米ワシントンポストが、韓国の「東海」併記や慰安婦石碑設置運動に迎合するヴァージニア州の政治家達に苦言を呈する社説を8月19日に掲載している。取り上げているのは産経ぐらいか？都合のいい時は「米ワシントンポストによると」と参照する日本のマスコミはなぜこの社説を報道しないのだろうか？ 韓国の行き過ぎたロビー活動と、選挙を控えそれに過度に迎合するアメリカの政治をみて、ワシントンポストも辟易としているようだ。 以下に、この件を取り上げている産経の記事、そしてそのあとに、ワシントンポストの社説原文を掲載する――
「韓国系有権者への過剰な迎合だ」米Ｗ・ポスト紙、「東海」併記や慰安婦石碑を問題視
（産経 2014.8.20 13:00）
米紙ワシントン・ポスト電子版は１９日、南部バージニア州で、日本海の名称として韓国が主張する「東海」を州の教科書に併記することを義務づけたり、慰安婦に関する石碑を地方庁舎の庭園に設置したりする動きが相次いだことについて社説を掲載し、地元の政治家の韓国系有権者に対する「過剰な迎合」だと戒めた。
特に韓国系住民の多い同州北部から、秋の中間選挙の連邦下院議員選に出馬する候補がいずれも日本海呼称問題を連邦議会に持ち込み、教科書への「東海」併記義務づけを連邦レベルで目指すと公約していることを問題視。両候補とも「国際問題の専門家でもないのに、日韓の争いに首を突っ込もうとしている」と指弾した。
また、首都ワシントンに近い同州フェアファクス郡の庁舎敷地内に慰安婦石碑が設置されたことも「首をかしげる」と指摘した。（共同）
http://sankei.jp.msn.com/world/news/140820/amr14082013000006-n1.htm
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The Post’s View
Pandering to Northern Va.’s Koreans is going to extremes
（ By Editorial Board August 19 at 7:54 PM ）
ELECTION-YEAR PANDERING to ethnic minorities is part of America’s political tradition, but sometimes restraint is the wiser course. In Northern Virginia this year, candidates have been outdoing themselves to cozy up to the region’s fast-growing Korean community. That’s fine ? except when politicians seek to substitute their judgment for that of historians.
In the open-seat race in Virginia’s 10th Congressional District, the Republican candidate, state Del. Barbara Comstock, is promising that, if elected, she will attempt to insert Congress into a dispute between South Korea and Japan. The dispute involves prodding states to buy school textbooks that challenge the name of the Sea of Japan, which many Koreans insist should be called the East Sea. Ms. Comstock’s Democratic opponent, Fairfax County Supervisor John Foust, chimed in that he would do the same.
Given Virginia’s demographics, politicians may see it as a no-brainer to take the Korean side. The state’s 82,000 ethnic Koreans, many of whom live in Northern Virginia, outnumber ethnic Japanese by more than 4 to 1.
But it’s fair to ask whether Ms. Comstock and Mr. Foust, neither of whom has any particular expertise in international affairs, should be poking their noses in a bitter dispute between two U.S. allies ? one of which, Japan, is among Virginia’s top sources of foreign investment. Terry McAuliffe (D), while campaigning for governor last year, said he would support legislation in Richmond requiring the state to buy textbooks reflecting the Korean position. Once elected to office, and faced with the reality of Japanese opposition, his enthusiasm waned (though, in the end, he quietly signed the bill).
Similarly, we wonder about the precedent set by Fairfax County in dedicating a memorial garden, just behind the County Government Center, to women forced into sex slavery by Japan during World War II.
There’s no dispute about the anguish and abuse suffered by so-called comfort women, many of them Korean, who were forced into brothels to service Japanese soldiers. But what other ethnic, national or historical grievances will Fairfax agree to memorialize at its government center? Irish repression at the hands of the British? The Armenian genocide perpetuated by the Turks? The 14th-century Battle of Kosovo, in which the Serbs were wiped out by the Ottomans?
We’re pressing the point, but the question stands: Is the seat of a county government ? even a county with a richly diverse population ? the right place to memorialize historical tragedies? And if so, which ones?
We doubt it, much as we doubt that Congress should be attempting to arbitrate the nomenclature of the sea that separates Japan and the Korean Peninsula. Let politicians pander. But let them also refrain from dictating cartographic advisory opinions to the states.
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Hashigozakura 