The Olympic torch relay reveals differences in thinking that don't intersect.

聖火リレーに見え隠れする気持ちのすれ違い

(In English followed by Japanese version / 日本文は英語版のあとにあります)

I had made up my mind.

When the Olympic torch relay started, that would be the time to my switch on.

Since I'm involved in the Olympic broadcast production, I'll be leaving New York for Japan at the beginning of July. If it’s canceled, I have to rearrange my work schedule in New York. I needed to set my mind at some point because if you can't decide the direction of your thoughts for long, it ends most of the time badly. It’s hard to imagine blowing out the torch halfway through the relay. So, when I saw the Japanese women soccer team Nadeshiko started running with the torch on the morning news of NBC, I raised my both arms high like Rocky on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Okay! My part is small, but I'll do my best, and let's make the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics 2020 a success!

I was suddenly feeling very motivated. Then I was annoyed to learn that Japanese celebrities who had been selected to run the torch relay were announcing their withdrawal one after another. Mostly, they said they couldn't arrange their busy schedule for the torch relay as if they all got the memo. But there was a better reason. Some of them said they didn’t want to attract many people during the pandemic. I totally understand, but then why they accepted it in the first place? Their move really got my goat. Because they spoiled MY start. So without reason, I started suspecting they might have done so because they thought the Olympic torch relay would never happen or, maybe, they thought this was an excellent opportunity to show themselves as “legitimate activists."

But of course, everyone has their own right reason, and my self-centered anger came from differences in thinking. That's what got me started looking into the torch relay in Japan. I could see many nonintersecting feelings in various places.

Last October, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said, "My strong determination to host the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games in the summer of next year as proof that humanity has defeated the pandemic." Still, five months have passed since then, instead of defeating the virus, the fourth wave of infections has started. And they have no functional COVID-19 testing and far behind in vaccination. Mr. Suga also said that he wanted to show the world that the Great East Japan Earthquake areas had successfully recovered. Well, my mother is from the Tohoku region, and many of our relatives still live there. My cousin was forced to live in a shelter with his family for a long time after the tsunami swept away everything. He said, "The recovery of things is almost finished. However, the reality is that it is difficult for us who experienced the disaster to recover emotionally."

When I read the Japanese web papers, almost all of them reported that many people said that seeing the torch relay in person made them look forward to the Olympics. But Tokyo Shimbun, which is not an official partner of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, covered the torch relay from a completely different angle. They focused on a resident from the area affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake, who was not so excited about the Olympics after seeing the giant sponsors' advertising vehicles in front of the torchbearers after another, with no end in sight. His opinion was any excessive festivities were not appropriate for this summer’s Olympics.

As I write this, the second day of the Olympic torch relay in Kagawa Prefecture has just ended. I learned that Mr. Tatsuya Ueda, who was born in Kagawa Prefecture and competed in the Olympics as a member of the Japanese volleyball team, passed the torch to the next person while getting the crowd excited with his volleyball moves, saying, "Attack the coronavirus, beat the coronavirus, block the coronavirus." I was touched by his attitude of fulfilling his responsibility as a torchbearer and trying to raise people's spirits, but at the same time, I was concerned about the tendency in Japan to make people think that they can beat the coronavirus with mentalism. I seriously believe that Japanese media should set a rule, such as "no mentalism against the coronavirus." on pandemics. This is science matter, and we can't beat it with Samurai mentality. We only need the facts and, the media should be careful not to mislead people. I suddenly recalled that during the end of the Trump administration, when the president or his staff mentioned the rigged election, broadcasters interrupted them in the middle of their statements and made things straight.

What really made my heart dispirit was the controversial decision of Sagamihara City in Kanagawa Prefecture to choose Tsukui Yamayurien as one of the sites for the flame lighting event of the Paralympic torch relay. As many of you may know, Yamayurien is a facility for the mentally disabled where 19 people were murdered by a former employee five years ago. The city's intention was to send a message to eliminate all forms of discrimination and hope for realizing a symbiotic society, but the bereaved families who felt uncomfortable with this submitted a request to the city to stop lighting the flame at the facility.

While I kind of understand the city's intentions, there is a tremendous difference in essential thinking. The city officials do not understand that facilities for the disabled exist on the opposite side of a symbiotic society. Also, it was recently reported by the third-party verification committee that there were problems at the Yamayurien facility, such as confining the patients in rooms for long periods and restraining them to wheelchairs. According to some specialists' studies, the facility's inappropriate treatment of the patients over the years may have influenced the perpetrator who used to work there.　And may have been one of the reasons for the incident. I totally agree with the bereaved families. This is not an appropriate place for the flame lighting event. However, the bereaved family's appeal this time has raised some differences in my feelings. The city didn't consult with the bereaved families about this event beforehand, and some of the family members said, "It's sad that we are being neglected," also, "We want to spend our time quietly praying for the repose of victims' souls." I totally understand how they must feel, and I respect it, but on the other hand, we must continue to pay attention to this case and report on it to prevent another tragic incident, whether the bereaved family wants us to or not, unfortunately.

It's been less than a month since the torch relay around Japan began, and we still have a long way to go. We will face more differences in thinking that don't intersect. Whether the Olympic and Paralympic Games are held or not, there will need consequences.

聖火リレーのスタート。私はそれで腹を括ると決めていた。

オリンピック中継に関わっている私は７月の頭には日本に向けてニューヨークを発つ。もし中止ならニューヨークの仕事を調整し直さなければいけない。何事も気持ちがモヤモヤしていると結果はかなりの確率で凶と出るから、どこかで気持ちのスイッチをオンにしたかった。リレーが始まった聖火を途中で消すのは想像し難い。だからオリンピック・パラリンピックの放送権を持つNBCの朝のニュース番組で聖火リレーが始まったことを知ったとき思ったのだ。よし、微力ながら私が受け持つパートを前向きにこなして東京オリンピック・パラリンピック２０２０を成功させよう！

自分がそうと決めると、日本で聖火リレーの走者に選ばれていた芸能人たちが、芋づる式に辞退を発表していたのにカチンときた。ベストを尽くそうと思い立った出端をくじかれた気分で、この段になって聖火リレーを辞退するってことは最初からないと思って引き受けていたのかもと邪推したり、生ぬるい辞退理由で意思表示したつもりの「なんちゃってアクティビスト」なのか、などとさんざ心の中で悪態をついていた。しかしそれぞれの立場の人に、もちろんそれなりの理由があって私が勝手に頭にくるのは気持ちのすれ違いでしかない。そこから始まって改めて聖火リレーを見ると様々なところで人々の気持ちのすれ違いが見え隠れしていている。

去年の１０月、菅首相は東京オリンピック・パラリンピックの開催について、人類が新型コロナウィルスに打ち勝った証としたいと発言したがそれから５か月経ち打ち勝つどころか感染テストは積極的に行われていないしワクチン摂取も日本は大幅に遅れている。また首相は東日本大震災の被災地が見事に復興を成し遂げた姿を世界に発信したいとも言ったのだけれど、その意図はわかるがこれも立場によって温度差がある。私の母は東北地方出身で多くの親戚がいまもそこに住んでいる。津波に自宅と仕事場を流され長い間避難所生活を強いられていた従兄弟は言う。「モノの復興はほぼ終わりましたが、遺族等の心の復興は難しい現実があります」

日本の報道を拾い読みすると聖火ランナーの姿を実際に見て気持ちが盛り上がる人々の声が目立つ中、今回のオリンピック・パラリンピックのオフィシャルパートナーでない東京新聞をチェックすると聖火ランナーの姿よりもその前を大音量で音楽をかけながら連なって走るスポンサー企業の大型宣伝車輌が目立ち、そのお祭り騒ぎに首を傾げる被災地の住民を取材していた。

私がこの原稿を書いているのは香川県の２日目が終わったところで、香川県出身でバレーボール日本代表としてオリンピックに出場した植田辰哉さんが「コロナにアタック、負けてたまるかコロナにブロック」とバレーボールの動作するなどして周囲を盛り上げながら聖火を次にバトンタッチしたと知った。聖火リレーの走者の責任を果たし、実に健気に人々の気持ちを盛り上げようとしているその姿勢に感動をしながら、その一方で精神論でコロナに勝てると錯覚させるような日本の風潮に危うさを感じる。ことパンディミックに関して日本の報道は"精神論禁止"とかラインを決めた方がいいのではないかと真剣に思う。ふと前のトランプ政権終盤、大統領や彼のスタッフがまったく証拠がないにもかかわらず不正選挙が行われたという趣旨の発言をし始めると三大ネットーワークを始め放送局がその度に発言の途中でバッサリとそれをさえぎって、根拠がない発言であることをはっきりとコメントしていたのを思い出す。

重く私の心に響いたのは神奈川県の相模原市がパラリンピックの聖火リレーの採火の場所の一つに「津久井やまゆり園」を選び物議を醸した一件だ。ご存知の方も多いと思うがやまゆり園は５年前に１９人の命が奪われる事件が起きた知的障害者施設である。市の意図はすべての差別をなくし、共生社会実現へのメッセージを発信したいと言うものだったが、それに違和感を感じる遺族が施設での採火の中止を求める要請書を市に提出した。

市が目指した意図は分かるけれども基本的な考え方に違いがある。それは障害者施設が共生社会実現とは正反対に位置するものであると理解していないことだ。またやまゆり園は事件後に行われた第三者検証委員会の調査によって施設として利用者を長時間部屋に閉じ込めたり車椅子に拘束するなどの問題があったことが最近になって報告されている。そうした施設の利用者に対する長年の不適当な対応が、以前そこで職員として働いていた犯人に事件を起こさせる影響を与えていたのではないかという見方も出てきた。今回のパラリンピックの採火の場としては相応しくないとしても、遺族の訴えに浮き上がる気持ちのすれ違いもある。今回の採火について市からは何も相談されず「遺族の気持ちがないがしろにされるようで悲しい」「亡くなった人の冥福を祈りながら静かに過ごさせてほしい」とあり、その気持ちはまったくそうであろうと察するが、その一方で社会問題の解決のためにこの事件はこの先も遺族が望む望まないにかかわらず私たちは目を向け、報道で取り上げていかなければならない。

聖火リレーが始まってまだ１か月足らず。日本全国を巡る長い聖火リレーは明日も続く予定だ。私は粛々と準備をしながら東京オリンピック・パラリンピック２０２０が浮き上がらせ続けているたくさんのすれ違いを私たちはどう収拾をつけるのだろうと考える。オリンピック・パラリンピックの開催、中止にかかわらずその後もあとをひくだろう。