backwater 復習
あの津波はただの自然災害であったと言い切れるでしょうか。
Ghosts of the Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan’s Disaster Zone by Richard Lloyd Parry review
Because of its harsh climate and remoteness from the centre, Tohoku, Japan’s north-eastern region, has long been regarded as the country’s backwater. Along with that reputation comes a set of unflattering stereotypes about its people – that they are taciturn, stubborn, somewhat enigmatic. Rather than speaking their minds, they grit their teeth, bottle up their feelings and go about their business in gloomy silence. But those very traits were seen as an admirable asset in the immediate aftermath of the 11 March 2011 disaster that hit Tohoku’s coastal communities, when a magnitude-9 earthquake was followed by a tsunami, then a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichireactors.
backwaterという単語が気になったので調べてみました。『ジーニアス英和辞典』（第五版，大修館）によると、「戻り水，逆流」、「（心の）沈滞，スランプ；辺地，僻地；後進国」などと載っておりました。Oxford Dictionary of English(Second Edition Reserved, Oxford University Press)にも、 “an isolated or peaceful place”や “a place or situation in which no development or progress in taking place”などと書かれておりました。
この記事では辞書の通り「僻地」という意味で用いられていると考えました。ちなみに”stick”も「僻地」という意味を持っています。あわせて覚えようと思います。（Gomez）
