常時英心:言葉の森から 1.0

約10年間,はてなダイアリーで英語表現の落穂拾いを行ってきました。現在はAmeba Blogに2.0を開設し,継続中です。こちらはしばらくアーカイブとして維持します。

dead giveaways

今日の各紙には談話とその英訳が掲載されています。隔世の感があります。Umeちゃんが体現しているようにこれはすべからく恰好の学習材料になります。さて,その談話に関して,早速,アジア諸国から反応がありました。

ここのdead giveaways of his deep-rooted historical revisionismとはいかなる意味でしょうか。smoking gunという表現もありましたが,にわさん,どうぞ。(Kawada)

Abe: 'Profound grief' for WWII, but Japan can't keep apologizing

The lack of an apology on Friday drew some tepid to irritated reactions from Japan's Asian neighbors, including China, which Japan had invaded and occupied.
The statement "was a diluted one at best, thus marking only a crippled start to build trust among its neighbors," a column published Friday by China's state-run Xinhua news agency reads.

"Instead of offering an unambiguous apology, Abe's statement is rife with rhetorical twists ... dead giveaways of his deep-rooted historical revisionism, which has haunted Japan's neighborhood relations," the Xinhua article says.

In South Korea, the spokesman for the country's ruling party noted that Abe's statement "did not include a direct apology."

"It's regrettable that he (Abe) mentioned the comfort women issue in a rather indirect way," Kim Young-woo said. "Instead of pinpointing his ambiguous words, we'll continue to urge Japan to show sincere remorse and action for peace."

Abe hinted at the comfort women issue Friday, saying Japan needed to remember the "women behind the battlefields whose honor and dignity were severely injured." He said Japan will help make this century one in which "women's human rights are not infringed upon."

Japan helped establish the Asian Women's Fund in 1995, which is supported by government funds and provides assistance to former comfort women. But Tokyo has resisted direct compensation to the victims, prompting activists and former comfort women to say Japanese leaders are avoiding officially acknowledging what happened.

Only a few dozen of the women are still alive today.

Kim, the South Korean ruling party spokesman, conceded that Abe mentioned remorse and "how Japan caused suffering and pain to innocent people."
"We can see Abe's complex and sad heart," Kim said.

South Korea's foreign ministry told CNN the government was reviewing Abe's statement.

The reaction by North Korea's government, through its official news outlet KCNA, was more pointed.

"Japan is talking about future and responsibility and contribution in the international community without making an apology," North Korea's Foreign Ministry said through KCNA. "It is an unpardonable mockery of the Korean people and an act of deceiving the international community."

Complicating matters for Japan's neighbors is the island nation's apparently shifting military stance.

Japan has had a pacifist stance after the war, deploying troops only in humanitarian roles.

While Abe on Friday distanced Japan from wars of aggression, he has backed legislation that would allow for a more active role for Japanese troops overseas, including involvement in the defense of its allies. China and South Korea, invoking Japan's expansionist past, have expressed concern about the legislation.

Abe, 60, became Japan's first Prime Minister born after the end of World War II when he began a one-year term in 2006. His second stint in the office started in late 2012.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/08/14/asia/japan-wwii-abe-apology/index.html

http://d.hatena.ne.jp/A30/20150815/1439585910