NITTAI PICKS

戦後80年を迎えるにあたり、日本体育大学の教職員を代表して、ご挨拶をさせていただきます。
先の大戦におきまして、多くの尊い命を失いました。我が国はもとより、本学においても同窓や学徒出陣によって招集された諸先輩の多くは、戦地に赴き、かけがえのない命を落とすことになりました。ここに謹んで哀悼の意を表したいと思います。
本学の創立者である日高藤吉郎翁は、陸軍除隊後の明治24年に本学の前身となる「体育会（翌年に「日本体育会」に改称）」を設立しました。その目的は自身の経験から軍籍にある者だけでなく、国民全般に体育の普及を図ることが重要で、それは男子にとどまらず、女子体育においても大いに奨励することによって、国家そのものを強靭にすることでした。明治期には、国庫補助金の交付を得たこともあり、富国強兵政策を拠り所として、強い国民を作ることが日本体育会の役割でありましたが、その後も体育教員の養成と体育スポーツの振興を行う学校として現在に至っています。
また、戦中には多くの卒業生を戦地に送るとともに、戦火の中では学徒出陣も経験して、終戦までに数百名の同窓の命が失われることになりました。このように本学は体育指導者養成機関として国家の政策に協力してきた教育機関でもありました。
終戦後の昭和24年、本学は我が国で初の体育の4年制大学として体育学部体育学科が認可されました。戦前・戦中の教育思想を一掃して、民主化された体育へと舵を切り、各種スポーツ種目にも力を入れ、体育指導者の育成と共に多くのアスリートを世に送り出してきました。また、オリンピック・パラリンピック競技大会にも積極的に協力し、オリンピズムの精神に則り、平和でより良い世界の実現に向けて貢献するという努力を重ねて参りました。昭和33年には、学内に慰霊碑を建立し、同窓の魂の鎮魂と平和な社会の実現に向けての決意を表明しました。
戦後80年を迎えるにあたり、改めて体育スポーツの持つ価値を見つめ直し、我が国だけではなく、国際社会に対しても、本学が体育スポーツを通した平和活動に協力、貢献することを再びここに決意することを宣言いたします。
 

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Commemorating 80 Years Since the End of the War
 
On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the end of the war, I would like to deliver these remarks on behalf of the faculty and staff of Nippon Sport Science University.
Many precious lives were lost in the last war. Not only in our country, but also at our university, many alumni and students who were called up as soldiers were sent to the battlefield and sacrificed their irreplaceable lives. I would like to express my profound respect and deepest condolences here.
Our university's founder, Tokichiro Hidaka, established the "Athletic Association" (renamed the "Japan Athletic Association" the following year), the predecessor of our university, in 1891 after being discharged from the army. Based on his own experience, he recognized the importance of promoting physical education not only among members of the armed forces but also among the general public, and therefore strongly encouraged both men and women to engage in physical education, believing that these efforts would contribute to strengthening the nation.
 During the Meiji period, the university received national subsidies, and based on the policy of enriching the country and strengthening the military, the role of the Japan Athletic Association was to create a strong nation. However, it has continued to train physical education teachers and promote physical education and sports to this day.
During the war, many graduates were sent to the battlefield, and some were mobilized as soldiers amid the flames of war. By the end of the war, hundreds of alumni had lost their lives. Thus, our university was also an educational institution that cooperated with national policy as an institution for training physical education instructors.
After the war, in 1949, our university was approved as Japan's first four-year physical education university, with a Faculty of Physical Education and a Department of Physical Education. We swept away the educational ideology of the prewar and wartime periods and steered the university toward democratized physical education, focusing on various sports, and training physical education instructors while also sending many athletes out into the world. We also actively cooperated with the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and in keeping with the spirit of Olympism, have made repeated efforts to contribute to the realization of a more peaceful and better world. In 1958, a memorial was erected on campus to commemorate the souls of our alumni and to express our determination to work toward the realization of a peaceful society.
As we mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the war, we reexamine the value of physical education and sports, and hereby declare once again our determination to cooperate and contribute to peace activities through physical education and sports, not only for Japan but also for the international community.