be in the grip of#4
戦後約30年間に渡り戦い続けた小野田さんが亡くなりました。
Japanese WWII soldier who hid in Philippine jungle until 1974 dies
Onoda later explained he had believed attempts to coax him out were the work of a puppet regime installed in Tokyo by the United States.
He read about his home country in newspapers that searchers deliberately scattered in the jungle for him to find, but dismissed their content as propaganda.
The regular overflight by U.S. planes during the long years of the Vietnam war also convinced him that the battle he had joined was still being played out across Asia.
It was not until 1974, when his old commanding officer visited him in his jungle hideout to rescind the original order, that Onoda’s war eventually ended.
Asked at a press conference in Japan after his return what he had been thinking about for the last 30 years, he told reporters: “Carrying out my orders.”
But the Japan that Onoda returned to was much changed. The country he had left, and the one he had believed he was still fighting for, was in the grip of a militarist government, bent on realizing what it thought was its divine right to dominate the region.
記事に出てくる”grip”はこれまで何度も取り上げられております。ここでの意味をWisdom英和辞典（第三版）』（三省堂）で調べると”be in the grip of”で「深刻な影響を受ける」というものがありました。軍事政府によって未だに支配を受けているという意味であると思います。”grip”の何かをつかんでいるという感じが伝わってきます。
小野田さんは降伏してはならないという上官の命令を何十年にわたって守り続けたとインタビューに答えておりました。当時の日本軍の統制力の強力さが伝わる一例だと思います。（Ume）
以前の"grip"に関する記事
losing its grip - 田邉祐司ゼミ 常時英心：言葉の森から
