Sunday, May 13, 2007

Amaterasu, do I have to?

Do I really have to read this article?

緯度経度】リベラル派が日本の改憲支持 - 古森義久
産経新聞

安倍晋三首相の4月下旬の米国訪問では日本側で報道のハイライトをほとんどあびなかった重要な出来事がひとつあった。米国議会下院外交委員会のトム・ラントス委員長が安倍首相に対し日本の憲法改正への支持を述べたことだった。

 米側の日本憲法への態度の変遷をもう20年以上も追ってきた私には、「ああ歴史とはこのように変わっていくのか」と、つい感慨を覚えさせられる言葉だった。日本側でのこんごの改憲論議でも米国の反応を測るうえで重みを発揮していく言明ともなろう...
Really?

Oh c'mon, please no.

Is there anything that Kōmori-san mails in from Washington that is not packaged in such a way as to deceive his readership?

Oh, dammit, ok. I will hold the heels of my palms on the sides of my temples and read how it is possible that American liberals support the revision of Japan's Constitution.

Somehow, I have a feeling that it will not be for the same reason that this group wants to revise Japan's Constitution.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know I can't even find any report other than from Sankei that Lantos said that in the first place. Searches in English on Nexis come up dry. Nothing on his website. Can you tell how Komori supposedly got this quote?

MTC said...

Graham -

If I had to venture a guess it would be the Embassy--and with a little editorial help from his own imagination.

Anonymous said...

Stop showing off. Please tell us in English what is says. We cannot all be as brilliant as you.

MTC said...

anonymous -

If you have access to the U.S. Embassy translation service, it should be among the Sankei Shimbun offerings.

Jun Okumura said...

Mr. Komori is not alone. Read on at your own peril.

"Abe was particularly encouraged by the fact that during his US visit in late April, liberal-left Senator Lantos, who is supposed to at a distance from Abe, praised his plans to amend the Constitution. After the meeting, Abe somewhat excitedly said to his associates, "That Lantos, he's (a liberal), isn't he? Even so, he talked about not the comfort women issue, or anything else, but he says he respects me because of [my take on] constitutional amendment."
(translated excerpt from a May 15
Yomiuri article.)

Actually, my translation fails to capture the excitement in Abe's words that is evident in the original. As for your eyes, MTC, I think you've forever damaged them by reading this. Sorry about that. But I did warn you.

MTC said...

Not so Jun-san:

I read the article this morning, managing to not go blind in the process.

I even typed up the text and tried my hand at my own translation of the supposed Abe quote:

会談後、安部は周辺に「ラントスって、あれリベラル」だろ?それがさあ、慰安婦問題よりも何よりも憲法に触れ、おれに憲法改正で敬意を表するって言うんだよ」と興奮気味に語った。

"After the meeting, Abe told with some enthusiasm to those surrounding him, "Lantos--he's one of 'those', isn't he? Well then, what we should take away from this, rather than the comfort women, rather than anything else, is that he touched upon the Constitution and showed me some respect over constitutional revision."

Jun Okumura said...

I prefer your first sentence to mine. As for the second sentence, Abe is speaking quite informally, totally without his usual gravitas (funereal air to his detractors), and I think that threw you off a little. For the record, I couldn't reproduce the glee evident in "Sore ga saa" and "surutte iundayo".