Nihon University Case and Karoshi 日大事件 何で今まで言わなかったの？

Japanese follows English. 英語の後に日本語が続きます。

Why didn't Mr. Miyagawa say that he didn't want to make an illegal tackle in the first place? Why didn't his team members do or say anything to confront Head Coach Uchida if they had felt that something had been wrong with the team? Reading articles about the incident that Mr. Miyagawa, a 20-year old student and member of the university's American football team, delivered a late hit to a quarterback of Kwansei Gakuin University's team, according to him, based on an order from the head coach (see this for details) reminds me of Adolf Eichmann and makes me angry because Nihon University's team members and their parents have been acting like they are innocent victims. But it is them who stopped to think and blindly followed unreasonable or even illegal orders from the head or other coaches and it is one of them, Mr. Miyagawa, who made such an illegal tackle. But now once the media started to support them, they suddenly changed attitudes and have been acting like superheroes. They may be victims, but are also responsible for creating the culture in which someone confronting coaches is excluded from the team. They are guilty as accomplices. If they were innocent, they would have been already expelled from the team.

The same is true of karoshi. If you work for a company, the karoshi environment of your company is created and strengthened by your inaction. If someone doesn't do overtime and is harassed, and you don't do or say anything to change the environment and as a result he or she kills himself or herself, you are responsible for it. And I hate to see such people, who stop thinking and turn a blind eye to a wrongdoing, but once a scapegoat is found, start to criticize the scapegoat as if they were victims. They are automatons and represent the evil of human beings.

日大の事件が連日マスコミに取り上げられ、監督やコーチが非難されている。そしてその一方で、宮川さん、チームメンバー、その親御さんたちは、犠牲者のように報道されている。不思議だ。彼らは、これまでそのようなことが行われていたことに全く気付かなかったのだろうか。それとも、気付いていたけど何か言ったら自分が叩かれるので何も言わなかったのだろうか。私には後者にしか思えない。そしてもしそうだとしたら、今さら、被害者面するのはいかがなものか。

自分の行為に対して責任を持てるのは本人だけだが、同じことは行動を起こさなかったこと（不作為）にも言えると思う。気付いていたけど放置していたならば、今回の事件の責任は、宮川さんに、そして、そういった体質を放置していたメンバーにもあるのではなかろうか。

怖かった、言えなかった、絶対君主だった。気持ちは分かる。でも、20歳と言えばもう大人だし、ましてやその親御さんたちには手段を講ずる機会がいくらでもあったと思う。見て見ぬふりをしていた罪を軽く流す態度は、「考えて意思決定し、その結果を請け負う」という大人としての責任を放棄することであり、結局は「ヒーローが助けてくれないかな」という無責任主義、ひいては、大勢のロボットを独裁者が束ねる独裁主義につながっていくと思う。