【Book】一九九一年日本の敗北 1991: Japan Lost

【ルポルタージュ】手嶋龍一．1993. 『一九九一年　日本の敗北』．新潮社

ある日突然勃発した湾岸戦争。侵略戦争に立ち向かうべく、国際社会は急速に結束する。そんな中、日本政府は頭を抱えた。

①「命の盾」となった邦人たち
②米国との同盟関係に入る亀裂
③九条解釈に揺れる国会論議
④縦割り省庁の縄張り争い
⑤日本経済の生命線である湾岸石油の危機
⑥吹き荒れるジャパン・バッシング．．．

課題は山積み以上の状態だった。他国籍軍の戦費を賄うため、９０億ドルの緊急増税を受け入れた日本人は呆然とした。日本では税金も「血税」と表現される。けれど国際社会は文字通りの意味での「血」の貢献を求めているのか。九条は全くのナンセンスだったのか？安全保障上の大きな転機となった湾岸戦争を精緻な調査の元に読み解く好書。

私は当時NHK特派員だった手嶋龍一のこの本のおかげでルポルタージュものに目覚めました。

【Reportage】TESHIMA, Ryuichi. 1993. 1991: Japan Lost. Tokyo: Shinchosha

Persian Gulf War stroke the international society suddenly. While international community formed the multi-national force very fast, Japan was stuck very badly.

1) Japanese citizens captured and became "Human Shield"
2) Crisis of US-Japan alliance
3) Shaking Diet with heating debate over the Article 9 (prohibiting intervention in foreign war)
4) Endless Fights over the turf among ministries
5) Risking the oil supply from Persian Gulf which was (and is) a life line of Japanese economy
6) Stormy Japan Bashing

It was something more than just a pile of problems. Japanese tax payers accepted emergent tax increase for raising 9 billion USD to support the multi-national force. And then, they found that international society was expecting "blood" tax in literal meaning. (In Japanese, ordinary tax is also expressed as "blood tax") So, was the Article 9 just a huge piece of nonsense at the end of the day? That became a significant turning point for the debate over Pacifism in Japan. This book explains what was the Persian Gulf War for Japan based on a very detailed research.

This excellent work of Teshima Ryuichi who was a senior correspondant of NHK back then told me how powerful a reportage can be. :)