence is necessary in order
to feel the reality of the deaths of the two diplomats.
     What shows the reality of the deaths has been recently published by a certain Japanese weekly.
According to the Asahi (December 9, 2003), Yoriko Kawaguchi, the Minister of Foreign Affairs,
protested to Shukan-Gendai (the December. 20 & 27 edition), a Japanese weekly magazine, against
their publishing a picture of the two diplomats’ bodies, which also Reuters Television and the
Associated Press had delivered around the world. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs requested Kodansha
publishing Shukan-Gendai to collect the weekly because of the rights of the two late diplomats and the
damage to their families. The government should not directly restrict the freedom of the press.
According to the Asahi (December 9, 2003), Hiroshi Fujita, professor at Jochi University, stated that
the government should keep from requesting a press company to collect its magazines as a matter of
freedom of the press.
     The said weekly read: “Only one picture often conveys a fact more eloquently that a million words
do.”(p.36) Furthermore, the death of each citizen that is undesirable to those in power has not been in
the public eye. The movement after the incident in which two Japanese diplomats were killed had a
tendency to make them heroes. In other words, they died heroes’ deaths for the sake of the country.
However, a picture that Shukan-Gendai published was enough to smash this hero worship. The picture
thrust the reality of death under our noses. We should tackle the two diplomats’ deaths not emotionally
but rationally in the way of asking who should be blamed.
     The Asahi (December 1, 2003) proposed a question: why were they not guarded? The newspaper
had asked who was responsible for their defense. A simple question still remains; that is, why were two
unarmed diplomats left and active in such a dangerous place? When Toshimitsu Motegi, the ex-Deputy
Minister of Foreign Affairs, asked them to come back to Japan in September this year, they answered
something like this: they offered to stay in Iraq. Although we want to respect their strong will, it is easily
imaginable that Iraq is too dangerous for them to remain and work there. In fact, according to the above
Shukan-Gendai, Mr. Ogi, an ambassador to Iraq, is working at the ministry proper in Tokyo. The boss
of the killed diplomats is not in dangerous Iraq, but in safe Tokyo. This is a serious situation. Why did
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs summon them to Tokyo or why did the Ministry make them work
without any guard? The true nature of the responsibility exists here. It is quite strange that we do not
hear voices to pursue the responsibility of the government. Conversely, someone is apt to set them up
as heroes or the spirits of something like dead soldiers.