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From The Newspaper (1)  A person

September 23, 2022

He wondered who had said, "Truth is stranger than novels." He wanted to write short stories ~ fictions~, but he had been in a slump. But recently, he figured out why he had had a hard time getting ideas for his short stories. Maybe the real world was too unique, and he couldn't find any more unique things. In that case, writing an essay about real events, instead of writing a fictional story, might be better. He came up with an idea and opened this day's newspaper; using a highlighter pen, he started to mark the articles that he thought could be a theme for his essay. He marked about 15 articles. He did the same thing the next day. He had about 30 in total. He chose one. The title of the article from the newspaper was, "A man committed suicide by burning himself near the Prime Minister's office: 'To protest against the national funeral', in his memo." ・　・　・ It was a shocking article of a newspaper, "A guy in his 70s committed suicide by burning himself near the Prime Minister's office. It was on Wednesday, before 7 a.m. Although the burning spread to his whole body, he survived, the police said. He left a note that read, "I'm really against the national funeral (of the former Prime Minister). The national funeral will be held within a week." Another article read : "The (current) Prime Minister's support rate has dropped sharply. Citizens are against the funeral that will be held nationally, and are dissatisfied with learning about the relationship between LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) members and the Unification Church. The assassin targeted the former Prime Minister, Mr. Abe, because Mr. Abe supported the Unification Church. The assassin had a strong grudge against the Unification Church because his mother had gone bankrupt because she had donated all of her property to the Church. The LDP has a lot of Diet members who support the Church. They, in turn, receive the Church's volunteers' help to post posters, etc. during elections. Now the popularity rate of the Cabinet has fallen to about 40%. The survey said that 60% of citizens were against holding the funeral as a national event. But, isn't this country's people merciful to the dead? Why is the former Prime Minister so unpopular? There appeared in the newspaper's haiku, a 5-7-5 syllable poem, corner after his assassination. "Mr. Akagi and Mr. Abe, they are the same, a person." Mr. Akagi was a national worker who committed suicide. He was said to be forced to rewrite public documents when the 'Moritomo Gakuen Affair' happened. In the 'Moritomo Gakuen Affair' the chief of the school and his wife were arrested, and were found guilty of bribery. Mr. Abe's wife was the Honorary Principal, and the Prime Minister Abe's involvement was questioned; but, they were found not guilty. This haiku gave readers the feeling that Mr. Akagi had been a sacrifice for Mr. Abe. Mr. Abe had been a sacrifice for himself, his acts. Or, simply, Mr. Akagi and Mr. Abe, although they were opposite, they were now the same, after their deaths. Prime Minister Abe's affair wasn't only this one, but also the 'Kakegawa Gakuen Affair' and the 'Viewing Cherry Blossom Party Affair' which were big scandals, and many citizens are in doubt about Mr. Abe's legacy. Recently, it was published that Mr. Akagi's wife had sent a Letter of Indictment about the Review of Evidence concerning the 'Moritomo Gakuen Affair' on just the day before the assassination.

No. 488




*assassin :暗殺者
*grudge :恨み
*bankrupt :破産
*Diet :国会
*property :財産
*post :（ビラなどを）はる
*merciful :慈悲深い
*honorary :名誉の
*involvement :関与
*sacrifice :犠牲者
*legacy :遺産、残したもの
*indictment :告発
*concerning :関して