extend olive branch #3

文化勲章を受章した中村修二氏が「受章を機に、日亜化学工業と関係の改善を図りたい」と述べました。

Nobel winner Nakamura extends olive branch to former employer Nichia

Shuji Nakamura, one of the three Japan-born scientists awarded this year's Nobel Prize in Physics, said Monday he wants to rebuild ties with former employer Nichia Corp., despite launching a lawsuit against the chemical maker over patent rights to his groundbreaking blue light-emitting diode technology.

The 60-year-old professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, thanked Nichia's entire staff at a press conference in Tokyo after being presented with the Order of Culture by the Japanese government, expressing particular gratitude to Nichia President Eiji Ogawa and a team of six who contributed to the work on blue LEDs.

"My Nobel Prize was made possible because Nichia led the world in LEDs," Nakamura said.

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2014/11/320385.html

extend an olive branchは「〜に和平（和解、和議）を申し出る、〜に妥協の手を差し伸べる」という意味で、extendの代わりにofferやhold outを用いる場合もあります。中村氏の「関係の改善」の申し出をここでは指しています。

olive branchは、白いハトと並んで、平和の象徴を表します。由来は旧約聖書のノアの洪水の最後に洪水がおさまったかどうかを白いハトを飛ばし、そのハトがオリーブの枝を加えてもどってきたところからとされています。（UG）