Cross-cultural communication （150）　

150) From Russia with Love
That's right. It is the title of the second film in the James Bond series, “From Russia with Love,” or the title of Ian Fleming's original novel. However, the topic here is the title of a non-fiction book by Shigenori Kanehira that I read in January 2024 (Shueisha Bunko). Kanehira was a seasoned journalist who served as a correspondent for TBS in Moscow from 1991 to 1994, focusing his reporting on the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia. During the period following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union?one of the most significant events since the end of World War II?he was on the ground, continuing his reporting from the front lines. This book is a long non-fiction work of over 400 pages, written in the form of letters to the reader in a diary style. As such, it is concrete and easy to understand, and is full of information that can be used as primary historical sources, such as what he witnessed and the information he obtained through his reporting.

Here are some of my impressions of the book. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the economy, which had been in bad shape since the Soviet era, became even more unstable, and there were long lines at stores selling everyday goods. However, in high-end department stores and supermarkets that only accepted dollars, goods were abundant, and the stores were fairly bustling with well-dressed Russians. These wealthy Russians were referred to as “nouveaux riches” (a French term meaning “newly rich”) or “oligarchs”, people who had cunningly capitalized on the lucrative opportunities arising from the privatization of the communist state. From 1995 to 1997, at American Hospital of Paris where I opened my practice I saw frequently in-patients who appeared to be oligarchs. How could I tell? Of course, they spoke English with a Russian accent (like the Russian nobility in Dostoevsky's novels, they couldn't speak French), had bodyguard-like attendants, and paid in cash. They were a bit dangerous, with abundant funds, but it seemed like they would be in trouble if their trail was traced.

In 1993, Russia dumped nuclear waste from aging Soviet-era nuclear power plants into the Sea of Japan. In response to protests from the Japanese government, Russia argued that Japan also dumps nuclear waste into the ocean, and continued the illegal dumping. The danger posed by the dumping of nuclear waste into the ocean is entirely different from that of dumping nuclear waste liquid. The dumping of nuclear waste liquid into the ocean has been practiced by many countries since the 1970s and continues to this day. With the times changing, the diluted nuclear waste liquid from the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which collapsed due to an earthquake and tsunami, is being dumped into the ocean. China has persistently protested this, but for some reason, Russia has not protested much. This may be because Russia feels some guilt over this incident. I learned this fact for the first time.

As an appendix, there was also an account of a reporting trip to Ukraine that Mr. Kanehira conducted at his own expense in late 2022. The conclusion was that Russia, whether during the Soviet era, the immediate post-Soviet era, or the Putin era when the country had stabilized to some extent, remains a nation haunted by the ghost of “great power Russia.”

Writing this, it might seem like Mr. Kanehira only has negative feelings toward Russia, but that’s not the case. He apparently had many beloved Russians, including Russian colleagues he worked with for four years, Russian neighbors, and Russians he met during his reporting. That’s probably why he chose the title “With Love for Russia.”

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