戦争から平和へ(あるいは長崎発広島行き) From War to Peace (Or, From Nagasaki to Hiroshima)

梅原 季哉(広島市立大学大学院平和学研究科博士後期課程)

*この記事は『Hiroshima Research News』61号に掲載予定のものです。
ニューズレター過去号はこちらから。

English Below

私は2021年春、33年間勤めた朝日新聞社を退職してジャーナリスト稼業にいったん終止符を打ち、広島市立大学で平和学を修める博士後期課程の学生として再出発した。コロナ禍前までは思いもよらなかった転身だが、振り返ると、偶然から生まれた必然めいたものを感じる。一つの岐路は2001年の春だった。

その時、私はバルカン担当の特派員として居を構えていたウィーンから、かつては旧ユーゴスラビア連邦の一員だったマケドニア(現・北マケドニア)の首都スコピエへ取材に来ていた。

旧ユーゴ諸国が冷戦後、民族対立と武力紛争に揺れ続けた中、マケドニアは辛うじて戦火に巻き込まれずにきたが、その時期、北西部の一部地域でアルバニア系住民が武装ゲリラを組織し、政府側治安部隊との武力衝突が始まっていた。隣のコソボで燃えさかったアルバニア系とセルビア人の民族紛争は前々年、米国が主導する北大西洋条約機構(NATO)軍による「人道的介入」に発展した。その結果コソボは事実上セルビアから分離され、旧ユーゴを牛耳った独裁者のミロシェビッチは翌2000年、民衆蜂起で政権の座を追われた。バルカン地域がやっと平穏さを取り戻しつつあった矢先にマケドニアで緊張が激化したのである。戦火の時代へと逆行するか、まさに瀬戸際だった。

旧ユーゴ諸国で経済的に最も立ち後れていたのがマケドニアだ。通信インフラが万全に整い、足の便もよい宿は限られていた。そんな投宿先である日、フロントの前を通った時のことだ。日本人の男性が、困った様子で声をかけてきた。予約していたのに、情勢悪化で続々と現地入りした米 CNN のクルーら各国の記者が同じホテルに殺到し、オーバーブッキングで部屋がないと拒絶されたという。心当たりのほかの宿の名を挙げるぐらいで大した助けになれなかったが、名刺を交換した。欧州安全保障を専門とする国際政治学者と判り、情勢交換を兼ねて食事でもしましょう、ということになった。

それが吉川元先生との最初の邂逅だった。あの時、あの場所を通るのが何分か前後したら、吉川先生と知り合うことはなかった。私がその後たどった道も異なったものとなり、おそらく広島で学ぶこともなかっただろう。

吉川先生からはその時に、第 2 次世界大戦中ブルガリアに駐在武官として滞在していたご尊父とも関わりがあった、梅田良忠(りょうちゅう)という人物についての情報を教えていただいた。取材を進め、やがて本にまとめたが、やはりあの時がきっかけだった。

もう一つの運命の分かれ目はそもそも、私が新聞記者としてスタートした初任地が長崎だったことだ。実はここでも偶然が作用していて、入社前に初めに内示されたのは違う県だったが、人事の都合で長崎に回されたのだった。被爆45年にあたる1990年、原爆被爆の実相や被爆者援護をめぐる報道を担当したことは、今に至る大切な原点である。

国際報道畑に進んでからは、様々な現場を踏んだ。核兵器拡散の具体例となったパキスタンの核実験、米軍機の空爆によるセルビアやコソボ各地での市民被害……。イラクでは2007年、フセイン政権を倒したブッシュ政権の米国が治安維持に苦闘するさまを海兵隊に従軍して見聞した。精神的には決して楽しいことばかりではなかったが、冷戦後の国際社会の変動を実体験する機会に恵まれた。

会社員としては好きなことばかりしてきた訳ではない。2016年夏、ロンドンから帰国すると、東京本社編集局の管理職を任された。やりがいのある重責だったが、現場からは遠ざかった。ただし時間面はさほど不規則ではなくなったので、これまでの蓄積を体系化するため、勉強し直してみようと思い立った。キングス・カレッジ・ロンドン(KCL)の戦争学部(Department of War Studies)オンライン修士号コースに入学を認められ、帰宅後や週末にはリモート留学生という、二足のわらじを履いた。

宮仕えから2019年半ばに解放され、米大統領選などの取材に入ったと思ったら、1年も経たずしてコロナ禍という予想外の事態が起きた。国内の対面取材さえおぼつかなく、海外出張など論外になった。リモートでウェビナーに参加するなど新たな地平も開けたとはいえ、隔靴掻痒の感は否めなかった。

そんな矢先、広島市立大学の平和学研究科に博士後期課程が開設されるということを知った。広島平和研究所に吉川先生や、元同僚でもある水本和実先生が在籍されているので、キャンパスにお邪魔したこともあった。KCL の修士論文は核兵器不使用と日本の安全保障の関係をテーマに書いたので、その延長線上で今度は広島で研究したい、とイメージがふくらんだ。修士号を取得した KCL の「戦争学部」から「看板」は変わるが、博士号に向けては「平和学研究科」で学ぶというのは「戦争から平和」の順番なので、逆よりずっといい。新聞社では折しも早期退職の募集がかかったため、退路を断っての転身を決意した。

広島暮らしの1年目は、やはり長引くコロナ禍の影響があり、被爆地に身を置く点を生かし切れたとは言い難い。それでも、例えば余暇のランニングで平和公園へ赴くひとときだけでも、この地で起きた惨劇の歴史に思いを致し、自分はその現場で研究しているのだとの覚悟に身が引き締まる。自分の来し方を踏まえつつ、これからの研究生活を実りあるものにしていきたい。

From War to Peace (Or, From Nagasaki to Hiroshima)

Toshiya Umehara (PhD Program Student at HCU Graduate School of Peace Studies)

In the spring of 2021, I left The Asahi Shimbun Newspaper where I had worked for 33 years, and drew an end to my career as a journalist (for the time being at least) to make a fresh start as a Doctoral Degree Program student at the Graduate School of Peace Studies, Hiroshima City University. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, I never imagined I would become a doctoral student. In retrospect, this is one example of how my life’s destiny felt to me to be occurring by chance.

It was the spring of 2001 when I faced a first crossroads. In those days, I was living in Vienna as a correspondent responsible for the Balkans, and visited Skopje, the capital of Macedonia (currently North Macedonia), a state of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, to provide news coverage.

After the Cold War ended, the former Yugoslavia continued to see ethnic conflicts, but only Macedonia managed to stay out of such wars. At that time, however, ethnic Albanians formed an armed guerrilla group in some areas of northwest Macedonia and often engaged in armed clashes with the government security forces. In 1998, violent ethnic conflicts broke out in neighboring Kosovo between ethnic Albanians and Serbians, which resulted in an intervention for humanitarian reasons by NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) forces, led by the United States, in the following year. Consequently, Kosovo was virtually separated from Serbia. Milosevic, the dictator of Serbia who controlled the former Yugoslavia, was forced from office by a popular uprising in 2000. Just when calm was about to return to the Balkan region, tensions flared up in Macedonia, driving the region to the brink of renewed fierce conflicts.

Macedonia lagged economically behind the other nations of the former Yugoslavia. Only a few hotels had fully developed communications infrastructure and good access to transportation. One day, I was staying in one such hotel, and as I was passing the front desk I was stopped by a Japanese man who seemed worried about something. He told me that he had been refused accommodation at the hotel due to overbooking. At that time, media crews from around the world, including the American network CNN, had flocked to the hotel to cover the deteriorating situation of the country. Regrettably, I could not be of much help. All I could do was provide him with information on other hotels. I exchanged business cards with him and learned that he was a scholar of international politics specializing in European security. We agreed to share a meal to exchange views on the recent regional situation.

That was my first encounter with Prof. Gen Kikkawa. If I had passed the front desk a few minutes earlier or later, I do not think I would have met him. A chance meeting with him changed my life and led me to study in Hiroshima. At that time, Prof. Kikkawa gave me information about Mr. Ryochu Umeda, with whom his father, who had been a military attache stationed in Bulgaria during World War II, had been connected. Based on this information, I proceeded with my coverage and wrote a book.

Another catalyst that changed my life was that the place of my first assignment as a newspaper reporter was Nagasaki. This was also the result of a chance event. Before formally entering the company, I was notified of my assignment to a different prefecture. However, I was sent to Nagasaki due to other people’s convenience. I think that the important starting point that led to my current life was that in 1990, on the 45th anniversary of the atomic bombing, I was assigned to cover the realities of the bombing and issues concerning support for atomic-bombing survivors.

After entering the field of international reporting, I visited various places for coverage, including nuclear tests by Pakistan, which became a concrete example of nuclear arms proliferation, and damage to civilians caused by U.S. airstrikes on Serbia and Kosovo. In 2007, I was embedded with the U.S. Marine Corps to provide battlefield reports on how the Bush Administration, which toppled the Saddam Hussein regime, was struggling to maintain security in Iraq. Although I often experienced mentally challenging times, I had many opportunities to gain real-life experience of changes in international society in the post-Cold War era.

As a company employee, I was not allowed to choose my work focus. After returning from London in the summer of 2016, I was appointed to a managerial position in the newsroom of the Tokyo Head Office of The Asahi Shimbun. It was a challenging job, but I no longer had opportunities to go out in the field. Since I did not have to work irregular hours, I decided to study again to systematically organize the knowledge I had accumulated. I was admitted to the online Master’s program of the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. As a remote international student, I studied after returning from my regular work and on weekends.

In mid-2019, I was freed from managerial work at the company and, as a journalist, started to cover the U.S. presidential election. Less than one year later, however, the COVID-19 pandemic broke out around the world, making it difficult to engage in journalistic activities, not only abroad but also in face-to-face interviews for coverage in Japan. This gave me an opportunity to embark towards new horizons, including participating in online seminars, but it was hard not to feel frustrated.

At that time, I learned that doctoral programs had been launched in the Graduate School of Peace Studies, Hiroshima City University. I had previously visited the campus to see Prof. Gen Kikkawa and Prof. Kazumi Mizumoto, a former colleague at the Asahi Shimbun Company, both of whom were working for the Hiroshima Peace Institute. Since studying at KCL I had written a Master’s thesis on norms of non-use of nuclear weapons and Japan’s national security, I wanted to engage in research in Hiroshima as a continuation of my studies. At KCL, where I received a Master’s degree, I studied in the Department of “War.” I thought it would be nice to enter the Graduate School of “Peace” Studies to gain a doctoral degree. If realized, it would mean I could see a transition of my studies from “war” to “peace.” Since my company was inviting applications for early retirement, I decided to leave the company and enter the university.

In my first year in Hiroshima, it would be difficult to say I could take full advantage of living in Hiroshima, a city struck by the atomic bomb, due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. However, I take various opportunities, including jogging around the Peace Memorial Park, to think of Hiroshima’s tragic history and further boost my motivation to conduct research here. Reflecting on where I have been, I would like to live a productive life as a researcher.