Japan Must Defend Its Land and People on Its Own—Like Any Other Nation
To do so, it must revise its Constitution, establish proper legal frameworks, and strengthen its military power.
July 5, 2020
The following is an essay by Ms. Yoshiko Sakurai, published on the front page of today’s Sankei Shimbun under the title, The True Nature of Japan Is That of a Frail Flower.
Every reader who began this piece with groggy eyes must have instantly awakened.
Yoshiko Sakurai is a “National Treasure” as defined by Saichō himself.
Indeed, this essay proves she is the supreme national treasure.
She is a woman.
Those who, under the guise of NHK newscasters, endlessly spew masochistic historical narratives and pseudo-moralisms in blatant violation of the Broadcasting Act are also women.
So are those who write loathsome and criminally reprehensible editorials for Asahi Shimbun to make a living.
So are the likes of Renhō, Kiyomi Tsujimoto, Mizuho Fukushima, and Noriko Ishigaki.
One cannot lump everything together.
Thus, discourses on “equality” grounded in pseudo-moralism and political correctness are arguments made for ulterior motives.
Nothing is more foolish than treating the women mentioned above on equal footing with Yoshiko Sakurai.
Such conduct is nothing short of arrogance—or sheer ignorance.
Every Japanese citizen must engrave each and every sentence of her essay into their hearts forever.
I have said many times before: I am the Kūkai and the Nobunaga of our age.
She is the Saichō of today—truly a treasure of our nation.
And a jewel of a treasure at that.
This is a manifesto that lays bare the spinelessness of countless men and the utter uselessness of countless women.
For reasons unknown, even those with pro-China leanings must read it word-for-word and sear it into their memory.
The novel coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, Hubei Province—what I call the Wuhan Virus—has plunged nations into crisis.
It has stripped away their façades and revealed their true natures.
This holds true for China.
For the United States.
And for Japan as well.
What the Wuhan Virus exposed about Japan is that it is a delicate flower, blooming within a protective enclosure.
Without that enclosure, it would undoubtedly be knocked down by the storm.
This “flower” is the crystallization of altruism passed down among the Japanese since the days of the Seventeen-Article Constitution.
Surpassing hierarchical divides, the Japanese overcame the first wave of the virus through consensus and mutual trust.
But the virus also exposed the stark truth about the nature of our state.
Though our people may be full of goodwill, our nation is not a functioning, legitimate state.
Even in a national emergency, the government’s declarations carry almost no coercive or authoritative power.
It merely pleads and requests.
Such a state is powerless in the face of foreign aggression.
Around the waters of the Senkaku Islands (Ishigaki City, Okinawa), armed ships of China’s Coast Guard—effectively part of the Chinese Navy—continue to intrude daily.
Japan must defend its land and its people by its own strength, just as any other country must.
To achieve that, we must revise our Constitution, establish proper legal infrastructure, and reinforce our national defense capabilities.
Without cultivating the mind and body, defending the nation, protecting its people, and preserving its values, how can we possibly shape the form of an independent state?
Under the brutal nature of the Chinese Communist Party, international relations are groaning under strain.
It is unmistakably clear that China is the gravest threat to countries that uphold democracy, human rights, humanitarian values, and the rule of law—including Japan.
Against such aggression, Japan must return to its original character: peaceful, yes—but courageous and strong.
The international climate we now face will only grow harsher.
China will become more overt and cunning in expanding its acts of aggression.
On June 30, China decided to impose the Hong Kong National Security Law.
Their hardline approach is a standard tactic used to crush the weak.
Agnes Chow, a young leader in Hong Kong’s democracy movement, posted a message: “As long as I’m alive, there is hope.”
What a sorrowful declaration that is.
On June 30, twenty-seven nations—including Japan, the U.K., France, and Germany—understood the oppressive reality behind those words and issued a joint statement of “grave concern” at the UN Human Rights Council.
But at the same meeting, 53 nations expressed support for China.
This is the power of Chinese money.
In the face of a China that utilizes economic clout, military force, and information warfare, the Japanese government clearly voiced protest on the international stage.
Yet oddly enough, within Japan, its position remains ambiguous.
What on earth are the Liberal Democratic Party and the Komeito doing?
Even now, they cannot declare the cancellation of Xi Jinping’s state visit to Japan.
Our nation has long benefited from the protective enclosures of international order.
Now is the time to give back.
It is time to defend the very values that have made Japan what it is.
To flatter China in hopes of rewards is sheer folly.
Every nation—and Japan especially—must be prepared to confront China head-on, lest it be crushed.
Why?
Because the Chinese Communist Party has instilled one core value into its citizens from early childhood: “Never forget national humiliation” (勿忘国恥).
This “national humiliation” refers to a century of defeat and subjugation, starting with the First Opium War in 1840, the Second Opium War (1856–60), the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–95), the Boxer Rebellion (1900), the Manchurian Incident (1931), and the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–45).
(See How China’s Historical Consciousness Was Constructed, Toyo Keizai Shinposha, by Wang Zheng, trans. by Makoto Itō.)
Of the six conflicts that constitute this “Century of Humiliation,” Japan was involved in four.
President Xi Jinping’s cherished “Chinese Dream” is inseparable from avenging this historical resentment.
For the Chinese people to “stand tall among the nations of the world” by the 100th anniversary of the PRC’s founding, they must reclaim what they believe to be stolen territories and restore their lost glory.
But in order to seize other countries’ lands, they need a narrative: a tale that justifies those territories as “originally Chinese” and “unjustly taken.”
One such tale is the “Northeast Project.”
Since the territory of present-day North Korea overlaps with the ancient Goguryeo kingdom, and because Goguryeo is claimed to have been a local government under Chinese rule, the narrative posits that North Korea is part of China.
The same goes for the South China Sea.
At the 2016 Asia Security Summit, a PLA deputy chief claimed that the sea had been Chinese territory for over 2,000 years—prompting ridicule.
Still, China ignored global criticism and, even as I write this, continues large-scale military drills around the Paracel Islands.
China’s narrative for Australia began in October 2003, when President Hu Jintao addressed the Australian Parliament.
He claimed that Ming Dynasty fleets reached Australia in the 1420s, and that Chinese settlers crossed the seas to settle there.
There is no historical evidence that Ming fleets ever sailed near Australia.
Yet two years later, the Chinese ambassador to Australia stated that Australia “had always been on Chinese world maps.”
The CCP’s Central Propaganda Department claimed that Admiral Zheng He reached Australia centuries before Captain Cook ever did.
The lies gradually escalated.
By 2016, former Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing was giving lectures at Australian National University claiming that it was Chinese explorers of the Yuan Dynasty (13th–14th centuries) who “discovered Tasmania.”
(See Silent Invasion, Clive Hamilton, trans. by Masashi Okuyama, supervised by Tetsushige Yamaoka, Asuka Shinsha.)
That same April, at the inaugural Japan-China-Korea Public Diplomacy Forum, Li declared:
“Japan should return the Senkaku Islands—China’s inherent territory.”
They are spinning such narratives even for Japan, with the intent of reclaiming “lost territories.”
Today, Australia has awakened to China’s true intentions and is fiercely resisting.
Hong Kong suffers.
Taiwan suffers.
Japan, you must rise with the spirit of a sovereign nation and fight alongside the United States.
We cannot afford to choose the wrong path at this turning point.
Equip your power.
Uphold Japan’s values.
And fight.
