We Are The World　٩( ´◡` )( ´◡` )۶

さやかは、大学でＥＳＳ(English Speaking Society)っていう英会話サークルに入ってます

ESSは、静岡大学や静岡県立大学にもあって、
たまに合同でイベントがあります!!

土曜日は、英語スピーチコンテストat静大 でした。



さやかは、以前ここに書いた新聞記事のこと、
日本兵だったおじいさんにお話を聞きに行ったことを題材にしました。

高校のときにチャレンジした英語スピーチコンテストの指導をしてくださった先生たちの教えを思い出しながら、頑張って文章考えたし、いっぱい練習しました!!

結果、優勝いただきました

とっても嬉しかった♪

井出さん(インタビューしたおじいさん)へのおみやげ話がまた増えました

井出さんに感謝です。

井出さんとのつながりを橋渡ししてくれた静岡新聞の市川記者に感謝、感謝です。

それから、英会話は高校のときからＮＨＫのラジオ英会話を聞いてきたのですが、
毎月のテキストを買ってくれた裾野のおばあちゃんにも感謝、感謝。

そのラジオ英会話を聴いたり、録音したりするmp3搭載ラジオや大学での行き帰りに聴く英語レッスン収録のmp3プレーヤーをくださった「まもさん」には特に感謝、感謝です。

ここにスピーチの原稿載せるんで読んでみてください☆


We are the last chance generation
Shizuoka University Art and Culture
1st grade SayakaWatanabe

Today, I’d like to tell you about a special person and experience.

「I want to meet with him and talk with him.」
One day, I read Shizuoka newspaper article about 89-year-old man.
He was a soldier during world war Ⅱ.
In the article, the man ,a world war Ⅱ soldier, said that the experiences of the elderly should be passed on to the next generation.

This idea moved me.
I called the Shizuoka newspaper company at once.
I asked the newspaper reporter the address of the old man.
Soon the old man and I began corresponding by FAX.
Later he invited me to come to his house.
He said he wanted to show me notes he had written.
This spring vacation, I visited him.
His house was in a very rural area on the outskirts of Fujinomiya city.

When we met, I was a little surprised at how short he was.
He smiled at me and gave me some juice.
We sat down at his kotatsu table and talked together.

I’d like to tell you what he said.
He went to war when he was 19 years old -- the same age I am now.
At that time, in Japan, all men who became 20 years old had to go to war.
They were taught that death for country is the most beautiful fate a man can have.
And they believed this with all their hearts.
So he said that he wanted to join the war as a soldier sooner and sooner.

He was assigned to go to China.
They walked about 30km to 40km per day.
They had no food so they stole food from the local Chinese people.
He saw a lot of combat, and saw many friends killed with his own eyes.

He told me that his friends who were captured had their ears cut off,
because those ears could be used as evidence of their capture.
This was a terrible story, but I found his next story saddest of all.
When he came back to Japan after World WarⅡ,
one of his neighbors ,an old women, said to him
’How dare you come back alive, having lost the war??….’

I wondered how I would have felt in his place.
What is the most important thing in the world?
Isn't it a person’s life??
My conversation with him made me think more about life.

One day, there was a call from the Shizuoka Newspaper.
A reporter asked me for permission to write a story about my contact with the old soldier.
Of course I replied ‘YES’!

This Golden Week, I hit upon a good idea.
I want a lot of people to read his war memoirs.
But his notes have so many pages,
and use vocabulary and Chinese characters
that are so difficult for young people today to read and understand.
So, I decided to type up his notes.
It took me about total of 20 hours to complete.
That was very hard work for me.
But I felt very satisfied after I finished.

On May 10, the article was carried in the Shizuoka newspaper.
I hope people will become interested in learning about that war for themselves.
The next day, calls from readers came to my university and the newspaper company.

One man who called me had been in the navy during the war.
We promised to meet each other this coming summer vacation.

We are the last generation who will be able to hear about Worldwar　Ⅱ directly
from people who actually experienced it.
Our children will not have such a chance.

It is our responsibility to help record the experiences of the war generation,
in part for the cause of history,
and in part so that future generations can hopefully avoid the tragedy of war.