Joy Kogawa's Speech for Article 9 Event in Toronto

(This original English version will be followed by the Chinese version.)

Article 9
(for May 15, 09, OISE/University of Toronto)

I'm a Canadian of Japanese descent. Every night as a small girl, my issei mother told me Japanese folk stories of love between parent and child. On the piano stood a green and gold statue of Ninomiya Kinjiro, a book open in his hands, twigs on his back, teaching himself to read as he worked. All this was the Japanese way. Love of family, love of learning, love of labour. To be Japanese was to be like my mother, yasashi, gentle, quiet, dignified, bending to the will of others.

But during World War II, to be Japanese meant something else altogether. Suddenly I was no longer Canadian and no longer Japanese. I was a Jap. According to the new reality, I was part of the most despised race on earth. What they were capable of, what they in fact did during the war defied description and defied belief. Beheadings, mass killings, rape, biological warfare, live burials, burning whole villages to the ground, tossing bodies into ten thousand people pits, unimaginable tortures, unimaginable medical experiments, unimaginable barbarity and cruelty.

Kill all burn all loot all.

Japan's complete loss of its moral compass was undergirded by a lie. The Yamato race was not superior.

Germany's children, unlike Japan's, have faced and acknowledged their horrific past. They learned the truths of the Holocaust, not from their parents, but from survivors. Germany, by enacting a law that it is a crime to deny the Holocaust, by compensating victims, by keeping the past in the consciousness of the country, has taken the necessary moral steps of a civilized society. Where in Japan, in the country of my ancestors, are the museums and the monuments, the movies, the books, the school projects, the special commemorations and the national outpouring of grief for its past atrocities?

In a time of fear and nuclear threat, the best defense I can think of for Japan is for its government and its people to fully express its collective sorrow and shame for its military actions during World War II. With deep and genuine apologies from the entire country, one could hope for relationships with neighbouring countries based on an enduring foundation of reconciliation and bonds of human affection that would be far deeper than one of mere convenience and commerce. If Japan continues to diminish or attempt to forget its atrocities, it will fail to develop the ways of peace, or to be a country of moral leadership.

As the horror of the militaristic spirit rises again in Japan, so too must the horror of its warring past. The children of Japan must know the truths of World War II and assume its burden.

The one thing that I find admirable in Japan, as a person of Japanese ancestry, is the existence of Article 9. It is Japan's primary and, I believe, its most effective acknowledgment of its culpability. If we lose Article 9, we will lose what is most mature, most humane, decent and hopeful in a world of conflict. We will lose what is best in today's Japan. I echo this last line from Tama Copithorne from whom I heard it first. Article 9 is the best of Japan.


Joy Kogawa


(This speech was given as an opening address of the Article 9 Event on May 15, 2009 held at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.)




以下是Joy Kogawa女士演讲的中文全文翻译，由Arc Han翻译：


我是一个出生在加拿大的日本后裔。当我还是一个小女孩的时候，妈妈总喜欢在睡前给我讲日本的童话故事。家里的钢琴上站着一个金绿色的小雕像，一个手里总是拿着书本，背上背着背篓，一边劳作一边读书的二宫金次郎的雕像。每当想起这些就让我想起了妈妈。这些都是我从妈妈那儿学来的作为一个日本人的美德：爱家，勤劳，好学，温柔，平和，自尊而又顺从。

但是从二战爆发的那天起，作为一个日本人不再意味着这些优良品格了。突然之间我不再是一个加拿大人，也不再是一个日本人了，我成了一个“鬼子”。突如其来的现实告诉我，我属于地球上最残酷低等的种族。这个种族所能做的，以及他们事实上在战争中做过的恶行，难以言述，难以置信：砍头，屠杀，强奸，毒气，活埋，焚村，生物战，万人坑，无法想像的活体试验，无法想像的残忍和野蛮。烧光，杀光。

日本完完全全丧失了它的道德指南，被一个谎言牢牢绑住了。大和民族不是所谓的优越种族。

和日本的孩子们不一样，德国的年轻一代得以直面德意志民族的黑暗历史。不是从他们的父母，而是从幸存者那儿他们学到了种族大屠杀的真相。国会通过法律认定否定大屠杀历史是犯罪。他们认真地弥补受害者的伤痕，全民族在对历史问题的认识上保持一致，以此博得了重回文明社会的道德阶梯。然而日本，我祖先的家乡，可曾有修建纪念碑和纪念馆，可曾有出版书籍，制作电影，在学校里教授战争历史，可曾有在国家集会上抚平战争暴行带来的创伤？

生活在这样一个核威胁下的时代，我认为日本政府和人民最好的自我防卫就是向二战的受害者表达我们的歉意和羞耻。只有来自全体国民深刻真诚的道歉，才能真正和邻国建立起共识，才能在基于人道的立场上建立起长久的友谊关系。如果我们一直采取回避和遗忘的态度，我们将无法得到持久的和平，以及作为国家应有的道德立场。

在军事-民族主义又有抬头的当下，我们不应忘记过去战争带来的恐怖。日本的孩子们应当有权知道过去的真相，并勇敢承担历史的责任。

作为一个日本人的后裔，有一样东西让我对现在的日本感到骄傲。这就是宪法第九条。我认为这是日本最重要，也是最有效的对战争责任的回答。如果我们失去了宪法九条，我们也就失去了我们心中最人性，最高尚，最有智慧，最有希望的东西。我们就失去了现今日本最宝贵的东西。我赞成珠子·Copithorne女士的提议。我认为宪法九条是日本的珍贵财产。

Joy Kogawa 女士在2005年5月15日与多伦多大学教育系的宪法九条集会上作上述演讲。