英訳：『肥後の猛婦 武者んよか 林田民子』 by 「龍馬 ひねもす よもすがら」さん

"A story of Tamiko Hayahida, a modern-day woman warrior from Higo"

 

 

From the blog "Ryoma Hinemosu Yomosugara"(Ryoma all night long, all day long)

http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/ryoma_3260/20036784.html

 

*Note that this story is not historically substantiated in any way or form.

 

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There was once a woman named Tamiko Hayashida ("林田民子") in Higo of Kumamoto Prefecture, who can be regarded as a mosa, or a warrior of our time.

 

 

Born in 1904, Tamiko came to the United States as so-called "picture bride", marrying to her immigrant husband in America at the age of 25. They only knew themselves through their photos. While traveling by ship to America, Tamiko meetsMaster Setsuzo Ohta ("太田節三")sent as emissary fromKodokan Judo, and masters the art of Judo herself during and after her trip to America.　In America, Tamiko dedicated herself for peace between Japan and the U.S. in the midst of an intense anti-Japanese movement. However, with the increasingly volatile world situation at hand, Japan is gradually forced into war.   With defeat of her motherland imminent, Tamiko together with Ohta establishes the World Peace Fund Foundation (Sekai Heiwa Kikin Zaidan; "世界平和基金財団") to strongly lobby against the U.S. government.

 

 

Then came the Potsdam Declaration by Japan accepting the terms of an unconditional surrender. On 2nd of September of the same year, Tamiko was invited to the White House reception where she spoke to U.S. President Harry. S. Truman himself in a small voice.

 

 

"Mr. President. Why did you deploy the atomic bombs to Hiroshima and Nagasaki?"

 

 

"To save the lives of more than 200,000 young American soldiers."

 

 

"Japan already decided to accept unconditional surrender at the time. Why would 200,000 American soldiers end up dying?"

 

 

"Because there could be resistance from those who want to resist, and it was determined that if we prolonged the war any longer, the lives of young American soldiers would be at risk."

 

 

"Mr. President, you are lying. The Strategic Bomber Command in the Marianas clearly indicated that there will be no deployment of the atomic bomb until the response to the Potsdam Declaration was heard from the Japanese."

 

 

"But it was to save the lives of more than 200,000 young American soldiers..."

 

 

"Mr. President, you were well aware that Japan was going to accept the unconditional surrender. But still, you ordered to deploy the atom bomb. Why? Wasn't it because you wanted to warn Stalin who was going to invade Japan under the Yalta accord?"

 

 

"No, that is not the case. It was all for protecting the lives of 200,000 American soldiers."

 

 

"Mr. President, you didn't care about Japanese lives. You knew from the beginning that over 200,000 lives would be lost or harmed from the deployment of atom bombs. It wasn't a big deal for you if 200,000 of Japanese who you deemed as scums of the earth were to perish. It was a human experiment. You wanted to warn Stalin that that is what will happen to Moscow if they were to stand up against the United States. You sacrificed 200,000 Japanese just for that. Not for saving 200,000 American lives! Mr. President, you are the Devil of this century!"

 

 

After saying that, Tamiko grabbed the President at his collar and then threw him up in the air with a beautiful seoinage or a shoulder throw.

 

 

The music stopped with a sound of the scream.

 

 

Secretary of War Henry. L. Stimson tried to hold down Tamiko, but he also wounded up in the air via her seoinage.

 

 

Everyone was in shock. Petrified.

 

 

Then a sharp sound echoed through the floor, and Tamiko's chest was tainted with blood. She touched her chest, looking at the direction where the 'sound' came from. Then collapsed onto the floor. 

 

 

Tamiko Hayashida survived the shot, but was imprisoned along with Setsuzo Ohta.

 

 

Although she was native Japanese, the fact that Tamiko served as a Board Member ofSouthern Pacific Railroad, and that she had strong connections with the distinguished Banning family from the Civil War, as well as being the Representative Director of the World Peace Fund Foundation, she was exempted from being sent off to a concentration camp. Instead, she later served as a researcher in the Office of Strategic Services, dedicated to studying settlement of postwar issues.

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*The photo is just to capture the image of how 'warrior-like' she may have appeared. It is actually a photo taken between the end of Edo era to the early Meiji era of a woman practitioner of martial arts. (Look for "34")

http://dailynewsagency.com/2013/12/16/samurai-japan-wg8/

 

 

Translation by: @Office BAL?S

 

Translator's Note:

 

Now that I have translated in full this amazing story about an incredible Japanese woman warrior named Tamiko Hayashida, there are a couple of questions that come to mind. That is, would it have been possible, for a native, non-American Japanese woman to know the (1) death tolls of Hiroshima and Nagasaki put together, and (2) the contents of the secret Yalta accord between the U.S and Soviet Russia government, in the immediate aftermath of the war, on September 2, 1945.
 
Even in the victor nation such as the United States, we can rightly assume that military as well as diplomatic information pertaining to the war were privileged information that were controlled strictly under the need-to-know basis. What was told by Tamiko only came to be known years or even decades after the war.
 
It is indeed exhilarating to know, if as a historical fact, such woman did exist, who can be one of the very very few privileged native Japanese person who gets (1) invited to a White House reception and can (2) meet personally with the President of the United States, (3) lecture the incumbent U.S. President about the inhumanity and hypocrisy of the atomic bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and then (4) throw Mr. President as well as Secretary of War up in the air using Judo, our national pride. But glorifying over what can only be deemed as too-well-constructed fabrication of facts based on wishful thinking? I for one wouldn't want to keep on dreaming about such 'could-have-been' glorified moment in history.

 

訳者あとがき

 

林田民子なる"肥後熊本の猛者"の逸話。全文を英訳してみて改めて腑に落ちない点が幾つかある。それは、終戦直後の1945年9月2日の時点で果たして、①広島・長崎への原爆投下の被害規模が20万人規模であることを把握できたか、また、②ヤルタ会談の内容を詳細に知り得たか、である。
 
戦時のアメリカは、よくも悪くも情報統制下にあり、軍・政治情報はneed-to-knowベースで厳しく制限されていた筈。それを日系ですらない林田民子なる日本人移民女性が知り得たのか、非常に疑問に思える。逸話の中で語られた内容は、戦後何年も経ってから初めて判明した事実の筈だ。
 
日本人として、ホワイトハウスに直接招かれ大統領に謁見できる日本人女性がもし、原爆投下の非道と欺瞞を訴え、尚且つ日本が誇る武道である柔道技で大統領や陸軍省長官を投げ飛ばしたことが史実なら、それは胸のすく思いだが、出来すぎた荒唐無稽な過去の栄光の瞬間に思いを馳せる気にはなれない。