英字新聞

福島第一の場合には、やはり住民は騙されたと言うべきか。
しかしながら、住民だって原発による繁栄を望んでいたはずだ。
いったん事故ってしまうと、とりかえしのつかない大災害となる。
やはり京都大学の小出さんたちの考えの方が正しいような気がする。
どうしても造るのだったら、都心か近郊につくれば、とも思った。
（スラチャイ）

(Mainichi Japan) June 22, 2011
Sacrifices forced on rural sites of nuclear power plants do not bring true wealth
記者の目：原発を拒否した町が教えること＝山下貴史（和歌山支局）

　◇だまされた国民の責任も問う

How does the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant appear to those who were once embroiled in disputes over the possible construction of a nuclear power plant in their backyard?
　福島第１原発の事故を、かつて原発誘致に翻弄（ほんろう）された人々はどんな思いで見ているだろうか。

It is predicted that a major earthquake will hit Wakayama Prefecture, where I work, in the near future.
私が勤務する和歌山は近い将来、大地震が予想されている。

Talk of constructing nuclear power plants within the prefecture has emerged numerous times in the past, but thanks to the help of researchers from Kyoto University, such facilities do not exist.
かつて和歌山でも誘致の是非をめぐっていくつもの町が揺れたが、京都大学の研究者らの助けもあり、ここに原発はない。

The reason for that is simple: we have no need for dangerous nuclear power plants.
「危険な原発はいらない」。理由は素朴であり、明快だ。

　◇誘致が浮上し、親類も賛否二分

Most noteworthy of the cases in Wakayama were the protests against plant construction in the town of Hidaka and of Hikigawa, which has since been merged with Shirahama.
　和歌山県で特筆すべきは日高町と旧日置川町（現白浜町）の誘致拒否だろう。

In Hidaka, the issue had been festering since 1967 when the then mayor revealed his vision for the construction of a nuclear power plant.
日高町では６７年、当時の町長が原発構想を表明して以来、この問題がくすぶった。

In 1988, the Kansai Electric Power Co. (KEPCO) offered the local fisheries cooperative some 700 million yen in compensation for surveys to be conducted in preparation for plant construction.
関西電力は８８年、設置に向けた調査に伴う漁業補償金など約７億円を地元漁協に提示。

Family members and relatives belonging to the cooperative were divided on the appropriate response, leading to opposing sides refusing to attend weddings, funerals, and boat-launching ceremonies.
Kazumi Hama, 61, a fisherman who led anti-nuclear plant efforts said that family relationships suffered because of talk of a possible plant.
漁協内は兄弟、親戚で賛否が割れ、結婚式、葬式、漁船の進水式に出ないなど人間関係がずたずたになった。

"If nuclear power plants were safe, we wouldn't have had any infighting.
反対運動を率いた漁師、濱一己さん（６１）は「原発が安全なら、こんなこと（仲間内の争い）はない。

KEPCO weighed the lives of city dwellers against ours," he said.
関電は都会と田舎のおれらの命をてんびんにかけた」と憤る。

In Hikigawa, meanwhile, even students on school buses were split into pro-plant and anti-plant sections. 　旧日置川町では、児童のスクールバスの座席までも原発賛否で分かれた。

According to Tomoaki Nishio, 59, the current head of the town council who was then against the construction of the power plants, the proposed site for the nuclear power plant had been privately-owned.
反対派の西尾智朗氏（５９）＝現白浜町議会議長＝によると、建設予定地はもともと民有地だったが

In 1973, however, the town's land development bureau bought the land, with the promise that it would "make the land into a quasi-national park and protect it from reckless development," and resold it to the municipal government.
「国定公園にして乱開発から守る」と町土地開発公社が７３年に買収、町に転売した。

When town government officials signed a sales contract with KEPCO, a man who had sold his land to the development bureau committed suicide.
町が関電と売買契約を結ぶと、土地を売った一人の男性が「裏切られた」と自殺した。

"My father was ashamed that he had been conned by the town government," a 78-year-old bereaved family member said.
遺族（７８）は「おやじは町にだまされたことを恥と思っていた」と悔しさをにじませる。

The question on the minds of all anti-nuclear plant residents was: "Why aren't nuclear power plants built in urban areas, where a massive amount of electricity is consumed every day?"
　反対派に一貫しているのは「電気を大量消費する都会になぜ原発を建てないか」という疑問だ。

Sharing this same line of thinking, assistant professors Hiroaki Koide, 61, and Tetsuji Imanaka, 60, of Kyoto University's Research Reactor Institute supported anti-plant protests.
京都大学原子炉実験所（大阪府熊取町）の小出裕章助教（６１）や今中哲二助教（６０）ら研究者たちもこの疑問を共有し、反対運動を支えた。

Koide had gone to study at Tohoku University with the belief that nuclear power was going to be the world's future power source.
　小出さんは原子力が未来のエネルギーになると信じ、東北大学に進学した。

However, he encountered the protests against the construction of Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant in Miyagi Prefecture, and switched over to an anti-nuclear power stand himself.
だが、宮城県・女川原発建設に反対する運動に直面し、反原発に転じる。

"Nuclear power plants are dangerous facilities that cities refuse to build within their own borders, which is why they are built in sparsely-populated areas despite the cost of laying down power lines," Koide said. "
「原発は都会で引き受けられない危険なもので、送電線を敷くコストをかけても過疎地に建てる。

Once you realize that, there's only one choice.
それに気付いたら選択肢は一つ。

There's no way we can allow such a thing."
そんなものは許せない」と思った。

Imanaka, too, went to graduate school at Tokyo Institute of Technology with faith in the future of nuclear power, but ended up participating in protests against the construction of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant in Niigata Prefecture.
　今中さんも原子力の未来を信じて東工大大学院に進んだが、新潟県柏崎刈羽原発の反対運動に参加した。

He found the power company's claim that nuclear power plants were safe and that they helped local economies dubious.
「絶対安全で地元も潤う」という電力会社の理屈にうさん臭さを感じた。

After the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, Imanaka's doubts about nuclear safety turned into conviction about its dangers.
７９年には米スリーマイル島原発事故が起き、安全性への懐疑は確信に変わった。

In a lawsuit seeking the reversal of permission given for the construction of Ikata Nuclear Power Plant in Ehime Prefecture, the two researchers served as expert witnesses for the plaintiffs' legal team.
　２人は愛媛県・伊方原発の設置許可取り消し訴訟の原告弁護団に証人として協力し、研究者の立場から反原発を支持した。

They also visited Wakayama on numerous occasions to distribute anti-plant fliers.
和歌山にも何度もビラ配りに訪れた。

Koide's argument is clear-cut: machines sometimes break, and people sometimes make mistakes.
小出さんの論は明快だ。機械は時々壊れ、人は時々誤りを犯す。

It is only natural for nuclear power plants operated by people to break down.
人の動かす原発が壊れるのは当然。

When nuclear power plants break down, they cause catastrophes.
原発は壊れると破局をもたらす−−

As such, the accident in Fukushima was well within the scope of Koide's expectations.
福島の事故は小出さんにとって想定内だった。

And yet, the general public remained under the spell of the "safety myth," and arguments like his went ignored.
しかし、世論は安全神話に支配され、「私のような意見はすべて無視され続けた」という。

Koide now blames himself for not having stopped the construction of nuclear power plants, but he also says that the public is "responsible for being duped."
今は原発を止められなかった自分を責めている。だが、小出さんは国民の「だまされた責任」もあると言う。

The phrase brings to mind the 1946 essay "Senso sekininsha no mondai" (The problem of who is responsible for the war), in which film director Mansaku Itami argued that the general public were partially responsible for the war, for having been "fooled."
　この言葉に、敗戦直後の１９４６年に、だまされた国民にも戦争責任があると断じた映画監督、伊丹万作のエッセー「戦争責任者の問題」を思い出した。

In the essay, the same man who had penned an extremely compassionate screenplay for the film "Muhomatsu no issho" (Rickshaw man), launched a social critique that cut at the very nature of mankind:
伊丹は人情味あふれる「無法松の一生」の脚本を書く一方で、人間の本質を突く社会評論を残している。