An Easy Question - BTS, Stop It やめてください、BTS

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

My mom and grandma are A-bomb victims. Grandma was in her early 20s and my mom two when the bomb was dropped in Hiroshima. Grandma lost her sister. I have accepted it as a fact without deeply thinking about it. It has had no serious effect on my life or so I believe.

Grandma died several years ago without talking about anything about the war or the bomb. Looking back, I believe that she just didn't want to remember the hardest memories of her life.

So, I tried to talk about the bomb with mom, but she didn't want to talk about it either. The only thing she said was that she could marry my father because she was away from the ground zero when it was dropped. It means that that 20 years after the bomb dropping, she was discriminated because of being an A-bomb victim. She often told me to keep quiet about it, being afraid of that fact being known to others. So, it's understandable for her, living at that time in Tokyo 40 years after the bombing, to be very surprised to learn that a mother of her son's classmate, also from Hiroshima and around the same age as her, was leading a campaign against nuclear bombs, telling her story in PTA meetings again and again to call for support and improve awareness.

But who can blame my grandma or mom for not fighting wars or bombs? It’s like nobody can blame Korean women for not standing up to say that they were "comfort women" during the war, isn’t it? They are all war victims. Yes, my grandma and mom are people of a country invading Korea during the war, but they are still victims of the A-bomb even if some Americans say that A-bombs were necessary to end the war as quickly possible. Using bombs for any reason was a genocide. Japan also committed war crimes against Korean people. But don't forget that even so, my grandma and mom, and Korean people suffering during the war are all war victims.

That is why the recent BTS (Bangtan Boys) member T-shirt news makes me angry. What do they want to achieve by wearing T-shirts celebrating the Hiroshima bomb dropping? Do they want to prove their patriotism or say that dropping a bomb on innocent civilians was right to end a war? Don't they feel anything about the suffering of the Hiroshima victims? If they don't, they have no right to criticize Japan for violating their human rights.

Wearing such stupid T-shirts is wrong. It takes only a second to see that. Can't Korean people see that? Can't BTS see that? If they see it, but do it on purpose to attract attention, stop it. Just stop it. We have many problems that are too difficult to solve, but this is very easy. Just stop it.

祖母と母は広島出身、そして原爆被害者だ。祖母は数年前に亡くなったが、戦争や原爆について話すのを聞いたことはない。つらい思い出だったのだろう。

母に原爆について聞いたことがある。だが「話したくない、人に知られたくもない」と言われ、それっきりになってしまった。結婚の時差別されたらしい。だから、その後東京に住むようになって、自分と同年代の女性が原爆禁止運動に参加しているのを知ったときは驚いていた。でも原爆について話したがらない祖母や母を誰が責められよう。慰安婦問題だって同じだ。消したい過去について話したくない人を強制することなんてできない。広島の原爆被害者はアメリカ、韓国の人は日本の戦争犯罪の被害者だ。原爆被害者も慰安婦も被害者だ。

だから最近のBTSの事件には怒りが込み上げる。何をしたいの？愛国者だって言いたいの？それとも戦争を終わらせるためなら一般市民の頭上に原爆を落としてもいいって言いたいの？もしそうなら、彼らに日本の戦争犯罪を責める資格はない。

BTSのTシャツは間違っている。韓国の人はそれも分からないの？それとも分かっていてわざとやってるの？だったらやめてください。最近難しい問題が多いけどこれは簡単。すぐ脱いでください。