迎賓館赤坂離宮見学と満州の思い出
赤坂の迎賓館を、史談会見学会で7月12日に訪れた。入口は長い列だった。前週に起きた元首相銃撃事件のためかわからないが荷物検査が厳しく行われ、30分以上もかかった。
迎賓館は明治42年、大正天皇が皇太子だった時に東宮御所として建てられた。日本で唯一のネオ・バロック様式の西洋宮殿だ。ただ、あまりに華美で、また住まいとして使いにくいので皇太子はほとんど住まなかったと言う。その後、昭和天皇が即位したあとも使われこともほとんどなかった。戦後に、建物は皇室から国に移管された。国立図書館、政府庁舎や前回の東京オリンクピック組織委員会に使われた後、迎賓館として整備された。平成21年には明治以降の建物として初めて国宝に指定された。
中に入ると、まさにベルサイユ宮殿の小型のようだ。それなりに綺麗だが、住みにくそうだ。この離宮は、戦争の影も残る。1935年と1940年には、訪日した満州国皇帝溥儀の宿舎となった。
電車の中で参加者のAさんが満州の話をしてくれた。
Aさんは昭和16年に旧満州(中国東北部) 大連に生まれた。父は満州の放送局に技師として働いていた。昭和20年の終戦のソ連軍の侵攻の時、母親は心臓病で入院していたが、銃撃音のショックで亡くなったという。一家は子ども3人と父親の4人だった。すぐに帰国することはできず、父は技師としてそのまま大連で働いた。その後に父は現地で再婚した。最初は日本人学校に通ったが、閉鎖されたあとは中国人の子供たちの小学校に通った。日本人にきびしい社会だったが、助けてくれた中国人もいたという。朝鮮戦争がはじまると、中国人が義勇軍に多く志願した。「当時８歳ごろ、子どもながらに私も行かなくてはと思ったものです」と振り返る。帰国の２年前には、中国内陸部の承徳に移された。日本に戻れたのは昭和29年、小学校６年だった。日本の小学校の図書館で本を見て「こんなに面白いものがあったのか」とむさぼるように読んだ。中国にいた当時は本なんか見たこともなかったという。
Visit to the National Guest House Akasaka Palace and Memories of Manchuria
We visited the Guest House in Akasaka on July 12th for a tour of the History Club. The entrance was a long line. I don't know why because of the shooting of the former Prime Minister last week, but the baggage inspection was strict and it took more than 30 minutes.
The Guest House was built as Togugosho in 1902 when Emperor Taisho was the crown prince. It is the only neo-baroque western palace in Japan. However, it is said that the crown prince hardly lived because it was so gorgeous and difficult to use as a house. After that, it was rarely used even after the throne of Emperor Showa. After the war, the building was transferred from the imperial family to the nation. After being used by the National Library, Government Buildings and the previous Tokyo Organizing Committee of Olympic, it was developed as a national guesthouse. In 2009, it was designated as a national treasure for the first time since the Meiji era. When we enter, it looks like the small size of the Palace of Versailles. It's pretty, but it's hard to live in. The shadow of the war remains in this detached palace. In 1935 and 1940, it became the residence of the Emperor of Manchuria, who visited Japan.
Participant Mr. A told me about formerly Manchuria on the train. Mr. A was born in 1942 in Dalian. His father worked as a technician at a broadcaster in Manchuria. At the time of the Soviet invasion at the end of the war, his mother was hospitalized for heart disease, but died in the shock of shooting sounds. The family consisted of three children and father. They couldn't return Japan immediately, and his father worked as a technician. After that, his father remarried a Japanese person there. After the Japanese school was closed, he attended an elementary school in China. It was a strict society for Japanese people, but some Chinese people helped. When the Korean War began, many Chinese volunteered . "At that time, when I was about eight years old, I thought I had to go as a child," he recalls. Two years before returning, they were transferred to Chengde, inland China. He returned to Japan in 1954, in the sixth grade of elementary school. He looked at the book in the library and read it devouringly, "Is there something so interesting?" He said he had never seen a book when he was in China