Until he sincerely repents and apologizes to the Japanese people, no matter how much he flashes his fake smile, he will never escape the torments of King Enma in hell. April 1, 2019
This is a reissue of a chapter originally published on January 19, 2019, titled: “The NHK Seoul Bureau Chief Claimed Japan Had Colonized Korea—as If It Were the Truth—How Grave a Statement This Truly Is.”
This article, too, clearly proves that phrases such as “forced conscription” are fabrications and baseless accusations.
Korean Workers Dispatched to West Germany
(From Wikipedia. Originally published August 24, 2012)
Due to the Marshall Plan and the economic boom generated by the Korean War, West Germany experienced rapid growth known as the Wirtschaftswunder (“economic miracle”). To address labor shortages, starting in 1963, West Germany began accepting many Korean miners and nurses (known as dispatched miners and nurses). (Incidentally, Japan sent coal miners to West Germany between 1957 and 1965.)
During the first round of recruitment in 1963—when Korea’s official unemployment exceeded 2.5 million—there were 46,000 applicants for just 500 positions. From 1963 to 1978, a total of 79,000 miners, including 7,983 coal miners, were sent to Germany. From 1966 to 1976, over 10,000 Korean nurses also went to West Germany.
In December 1964, President Park Chung-hee and his wife visited the Hamborn coal mine in the Ruhr area to encourage the Korean workers. Moved to tears by the workers singing the national anthem, President Park gave a tearful speech:
“I know it must be incredibly difficult being so far from home, thinking of your families and hometowns. But remember why you have come to this distant foreign land. You carry the honor of your homeland. Work hard. Even if we cannot achieve prosperity in our lifetimes, let us lay the foundation for our children.”
The remittances sent by these workers reached $50 million annually, accounting for more than 2% of Korea’s GNP at one point. In 1967, they earned 36% of Korea’s total exports and played a major role in securing foreign loans from Germany, contributing significantly to the foundation of South Korea’s economic growth.
However, relations between Germany and Korea soured after the “East Berlin Incident” in July 1967.
It goes without saying that before Japan annexed Korea in 1910, the Korean Peninsula was one of the poorest regions in the world. The historical truth is that countless Koreans rushed to Japan—then Asia’s only advanced, first-class nation—in search of work.
At first, the Japanese government took a relaxed stance. But as labor migrants surged by the hundreds of thousands, Japan was compelled to handle and process them properly. Thus, an immigration control office for Korean migrants was established in Ōmura, Nagasaki Prefecture.
This is why so many Zainichi Koreans today are listed as having first arrived in Japan through Ōmura.
The claim of forced conscription is an outright lie—a baseless fabrication designed to extract money from Japan by portraying it as a perpetrator. It is the ultimate proof that those making the claim are people who carry the DNA of bottomless malice and plausible lies.
The Collaborators in Japan
Among those who have gone along with such lies are Asahi Shimbun, academics from the University of Tokyo, and NHK—particularly during the time when Ōkoshi hosted “News Center 9.”
His wrongdoing is made all the worse by the way he fawned over people like Kang Sang-jung—one of the leaders and agents of anti-Japanese propaganda. Until Ōkoshi sincerely repents and apologizes to the Japanese people, no matter how much he smiles that fake smile, he will not be spared the punishments of King Enma in the afterlife.
As someone from the same Tōhoku region, I find no one more disgraceful than this man.
That I feel nothing but deep contempt for people like Kenzaburō Ōe and Haruki Murakami should go without saying.
Os chamados testemunhos das mulheres de conforto são, de facto, narrativas que expõem a realidade dos sistemas de discriminação baseados em castas profundamente enraizados que existem nos seus próprios países desde que há registos históricos.
1 de abril de 2017
Já escrevi anteriormente sobre o sistema de castas na Península da Coreia. Hoje, gostaria de partilhar um artigo que encontrei online há pouco tempo.
Escusado será dizer que o conteúdo deste artigo não é mais do que a verdade.
Depois de o ler, fiquei mais uma vez impressionado com o quão traidores são o Asahi Shimbun e figuras como Mizuho Fukushima. Aproveitaram as histórias fabricadas por Seiji Yoshida - motivadas puramente pelo ódio ao Japão - e transformaram-nas em relatos sensacionalistas sobre “mulheres de conforto” para o mundo ver.
Os coreanos e os chineses, aproveitando-se deste facto, utilizaram incansavelmente as Nações Unidas e os Estados Unidos como campos de batalha para promover os chamados testemunhos de mulheres de conforto na sua campanha para difamar o Japão.
Mas, na realidade, estes testemunhos não falam de crimes cometidos pelo Japão, mas expõem antes as realidades horríveis dos sistemas de discriminação social enraizados na história dos seus próprios países.
Qualquer pessoa com um cérebro mais desenvolvido do que o de um aluno da escola primária deveria ser capaz de ver isto claramente.
Os ocidentais, em particular - aqueles que foram enganados pelas mentiras aparentemente plausíveis (mas fundamentalmente malévolas) contadas por estas pessoas - poderão finalmente aperceber-se da profundidade da sua própria ignorância, insensatez e fealdade moral.
O sistema de escravatura Nobi:O gado humano tratado como propriedade
(Excerto deHan River Flows Beneath Seoul Castle:Contos noturnos da história dos costumes coreanos por Lim Jong-guk, Heibonsha, 1987)
Sob o sistema nobi (奴婢) da Coreia, os seres humanos eram comprados, vendidos, saqueados, herdados, dotados e usados como garantia - tal como os bens materiais.
Como existiam apenas para o bem dos seus senhores e eram considerados propriedade do senhor, não havia qualquer problema se o senhor lhes batesse, violasse, vendesse ou até decapitasse.
Tal como torcer o pulso de um bebé, era muito fácil para um senhor transformar uma pi-nyeo (mulher nobi) num objeto sexual.
Se uma pi-nyeo provocasse os ciúmes da esposa do dono da casa, podia ser severamente espancada - ou, nos piores casos, até mesmo morta.
Embora parecessem humanos no exterior, estes pi-nyeo não eram efetivamente diferentes do gado. A sua venda ou punição era considerada uma questão natural, e mesmo ser espancada até à morte não constituía legalmente um assassínio.
No final da era Joseon, dizia-se que os cadáveres de raparigas jovens - abandonadas depois de terem sido assassinadas - eram frequentemente vistos emaranhados em objectos nos cursos de água e nos rios, sem nunca terem sido levados pela corrente.
Escusado será dizer que, quando se encontravam pedras ou paus inseridos nos seus órgãos genitais, isso significava que se tratava de raparigas que tinham sido usadas como brinquedos pelos seus senhores e depois assassinadas pelas esposas.
The mere fact that he was writing these eye-opening commentaries back in 2007 makes it absolutely clear that he is a truly one-of-a-kind journalist in the world. April 1, 2016
The following is an excerpt from “35 Thrilling Chapters to Awaken the Japanese Mind” (¥1,000) by Masayuki Takayama, the only journalist of his kind in the postwar world.
That he was writing such bold and illuminating commentary as early as 2007 is, in itself, proof enough that he is an authentic and unparalleled journalist on the world stage.
At the same time, he exemplifies what a journalist ought to be—not just for Japan, but for the world.
Those who claim the title of journalist around the world must immediately read all of his published works. Because, without doing so, it is now obvious that they have no right to call themselves journalists.
"The Comfort Women Issue" – How Asahi Cleansed Its False Reporting
— Jumping on the bandwagon of anti-Japanese outcry, from the New York Times to Chinese newspapers —
Mike Honda and the Question of “Dignity” in a Japanese-American
U.S. Congressman Mike Honda once claimed, “The Japanese military abducted 200,000 women from their homes in Korea and elsewhere, forced them into sexual slavery, and then massacred them.”
The accusations he cited were fabricated by Koreans with deep-seated hostility toward Japan.
Honda had a track record. As a member of the California State Assembly, he previously proposed and passed a resolution condemning Japan for the "Nanjing Massacre," using the same language as Jiang Zemin.
He never once investigated the basis of his claims.
John F. Kennedy, for instance, was of Irish descent.
He was ridiculed as a “White N****r” and struggled in a predominantly Protestant America as a Catholic. Even so, after becoming President, he proudly attended mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York and embraced his Irish roots.
In the U.S.—often called a “melting pot of races”—people proudly identify with their ancestral homelands and heritage. Yet Mike Honda, as a Japanese-American, stands alone in having thrown away any pride in his ancestral country and choosing instead to cozy up to Koreans and Chinese.
It’s almost unbelievable that a man like him is ethnically Japanese, and yet his statements as a U.S. Congressman cannot simply be ignored.
That’s why Prime Minister Shinzo Abe formally refuted Honda’s remarks.
Naturally. If Japan is subjected to false accusations, it is the duty of the head of state to publicly and decisively defend its honor.
But then, Norimitsu Onishi, a Japanese-American reporter for the New York Times, added fuel to the fire, writing: “Abe’s denial reopened old wounds of former comfort women.”
The New York Times, famous for its anti-Japanese bias, followed up with an editorial declaring: “The comfort women system involved violence and abduction. This wasn’t prostitution—it was continuous rape. There’s nothing wrong with calling them ‘sexual slaves of the Japanese military.’”
The Washington Post also chimed in, stating as if it were fact: “Historians say the Japanese military detained 200,000 women.”
In the face of this chorus of anti-Japanese narratives from major American newspapers, the Asahi Shimbun ran an editorial titled, “The Dignity of a Nation is at Stake.”
But what Japanese people truly want to question is this: Where is the dignity of Japanese-Americans?
Why would people like Mike and Norimitsu go so far as to fabricate lies to dishonor their ancestral homeland?
Yoshihisa Komori of the Sankei Shimbun offers part of the answer.
He reports that Mike Honda received money from a U.S.-based Chinese organization associated with Iris Chang, author of The Rape of Nanking.
In the end, it's a matter of personal character—or lack thereof.
As for Norimitsu, the same applies: his character is base.
Yet Asahi chose to invoke the phrase “national dignity.”
At a time when cooperation between Japan and the United States is more crucial than ever in countering the harmful influence of China, it is deeply troubling that the U.S. itself would join in the chorus of “Korean lies” that continue to infuriate the Japanese people.
If one expected the Asahi to question American dignity, they would be sorely mistaken.
Using the “History Tailors”
The asterisks and notes are mine.
This newspaper (Asahi Shimbun) is not questioning the dignity of the United States, but rather the dignity of Japan.
And their reasoning is absurd:
“They ask, ‘If American newspapers report it, why would Prime Minister Abe deny it?’”
“They claim that some media outlets are making excuses, saying it was the work of private contractors, not the Japanese state.”
Then they sigh, lamenting, “How pitiful.”
They revere American media reports as if they were synonymous with truth itself.
Asahi seems to believe the public hasn’t noticed, but in reality, everyone is aware of the brilliant laundering system of falsehoods that exists between Asahi Shimbun and newspapers in the U.S. and China.
The method is simple: First, Asahi uses its stable of domesticated “history tailors” like Akira Fujiwara, Motohisa Furuta, Ken’ichi Gotō, Yoshiaki Yoshimi, and Yasuhiko Yoshida to write articles that manipulate history.
(Today, the names would include Gen’ichirō Takahashi, Eiji Oguma, Takeshi Nakajima, Noriko Hama, and Sōta Kimura.)
Then, Norimitsu Onishi and others, correspondents from the New York Times housed in the same building, pick up these articles and publish them in U.S. newspapers. From there, Chinese and North Korean papers reprint them.
Finally, Asahi cites these reports as “According to American and Chinese newspapers…” and declares that these claims have now become “internationally accepted historical facts.”
It’s akin to how illicit money, gained through counterfeit dollars or drug trafficking, is laundered by transferring it from banks in Macau to accounts in Switzerland.
In essence, Asahi Shimbun is mimicking Kim Jong-il’s method of money laundering—only they do it with articles.
However, even with this sophisticated cycle of falsehoods, there is a fatal flaw in this particular editorial.
Asahi was the one that first reported, “The Japanese military abducted women from Korea and turned them into sex slaves.”
But when Prime Minister Abe exposed that as a lie, Asahi tried to wriggle out by saying, “It was private contractors, not the state.”
That is a sleight of hand. What Asahi must do first is apologize—for publishing falsehoods that insulted the Japanese people.
Only then would it be appropriate to begin a discussion about “comfort women on the battlefield.”
But I was astonished. As someone who visits Kyoto almost daily and considers it my own backyard, I was especially struck by the natural clarity of the commentary I read: "The Japanese military was a force of a people with a samurai tradition. Therefore, it valued discipline above all else, and held honor in the highest regard." (The implication being: The comfort women issue is a complete fabrication.)
A female lawyer in the United States—someone who runs her own law firm and is a formidable professional—retweeted the English translation of this essay with a resounding “Like!” It was because that article served as a 100% vindication of the truth behind the original commentary. (All emphasis within the text other than the title is mine.)
Prostitutes Arriving by Wagon
But before anything else, the Asahi Shimbun needs to clean up the historical stains left by the falsehoods its so-called “scholars” have smeared upon it.
If they did that, they would begin to understand that war means to conquer the enemy, and that conquest means to plunder what belongs to them.
Even Islam, which arose in the 7th century, teaches that plunder is acceptable—as long as the distribution of war spoils is fair.
And the greatest spoil of war?
It is women.
To seize and violate women is to contaminate the bloodline of the conquered nation or people—to insert the conqueror’s blood and remove ethnic purity.
In other words, the act of conquest is defined as plunder and rape.
Thus, throughout history, nations and peoples across the world have waged war following this universal and eternal definition.
Take the Russians, for instance.
At the end of World War II, when they invaded Berlin, they raped approximately 130,000 German women within just six months. 10,000 became pregnant. 8,000 managed to get abortions, but 2,000 gave birth to mixed-race children with narrow foreheads and slanted eyes, unmistakably Slavic in appearance.
In the 13th century, the Mongols advanced into Europe and left behind countless mixed-race children in regions such as Iran and Russia.
When Mongol features appeared in a newborn child, that child was often ostracized from society. This was explained as an effort to reestablish blood purity—but as a Mongoloid Japanese person, I can’t help but feel a certain unease about that.
Americans, too, behaved similarly to the Russians. Upon entering World War II, U.S. soldiers committed 400 rapes in the United Kingdom alone. On the European front, a total of 14,000 rapes were recorded.
In Japan, which had surrendered unconditionally, the behavior was even more brutal. American soldiers stormed into private homes, raped wives and daughters, and killed those who resisted. According to records from the Procurement Agency, over 2,600 civilians were murdered during the occupation period.
This kind of behavior was committed by militaries around the world. But there was one exception: Japan.
From the First Sino-Japanese War onward, the Japanese military operated under regulations that prohibited plunder and rape.
This discipline held true during the Russo-Japanese War, in China, and even in the Pacific War.
However, forcing young soldiers in a life-or-death battlefield to repress their urges could, conversely, lead to a breakdown in unit cohesion.
Thus, red-light district brothels in towns were brought near the battlefield.
This is reminiscent of a scene from East of Eden, a story set in America’s frontier days, where prostitutes would travel from town to town by wagon.
It was the same concept.
A Newspaper That Cannot Tell the Truth Should Be Shut Down (May 2007 issue)
Among those who understood the uniquely Japanese consideration of sending wagons to the battlefield to preserve, at least in part, the dignity of the opposing nation’s people, was Kim Wansop (Kim Wan-sŏp).
He wrote about it with praise in his book “A Vindication of the Pro-Japanese Faction.”
Historian Ikuhiko Hata has clarified that the number of comfort women was around 20,000, and that half of them were Japanese.
Even the story of Koreans being abducted, which the Asahi Shimbun spread in collaboration with Seiji Yoshida, was later denied—by the Koreans themselves.
The U.S. military conducted its own interviews with comfort women. From statements collected on the Burma front, it was recorded that Korean brothel owners who exploited the women were expelled. It was also noted that the women were granted one day of rest per week and were subjected to mandatory medical examinations for venereal diseases. There are even records of Korean women, sold into prostitution to repay their parents’ debts, who returned home after having fully paid off those debts.
On April 1, Asahi Shimbun declared in its newly redesigned edition that it would cease publishing lies, and addressed the comfort women issue.
While the article was—for a change—not filled with falsehoods, it still lacked integrity. Even though they had the chance to interview Mike Honda, they failed to ask him the most obvious question: Why did he lie? Nor did they question the dubious reliability of the data he cited.
It was as if they were sending out a child on an errand—completely lacking in substance.
Now that they’ve stopped printing lies, they seem confused about what they’re even allowed to write.
If they cannot report the truth, perhaps it would be better for them to cease publication altogether.
What the World Doesn’t Know Is What Happened After That December 31, 2013 (This is a continuation from the previous chapter.)
The world may have known that South Korea’s presidential election was a dead heat, too close to call until the very end.
But what the world doesn’t know is what happened after that.
I came to learn this because I was a subscriber to the Japanese edition of Newsweek.
This publication—one of the world’s best weekly magazines—has a circulation of only about 90,000 in Japan. Outside of Japan, the Japanese-language edition is virtually unknown.
I once introduced an article written by a certain Japanese scholar. He had been selected as an external editorial reviewer for the Asahi Shimbun, and commented that compared to Western high-quality newspapers, the major Japanese dailies are so immature that they’re practically on the level of kindergartners.
Regarding the large headlines on the front pages every day, I wouldn’t say his remark was too extreme. In fact, especially during Japan’s so-called “Lost Two Decades,” this was precisely the state of Japan’s mass media.
Not only that—I pointed out in “The Turntable of Civilization” that the media itself was responsible for creating Japan’s Lost Two Decades.
Western “quality newspapers” have circulation numbers in the hundreds of thousands. This means that the vast majority of people don’t actually know the real state of other countries at all.
Even without that, in a democratic society, it is often evil that prevails.
Liars hold sway.
Oliver Stone’s monumental work conveys that very truth.
And it is toward America and the world that these liars direct their elaborate schemes.
Now, let me return to the fact mentioned at the beginning—the truth I came to learn afterward.
In the Japanese edition of Newsweek, the final column of each issue is written in rotation by foreign residents in Japan: French, British, Chinese, Korean, and so on.
It was in the article written by a Korean resident in Japan that I first learned the following:
During that presidential election, the ruling party had used an intelligence-agency-like department to wage a smear campaign against the opposition candidate—especially on the internet. This clandestine operation helped lead the ruling party’s candidate to victory.
When this fact was exposed, massive demonstrations erupted, shaking the Park Geun-hye administration to its core. That was the first time I learned of what was really happening in South Korea. I later searched and confirmed that this was, in fact, entirely true.
I had no recollection of reading anything about this in either the Asahi Shimbun or the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, both of which I subscribe to. Although recently, even they have reluctantly begun to report on it.
It is only so-called “quality newspapers” that barely report a fraction of the truth of the world. But even in the West, these are only read at the level of around 100,000 copies.
Most people in most countries have absolutely no idea about the realities of other nations, or of the world at large.
Do the elites of Japan and the rest of the world—who fancy themselves to be informed—actually know the truth?
The answer is no.
They are always deceived by liars.
And the worse the person is, the more thoroughly they understand this.
Such people will lie endlessly, without remorse.
They behave exactly as true villains would—lacking even a shred of gratitude toward Japan for saving them repeatedly in times of crisis.
And this phenomenon is by no means limited to South Korea.
Strike the Bell with the Power of Your Discipline—To Crush Their Evil December 31, 2015
Yesterday, on the station platform, a friend of mine—one of Japan’s most avid readers—shared the following with me.
In this month’s issue of the magazine Seiron (¥780), a dialogue article mentioned, for example, that most economics courses in Japan were based on Marxist economics. As a result, many of those currently in key positions in the Japan Federation of Bar Associations (Nichibenren), or among Asahi Shimbun’s editorial writers, were educated under that very framework.
One scholar, now a professor at the University of Tsukuba, said: "When I was a student, I read Das Kapital three times. It wasn’t until I went to the Soviet Union and saw a crowd of unemployed people and job postings in the backstreets of Leningrad that I realized how wrong it all was."
Hearing this, several thoughts flashed through my mind.
First, I thought: Maybe it was right that I never went to university, because I was simply too smart for it (laughs).
Second, I remembered the time when Japan’s infamous "Total Volume Regulation" (sōryō kisei) policy began—the very trigger of the “lost two decades.” Back then, I owned real estate in Sendai that had saved our company from ruin.
However, a major trust bank’s Sendai branch—which had no prior dealings with our firm—unilaterally appraised our property and advertised it, ruining a transaction that had already been arranged. The deal collapsed.
Three years later—when it was already too late for us—the matter reached the Tokyo District Court, where a settlement was requested. I was stunned by what the presiding judge said directly to my face:
"That’s why I’ve always said—land doesn’t belong to anyone."
In a democratic state built on capitalism, here was a judge sounding like a character from Tolstoy’s Ivan the Fool—or more accurately (as I realized only yesterday), like a communist.
The people of Nichibenren and Asahi Shimbun are all birds of a feather.
While enjoying elite, well-paid positions in Japan—one of the safest, most peaceful, and freest nations on Earth, they slander and defame the country. They try to funnel ¥30 trillion of taxpayers' money—earned by 90% of Japanese citizens who work full-time for an annual income of ¥5 million—to prop up the longevity of single-party communist dictatorships. They try to spend ¥1 trillion of national taxes on Korean Peninsula prostitutes—many of whom earned a fortune during wartime by their own will—based on utter fabrications.
The Real Victims of Wartime Sexual Violence
The true victims of wartime sexual violence were the Japanese women— civilians of the internationally recognized state of Manchukuo—who were slaughtered in the Tongzhou Incident in horrifying, culturally incomprehensible ways at the hands of Chinese soldiers.
Or, the countless Japanese girls, aged 13 and above, who were raped while fleeing Manchuria at the end of the war by Soviet and Australian soldiers— a level of cruelty beyond words, unspeakable in every sense.
To such real victims, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations and Asahi Shimbun say nothing.
Instead, they allow ¥1 billion to be paid—without flinching—to the Korean Peninsula’s wartime prostitutes, who had earned handsomely during the war years.
Tonight, in Kyoto, the 108 bells will ring.
The monks who strike them must do so not just in prayer or ritual, but to shatter the ideologies, minds, and souls of those like them— with the force of spiritual discipline built through years of training.
But how many monks truly understand that?
It is not enough to simply chant “Namu Amida Butsu” and hope for salvation. It is not enough to rely on King Enma to sort the wicked.
You must strike the bells with your focused will—summoned by the ascetic power you have cultivated—to crush their evil into dust.
But precisely because they wear the mask of justice and pretend to be guardians of democracy, they are more dangerous than the common thugs on the street. December 31, 2015
When I decided to take on Kansai Keizai Ren (the Kansai Economic Federation), the Doyukai (Japan Association of Corporate Executives), and the Osaka City Hall alone for three months, I made it a point to document the details of each conversation I had with them. I then handed these notes to our company’s managing director and had them delivered to a journalist named Tagaya—who had written a major feature on the North Yard redevelopment.
And yet, there was not a single response.
In fact, this was something that the Asahi Shimbun Osaka headquarters should have been far angrier about than I was.
As many readers know, I once turned down a golden opportunity—offered by a close friend, a Dentsu executive in Tokyo who was affectionately nicknamed “the Lord”—to move my base of operations to Tokyo, perhaps even taking an office in the Imperial Hotel building. He advised me that I’d be better off establishing our real headquarters in Tokyo for the future.
But I refused. I clung to Osaka. It was a personal, all-in fight for me.
The journalist Tagaya, mentioned above, was a man with no discernible philosophical backbone. He wrote articles like a nue—a shapeshifting creature from folklore—giving no clear sense of purpose behind the massive feature he compiled on the North Yard issue.
Looking back, he was nothing more than a runner—a courier—or at best, a front-facing agent for Asahi’s superficial moralism.
The real evil was operating from the shadows, working to plunge the North Yard project into chaos, scheming to bury the second-phase development by any means necessary.
In this sense, what I experienced was the perfect answer to the question: What is the Asahi Shimbun?
In short, Asahi is a match-pump: they set the fire and then pretend to put it out.
Publicly, they use empty moralism to commission articles from irrelevant figures.
Behind the scenes, however, are the real villains—editorial board members armed with incoherent ideologies like Marxism and more, men who wear their supposed absolute power over Japanese media like armor. These successive generations of editorial writers have dominated Japan by threatening: “Obey us, or we will manipulate public opinion and obliterate you.”
In the end, they are no different from the gangsters that inhabit the back alleys of society.
But because they wear the mask of justice, because they pose as defenders of democracy, they are even more insidious and dangerous than the average thug.
The mere fact that he was writing these eye-opening commentaries back in 2007 makes it absolutely clear that he is a truly one-of-a-kind journalist in the world. April 1, 2016
The following is an excerpt from “35 Thrilling Chapters to Awaken the Japanese Mind” (¥1,000) by Masayuki Takayama, the only journalist of his kind in the postwar world.
That he was writing such bold and illuminating commentary as early as 2007 is, in itself, proof enough that he is an authentic and unparalleled journalist on the world stage.
At the same time, he exemplifies what a journalist ought to be—not just for Japan, but for the world.
Those who claim the title of journalist around the world must immediately read all of his published works. Because, without doing so, it is now obvious that they have no right to call themselves journalists.
"The Comfort Women Issue" – How Asahi Cleansed Its False Reporting
— Jumping on the bandwagon of anti-Japanese outcry, from the New York Times to Chinese newspapers —
Mike Honda and the Question of “Dignity” in a Japanese-American
U.S. Congressman Mike Honda once claimed, “The Japanese military abducted 200,000 women from their homes in Korea and elsewhere, forced them into sexual slavery, and then massacred them.”
The accusations he cited were fabricated by Koreans with deep-seated hostility toward Japan.
Honda had a track record. As a member of the California State Assembly, he previously proposed and passed a resolution condemning Japan for the "Nanjing Massacre," using the same language as Jiang Zemin.
He never once investigated the basis of his claims.
John F. Kennedy, for instance, was of Irish descent.
He was ridiculed as a “White N****r” and struggled in a predominantly Protestant America as a Catholic. Even so, after becoming President, he proudly attended mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York and embraced his Irish roots.
In the U.S.—often called a “melting pot of races”—people proudly identify with their ancestral homelands and heritage. Yet Mike Honda, as a Japanese-American, stands alone in having thrown away any pride in his ancestral country and choosing instead to cozy up to Koreans and Chinese.
It’s almost unbelievable that a man like him is ethnically Japanese, and yet his statements as a U.S. Congressman cannot simply be ignored.
That’s why Prime Minister Shinzo Abe formally refuted Honda’s remarks.
Naturally. If Japan is subjected to false accusations, it is the duty of the head of state to publicly and decisively defend its honor.
But then, Norimitsu Onishi, a Japanese-American reporter for the New York Times, added fuel to the fire, writing: “Abe’s denial reopened old wounds of former comfort women.”
The New York Times, famous for its anti-Japanese bias, followed up with an editorial declaring: “The comfort women system involved violence and abduction. This wasn’t prostitution—it was continuous rape. There’s nothing wrong with calling them ‘sexual slaves of the Japanese military.’”
The Washington Post also chimed in, stating as if it were fact: “Historians say the Japanese military detained 200,000 women.”
In the face of this chorus of anti-Japanese narratives from major American newspapers, the Asahi Shimbun ran an editorial titled, “The Dignity of a Nation is at Stake.”
But what Japanese people truly want to question is this: Where is the dignity of Japanese-Americans?
Why would people like Mike and Norimitsu go so far as to fabricate lies to dishonor their ancestral homeland?
Yoshihisa Komori of the Sankei Shimbun offers part of the answer.
He reports that Mike Honda received money from a U.S.-based Chinese organization associated with Iris Chang, author of The Rape of Nanking.
In the end, it's a matter of personal character—or lack thereof.
As for Norimitsu, the same applies: his character is base.
Yet Asahi chose to invoke the phrase “national dignity.”
At a time when cooperation between Japan and the United States is more crucial than ever in countering the harmful influence of China, it is deeply troubling that the U.S. itself would join in the chorus of “Korean lies” that continue to infuriate the Japanese people.
If one expected the Asahi to question American dignity, they would be sorely mistaken.
Using the “History Tailors”
The asterisks and notes are mine.
This newspaper (Asahi Shimbun) is not questioning the dignity of the United States, but rather the dignity of Japan.
And their reasoning is absurd:
“They ask, ‘If American newspapers report it, why would Prime Minister Abe deny it?’”
“They claim that some media outlets are making excuses, saying it was the work of private contractors, not the Japanese state.”
Then they sigh, lamenting, “How pitiful.”
They revere American media reports as if they were synonymous with truth itself.
Asahi seems to believe the public hasn’t noticed, but in reality, everyone is aware of the brilliant laundering system of falsehoods that exists between Asahi Shimbun and newspapers in the U.S. and China.
The method is simple: First, Asahi uses its stable of domesticated “history tailors” like Akira Fujiwara, Motohisa Furuta, Ken’ichi Gotō, Yoshiaki Yoshimi, and Yasuhiko Yoshida to write articles that manipulate history.
(Today, the names would include Gen’ichirō Takahashi, Eiji Oguma, Takeshi Nakajima, Noriko Hama, and Sōta Kimura.)
Then, Norimitsu Onishi and others, correspondents from the New York Times housed in the same building, pick up these articles and publish them in U.S. newspapers. From there, Chinese and North Korean papers reprint them.
Finally, Asahi cites these reports as “According to American and Chinese newspapers…” and declares that these claims have now become “internationally accepted historical facts.”
It’s akin to how illicit money, gained through counterfeit dollars or drug trafficking, is laundered by transferring it from banks in Macau to accounts in Switzerland.
In essence, Asahi Shimbun is mimicking Kim Jong-il’s method of money laundering—only they do it with articles.
However, even with this sophisticated cycle of falsehoods, there is a fatal flaw in this particular editorial.
Asahi was the one that first reported, “The Japanese military abducted women from Korea and turned them into sex slaves.”
But when Prime Minister Abe exposed that as a lie, Asahi tried to wriggle out by saying, “It was private contractors, not the state.”
That is a sleight of hand. What Asahi must do first is apologize—for publishing falsehoods that insulted the Japanese people.
Only then would it be appropriate to begin a discussion about “comfort women on the battlefield.”
But I was astonished. As someone who visits Kyoto almost daily and considers it my own backyard, I was especially struck by the natural clarity of the commentary I read: "The Japanese military was a force of a people with a samurai tradition. Therefore, it valued discipline above all else, and held honor in the highest regard." (The implication being: The comfort women issue is a complete fabrication.)
A female lawyer in the United States—someone who runs her own law firm and is a formidable professional—retweeted the English translation of this essay with a resounding “Like!” It was because that article served as a 100% vindication of the truth behind the original commentary. (All emphasis within the text other than the title is mine.)
Prostitutes Arriving by Wagon
But before anything else, the Asahi Shimbun needs to clean up the historical stains left by the falsehoods its so-called “scholars” have smeared upon it.
If they did that, they would begin to understand that war means to conquer the enemy, and that conquest means to plunder what belongs to them.
Even Islam, which arose in the 7th century, teaches that plunder is acceptable—as long as the distribution of war spoils is fair.
And the greatest spoil of war?
It is women.
To seize and violate women is to contaminate the bloodline of the conquered nation or people—to insert the conqueror’s blood and remove ethnic purity.
In other words, the act of conquest is defined as plunder and rape.
Thus, throughout history, nations and peoples across the world have waged war following this universal and eternal definition.
Take the Russians, for instance.
At the end of World War II, when they invaded Berlin, they raped approximately 130,000 German women within just six months. 10,000 became pregnant. 8,000 managed to get abortions, but 2,000 gave birth to mixed-race children with narrow foreheads and slanted eyes, unmistakably Slavic in appearance.
In the 13th century, the Mongols advanced into Europe and left behind countless mixed-race children in regions such as Iran and Russia.
When Mongol features appeared in a newborn child, that child was often ostracized from society. This was explained as an effort to reestablish blood purity—but as a Mongoloid Japanese person, I can’t help but feel a certain unease about that.
Americans, too, behaved similarly to the Russians. Upon entering World War II, U.S. soldiers committed 400 rapes in the United Kingdom alone. On the European front, a total of 14,000 rapes were recorded.
In Japan, which had surrendered unconditionally, the behavior was even more brutal. American soldiers stormed into private homes, raped wives and daughters, and killed those who resisted. According to records from the Procurement Agency, over 2,600 civilians were murdered during the occupation period.
This kind of behavior was committed by militaries around the world. But there was one exception: Japan.
From the First Sino-Japanese War onward, the Japanese military operated under regulations that prohibited plunder and rape.
This discipline held true during the Russo-Japanese War, in China, and even in the Pacific War.
However, forcing young soldiers in a life-or-death battlefield to repress their urges could, conversely, lead to a breakdown in unit cohesion.
Thus, red-light district brothels in towns were brought near the battlefield.
This is reminiscent of a scene from East of Eden, a story set in America’s frontier days, where prostitutes would travel from town to town by wagon.
It was the same concept.
A Newspaper That Cannot Tell the Truth Should Be Shut Down (May 2007 issue)
Among those who understood the uniquely Japanese consideration of sending wagons to the battlefield to preserve, at least in part, the dignity of the opposing nation’s people, was Kim Wansop (Kim Wan-sŏp).
He wrote about it with praise in his book “A Vindication of the Pro-Japanese Faction.”
Historian Ikuhiko Hata has clarified that the number of comfort women was around 20,000, and that half of them were Japanese.
Even the story of Koreans being abducted, which the Asahi Shimbun spread in collaboration with Seiji Yoshida, was later denied—by the Koreans themselves.
The U.S. military conducted its own interviews with comfort women. From statements collected on the Burma front, it was recorded that Korean brothel owners who exploited the women were expelled. It was also noted that the women were granted one day of rest per week and were subjected to mandatory medical examinations for venereal diseases. There are even records of Korean women, sold into prostitution to repay their parents’ debts, who returned home after having fully paid off those debts.
On April 1, Asahi Shimbun declared in its newly redesigned edition that it would cease publishing lies, and addressed the comfort women issue.
While the article was—for a change—not filled with falsehoods, it still lacked integrity. Even though they had the chance to interview Mike Honda, they failed to ask him the most obvious question: Why did he lie? Nor did they question the dubious reliability of the data he cited.
It was as if they were sending out a child on an errand—completely lacking in substance.
Now that they’ve stopped printing lies, they seem confused about what they’re even allowed to write.
If they cannot report the truth, perhaps it would be better for them to cease publication altogether.
TV Asahi’s flagship program, Hōdō Station, broadcast this scene in close-up, over and over again. April 1, 2017
It goes without saying that Ri Chison, who serves as a desk editor in the Foreign News Department at TV Asahi, is an elite member of Chongryon (the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan), an organization that operates in line with North Korean interests. During his time as a student at Peking University, he reportedly published a paper in a Chongryon-affiliated media outlet stating that “Zainichi Koreans are a premium class.”
Despite this background, and espousing such a mindset that would refer to Zainichi Koreans as “premium,” he holds a powerful position at a television station that still wields significant influence over the Japanese public.
Anyone who has ever watched Hōdō Station and felt something was off about its editing style would surely understand why, after reading this commentary.
During the height of the Moritomo Gakuen scandal—sparked by the Asahi Shimbun—there was a live broadcast of a Diet session in which Tetsuro Fukuyama of the Democratic Party of Japan (Minshinto) arrogantly interrogated Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, one of the most capable politicians of our time.
Mr. Suga responded appropriately and straightforwardly—exactly as the opposition intended.
At that moment, Fukuyama and the other lawmakers present—individuals who not only deserve utter contempt but could rightly be called traitors—burst into orchestrated, mocking laughter.
TV Asahi’s Hōdō Station, their most prominent news program, then broadcast that scene in close-up, looping it endlessly.
It was a horrifying moment, and I felt chills watching it—surely, any decent Japanese person would have felt the same.
The fact that an elite of Chongryon, an organization that acts in accordance with North Korean directives, is in charge of the foreign news desk at TV Asahi would leave any international observer utterly speechless.
If you have read this and learned what kind of individuals are actually shaping and disseminating information about Japan to the world, then you must never again behave with arrogance or disrespect toward Japan.
Of course, for those who—like the original informants—would gladly suffer the torments of hell at the hands of King Enma, or those who are financially backed by foreign intelligence agencies and therefore continue to toe the line, the truth will remain irrelevant.
