2007年3月に、フィンランドの友人と君が代と日の丸について話をしたことがありました。フィンランドの友人は、「フィンランド語だったら、もっとうまく言いたいことが言えるけど、英語だと伝わらないかな」と言いながら、以下のコメントをくれました。
The link you sent about "Kimigayo" was interesting.
I think there are two questions inside of it:
Q1:Is it right to sing "Kimigayo" at school entrance ceremony because it might hurt some people's feelings?
I think we shouldn't live in such a manner that we always are afraid that someone would upset what we are doing, whether they are in majority or minority. I believe we should tolerate things that are important to others, even if we dislike them.
(中略)
Most nations have national anthem and it joins people and make them feel that they belong in a nation. As humans it is a need that is build inside of us, and if we deny it, we deny some basic needs of people.
In Finland we had a discussion about religious songs at school's christmas partys.
The decision was that since they are part of our cultural heritage, they are also part of school life. If it is against someones personal belief, they simply don't participate in the singing and no one gets upset.
To conclude this: I don't believe that minority has right to rule majority, and neither majority has right to rule minority.
Q2: Is it right to refuse participating in singing or playing, and should it be punished if you don't sing or play it?
I believe that we always have a right to choose in areas that touches our personal believes without being afraid punishment. It is true that the music teacher didn't play the song but the song was singed in the occasion.
If the teacher had prevent the singing, ( minority rules majority ) then I think it should have been punished. But in this case it didn't happen, so why bother it.
But of course this also a question about responsibilities and duty to fullfill them, when they are not in alligned with your personal values.
I have a feeling most of us don't have courage to refuse their responsibilities in such case.
So at some point I have to respect the courage of that teacher.
But, to conclude this one: It is not right to force people to behave against their personal value.
These were difficult questions and it is difficult to give a simple answer to them.
以上に対して、私のグロービッシュ(シンプル英語)の返事は以下のとおり。
Thank you very much for your opinion on Kimigayo.
I think most Japanese people don’t have negative image on singing Kimigayo now. For me, it is just one of songs. But I understand why some people have negative image on Kimigayo (and ‘Hinomaru (National flag)’.
The words to Kimigayo are very classical one and most of us don’t understand the meaning correctly because we usually don’t learn the meaning of it. So most of us don’t care the meaning of the words.
But ‘Kimigayo’ can be understood as ‘Our emperor’. Now our emperor is just for symbol. But before the war, Japanese people believed the emperor was ‘A living god’. Those days, Japanese people had the greatest respect for the Emperor, (also ‘Hinomaru’ and ‘Kimigayo’).
Some young people died for them in the war, and some people believed it was their pleasure to die for the emperor.
And then some people object to singing Kimigayo. It is one reason.
Now most of us don’t believe our emperor is ‘A living god’ and most of us love our emperor and the royal family as just symbol of our country.
So that, it is seemed there is no reason to have negative image on Kimigayo.
But now there are some politicians (and people) who want to make Japan to a nationalistic country again.
Our emperor said it was not good to force the national flag and the national anthem. But it sometimes seemed that our leaders wanted to become our country like before the war again. They like to force both of the national flag and the national anthem in the school. I think it is the other reason.
I don’t object to sing ‘Kimigayo’ (as just song) on ceremony, but I don’t agree with our government. Not only the music teacher, there were many troubles on Kimigayo.
Last year there was a teacher who was arrested because he distributed handbill about Kimigayo before the ceremony.
To my regret, the news didn’t become big topics about it.
I think such thing is a big problem.
日本の一部の政治家達は、私のフィンランドの友人のような友人がいればよかったですね。
なお、君が代ですが、私は上にも書いてあるように、私にとっては『ただの歌』でしかないのですが、斉唱を強要する人がいて、それをしない人を罰せられる国であるかぎり、式典でこの国歌を私は歌いません。