The following is from a dialogue between Masayuki Takayama and Miki Otaka, published in the monthly magazine WiLL, on pages 184-200, under the title "Let's hit back at the outrageous 'anti-Japanese' books that insult Japan."
This dialogue also proves that Masayuki Takayama is the most deserving of the Nobel Prize for Literature or the Nobel Peace Prize.
It also proves that the dialogue partner, Miki Otaka, is a genuine journalist.
anti-Japanese discourse is linked to it.
How can they not even acknowledge the achievements of Kiichiro Higuchi...
Countering the outrageous book!
Takayama
There are forces all over the world that seek to undermine Japan.
In March 2024, a preposterous book called "Japan's Holocaust" (written by Brian Mark Rig / not yet translated into Japanese) was published in the United States.
Ootaka
The book contains absurd theories such as the "comfort women" issue, the Nanking Massacre, and the "massacre of 30 million people in Asia by the Japanese army under orders from the emperor". Furthermore, the author, Mr. Rig, boasts that he "conducted research at more than 18 research facilities in five countries".
Despite this, there are also ridiculous passages such as "the Japanese army were pedophiles, just like Jeffrey Epstein," which discuss the Japanese army on a par with child prostitution brokers, and the book is complete of war crime delusions on a par with those of Yoshida Seiji.
Takayama
In response to such a ridiculous book, Ms. Otaka published "A New Look at the 'Japan's Holocaust'" (Businesssha).
He thoroughly refutes the book using his extensive knowledge and investigative skills.
Who is the author, Rig?
Ohtaka
Born in 1971, he is a Jew living in the United States.
He holds the titles of American Military University (German military history) and Southern Methodist University historian at the American Military University (German military history) and Southern Methodist University historian.
He is also a former Marine Corps officer and a board member of the Holocaust Museum in Dallas.
Takayama
Rigg has also published a book called "Hitler's Jewish Soldiers" (not yet translated into Japanese), but there were allegations of plagiarism.
Ohtaka
The book is about the 150,000 people in the Nazi German army who were classified as having Jewish ancestry.
As a result of the racial laws first enacted in the mid-1930s, an astonishing number of German soldiers were classified by the Nazis as Jews or as "part-Jews."
Including this aspect, Rigg developed a critique of Hitler's rule, but when he wrote an article on "part-Jews" before publication, he was accused by a German scholar of plagiarism.
Incidentally, Dr. Henry Turner, a Yale University professor who was Mr. Rigg's supervisor, said, "Mr. Rigg is not actually an intellectual or a historian, and he is not suited to academia, so I refused to recommend him for graduate school."
Takayama
There's nothing we can do about it.
Ohtaka
Even though someone like this wrote this book, the Washington Post ran an article entitled "War Crimes Committed in the Name of the Emperor: During World War II, Japan committed numerous atrocities against its Asian neighbors." rape, beheadings, mutilations, and disembowelments were routine occurrences for the Japanese military, from the lowest-ranking soldiers to the highest-ranking officers."
(dated April 26, 2024), etc., and it is a big problem.
Andrew Roberts, a neo-conservative, is listed as a signatory to Japan's Holocaust letter, which justified the Iraq War by claiming that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.
Incidentally, when it was discovered that there were no weapons of mass destruction, Mr. Roberts made some very strained excuses.
Also, the person who recommended him, Lee R. Mandel, said, "Most of the discussion of the Holocaust of World War II centers on the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany. The Holocaust committed by the Empire of Japan has been little studied and even less recognized. Historian Brian Riggs has documented what is probably the definitive study on the subject in his exhaustive research. (...), 'Japan's Holocaust' is a must-read for any student of World War II." I really doubt that he wrote such a compliment after reading the book.
Takayama
It shows where the recommender is from.
Anti-Japanese Discourse is Interlocking
Ohtaka
I feel that anti-Japanese discourse is interlocking, not only in "Japan's Holocaust" but also more recently.
In 2017, Thomas Lockley, an associate professor at Nihon University, published "Nobunaga and Yashuke: The Black Samurai Who Survived Honnoji" (Ota Shuppan).
In it, he wrote that "it seems that a trend began in Japan during the Warring States period for local notables to use African slaves as symbols of authority."
In other words, he is trying to say that Yasusuke, the black samurai who served Oda Nobunaga, was a slave.
Takayama
That's complete nonsense.
Nobunaga took a liking to Yasusuke and had him serve by his side.
There is also a theory that he accompanied Oda Nobunaga at the time of the Honnoji Incident and fled with his head.
In the end, the whereabouts of Nobunaga's head are lost in the mists of history, but they were so closely connected.
If he was a slave, there is no way he would have been so devoted to Nobunaga, and in any case, the Japanese people have no concept of slavery.
The Japanese hated slavery.
In 1775, just before the United States gained independence, the Swedish botanist Thunberg came to Nagasaki disguised as a Dutchman.
He also visited Edo and left a travelogue of Japan, in which he wrote that "the Japanese were seriously angry at the way the Dutch mistreated and overworked their black slaves."
The Japanese hated these heartless Dutchmen and even wrote haiku about them, such as "The Dutchmen who come to the castle are followed by flies because they don't bathe and let their body odor waft about."
Furthermore, there is a story that the Nagasaki Magistrate's Office took pity on the oppressed black people and took them out of Dejima to let them play in the Maruyama red-light district.
Ohtaka
Lockley is highly malicious.
He added to the "Yasuke" entry on Wikipedia and even tampered with the Encyclopædia Britannica.
He is deliberately trying to defame Japan.
Incidentally, Lockley is also of Jewish descent (his great-grandfather was Jewish).
Takayama
Is there a deliberate anti-Japanese wave occurring?
Ohtaka
In fact, it seems that Lockley's influence has led to the BBC reporting on "the samurai from Africa" and CNN reporting on "the enduring legacy of Yasuke," and Lockley himself is now appearing in articles in overseas media.
If his discourse spread worldwide, misunderstandings about Japan would only increase.
This dialogue also proves that Masayuki Takayama is the most deserving of the Nobel Prize for Literature or the Nobel Peace Prize.
It also proves that the dialogue partner, Miki Otaka, is a genuine journalist.
anti-Japanese discourse is linked to it.
How can they not even acknowledge the achievements of Kiichiro Higuchi...
Countering the outrageous book!
Takayama
There are forces all over the world that seek to undermine Japan.
In March 2024, a preposterous book called "Japan's Holocaust" (written by Brian Mark Rig / not yet translated into Japanese) was published in the United States.
Ootaka
The book contains absurd theories such as the "comfort women" issue, the Nanking Massacre, and the "massacre of 30 million people in Asia by the Japanese army under orders from the emperor". Furthermore, the author, Mr. Rig, boasts that he "conducted research at more than 18 research facilities in five countries".
Despite this, there are also ridiculous passages such as "the Japanese army were pedophiles, just like Jeffrey Epstein," which discuss the Japanese army on a par with child prostitution brokers, and the book is complete of war crime delusions on a par with those of Yoshida Seiji.
Takayama
In response to such a ridiculous book, Ms. Otaka published "A New Look at the 'Japan's Holocaust'" (Businesssha).
He thoroughly refutes the book using his extensive knowledge and investigative skills.
Who is the author, Rig?
Ohtaka
Born in 1971, he is a Jew living in the United States.
He holds the titles of American Military University (German military history) and Southern Methodist University historian at the American Military University (German military history) and Southern Methodist University historian.
He is also a former Marine Corps officer and a board member of the Holocaust Museum in Dallas.
Takayama
Rigg has also published a book called "Hitler's Jewish Soldiers" (not yet translated into Japanese), but there were allegations of plagiarism.
Ohtaka
The book is about the 150,000 people in the Nazi German army who were classified as having Jewish ancestry.
As a result of the racial laws first enacted in the mid-1930s, an astonishing number of German soldiers were classified by the Nazis as Jews or as "part-Jews."
Including this aspect, Rigg developed a critique of Hitler's rule, but when he wrote an article on "part-Jews" before publication, he was accused by a German scholar of plagiarism.
Incidentally, Dr. Henry Turner, a Yale University professor who was Mr. Rigg's supervisor, said, "Mr. Rigg is not actually an intellectual or a historian, and he is not suited to academia, so I refused to recommend him for graduate school."
Takayama
There's nothing we can do about it.
Ohtaka
Even though someone like this wrote this book, the Washington Post ran an article entitled "War Crimes Committed in the Name of the Emperor: During World War II, Japan committed numerous atrocities against its Asian neighbors." rape, beheadings, mutilations, and disembowelments were routine occurrences for the Japanese military, from the lowest-ranking soldiers to the highest-ranking officers."
(dated April 26, 2024), etc., and it is a big problem.
Andrew Roberts, a neo-conservative, is listed as a signatory to Japan's Holocaust letter, which justified the Iraq War by claiming that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.
Incidentally, when it was discovered that there were no weapons of mass destruction, Mr. Roberts made some very strained excuses.
Also, the person who recommended him, Lee R. Mandel, said, "Most of the discussion of the Holocaust of World War II centers on the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany. The Holocaust committed by the Empire of Japan has been little studied and even less recognized. Historian Brian Riggs has documented what is probably the definitive study on the subject in his exhaustive research. (...), 'Japan's Holocaust' is a must-read for any student of World War II." I really doubt that he wrote such a compliment after reading the book.
Takayama
It shows where the recommender is from.
Anti-Japanese Discourse is Interlocking
Ohtaka
I feel that anti-Japanese discourse is interlocking, not only in "Japan's Holocaust" but also more recently.
In 2017, Thomas Lockley, an associate professor at Nihon University, published "Nobunaga and Yashuke: The Black Samurai Who Survived Honnoji" (Ota Shuppan).
In it, he wrote that "it seems that a trend began in Japan during the Warring States period for local notables to use African slaves as symbols of authority."
In other words, he is trying to say that Yasusuke, the black samurai who served Oda Nobunaga, was a slave.
Takayama
That's complete nonsense.
Nobunaga took a liking to Yasusuke and had him serve by his side.
There is also a theory that he accompanied Oda Nobunaga at the time of the Honnoji Incident and fled with his head.
In the end, the whereabouts of Nobunaga's head are lost in the mists of history, but they were so closely connected.
If he was a slave, there is no way he would have been so devoted to Nobunaga, and in any case, the Japanese people have no concept of slavery.
The Japanese hated slavery.
In 1775, just before the United States gained independence, the Swedish botanist Thunberg came to Nagasaki disguised as a Dutchman.
He also visited Edo and left a travelogue of Japan, in which he wrote that "the Japanese were seriously angry at the way the Dutch mistreated and overworked their black slaves."
The Japanese hated these heartless Dutchmen and even wrote haiku about them, such as "The Dutchmen who come to the castle are followed by flies because they don't bathe and let their body odor waft about."
Furthermore, there is a story that the Nagasaki Magistrate's Office took pity on the oppressed black people and took them out of Dejima to let them play in the Maruyama red-light district.
Ohtaka
Lockley is highly malicious.
He added to the "Yasuke" entry on Wikipedia and even tampered with the Encyclopædia Britannica.
He is deliberately trying to defame Japan.
Incidentally, Lockley is also of Jewish descent (his great-grandfather was Jewish).
Takayama
Is there a deliberate anti-Japanese wave occurring?
Ohtaka
In fact, it seems that Lockley's influence has led to the BBC reporting on "the samurai from Africa" and CNN reporting on "the enduring legacy of Yasuke," and Lockley himself is now appearing in articles in overseas media.
If his discourse spread worldwide, misunderstandings about Japan would only increase.
I could walk even though I had a cold.
Takayama
It is a bit of an old story. Still, in 1995, on the 50th anniversary of the war's end, Jewish scholar Lester Tenney (a professor at the University of Arizona) wrote a book called "Bataan: The Road to the Far Side."
This man was a participant in the Bataan Death March in the Philippines. He talks about his experiences, such as nearly being beheaded by a Japanese officer on horseback. Still, he also writes a whole lot of shameless nonsense, such as that the Japanese military used the same waterboarding torture method as the US military and that they tortured American soldiers in the same way that pirates do in Gary Cooper movies.
Ohtaka
Yukie Sasa wrote an article in Bungeishunju (December 2005 issue) about her experience walking the Bataan Death March.
Takayama
The Bataan Death March was the beginning of the war, where the Japanese and American armies fought.
However, the enemy general, MacArthur, quickly fled, and the remaining 70,000 soldiers raised their hands without fighting when the Filipino soldiers in the vanguard were defeated.
There was no truck available to transport such a large number of people.
So they were made to walk.
It was an 80km journey over two days and one night.
Even former Self-Defense Force member Ms. Yasuko ran 81km in the marathon for Nippon Television Network's "24 Hour Television".
I don't think that's a distance that would cause even a big American soldier much trouble.
Ms. Sasa also wrote that she could walk even though she had a cold.
Otaka
Then Lester Tenney lashed out at Ms. Sasa's article.
Takayama
"What is this mocking and desecration of that death march?"
He had Rev. Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center speak on his behalf and complained to Bungeishunjū.
The company was being bullied by the aforementioned "Marco Polo" magazine, so they were scared at the time and published his story in its entirety.
He wrote that there was no rest at Bataan, that if they rested, the Japanese army would beat them with the butt of a gun, and that they mercilessly killed prisoners who collapsed from exhaustion.
The Japanese army did not behave like that and did not walk 80km all night.
They stayed overnight, and there are also photos of them having a coffee break during their rest.
Is there such a relaxed death march?
Ootaka
I have seen photos of the Japanese army serving tea to American officers and of prisoners of war swimming.
Takayama
Furthermore, Iris Chang published "The Rape of Nanking" in 1997.
Ohtaka
Iris Chang was also trying to write about the "Bataan Death March," but she committed suicide with a handgun in the middle of the process.
Incidentally, Ignatius Dain was the vice-chairman of the Overseas Chinese Association of America (Overseas Chinese Anti-Japanese War History Protection Association), and he was the person who arranged for Iris Chang to conduct her research in China and was the driving force behind The Rape of Nanking.
Dain was the founder of the Overseas Chinese Anti-Japanese War History Protection Association.
He was from Taiwan and of the Kuomintang bloodline.
In 1978, he moved to the United States, and in 1991, he met an organization that had been holding a memorial service for the Nanking Massacre in New York every year for 25 years.
He then set up an anti-Japanese organization.
I have interviewed him twice in the United States.
On the campus of Sonoma University in California, there is a Holocaust memorial monument modeled on the railway tracks at Auschwitz.
Between the tracks, the Anti-Japanese League has embedded a stone tablet engraved with the words "250,000 Korean women were made into sex slaves by the Japanese military", and they hold ceremonies as if Japan were complicit in the Holocaust.
We also need to keep a close eye on the anti-Japanese movements of the Chinese and Korean communities in the US.
This article continues.
Takayama
It is a bit of an old story. Still, in 1995, on the 50th anniversary of the war's end, Jewish scholar Lester Tenney (a professor at the University of Arizona) wrote a book called "Bataan: The Road to the Far Side."
This man was a participant in the Bataan Death March in the Philippines. He talks about his experiences, such as nearly being beheaded by a Japanese officer on horseback. Still, he also writes a whole lot of shameless nonsense, such as that the Japanese military used the same waterboarding torture method as the US military and that they tortured American soldiers in the same way that pirates do in Gary Cooper movies.
Ohtaka
Yukie Sasa wrote an article in Bungeishunju (December 2005 issue) about her experience walking the Bataan Death March.
Takayama
The Bataan Death March was the beginning of the war, where the Japanese and American armies fought.
However, the enemy general, MacArthur, quickly fled, and the remaining 70,000 soldiers raised their hands without fighting when the Filipino soldiers in the vanguard were defeated.
There was no truck available to transport such a large number of people.
So they were made to walk.
It was an 80km journey over two days and one night.
Even former Self-Defense Force member Ms. Yasuko ran 81km in the marathon for Nippon Television Network's "24 Hour Television".
I don't think that's a distance that would cause even a big American soldier much trouble.
Ms. Sasa also wrote that she could walk even though she had a cold.
Otaka
Then Lester Tenney lashed out at Ms. Sasa's article.
Takayama
"What is this mocking and desecration of that death march?"
He had Rev. Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center speak on his behalf and complained to Bungeishunjū.
The company was being bullied by the aforementioned "Marco Polo" magazine, so they were scared at the time and published his story in its entirety.
He wrote that there was no rest at Bataan, that if they rested, the Japanese army would beat them with the butt of a gun, and that they mercilessly killed prisoners who collapsed from exhaustion.
The Japanese army did not behave like that and did not walk 80km all night.
They stayed overnight, and there are also photos of them having a coffee break during their rest.
Is there such a relaxed death march?
Ootaka
I have seen photos of the Japanese army serving tea to American officers and of prisoners of war swimming.
Takayama
Furthermore, Iris Chang published "The Rape of Nanking" in 1997.
Ohtaka
Iris Chang was also trying to write about the "Bataan Death March," but she committed suicide with a handgun in the middle of the process.
Incidentally, Ignatius Dain was the vice-chairman of the Overseas Chinese Association of America (Overseas Chinese Anti-Japanese War History Protection Association), and he was the person who arranged for Iris Chang to conduct her research in China and was the driving force behind The Rape of Nanking.
Dain was the founder of the Overseas Chinese Anti-Japanese War History Protection Association.
He was from Taiwan and of the Kuomintang bloodline.
In 1978, he moved to the United States, and in 1991, he met an organization that had been holding a memorial service for the Nanking Massacre in New York every year for 25 years.
He then set up an anti-Japanese organization.
I have interviewed him twice in the United States.
On the campus of Sonoma University in California, there is a Holocaust memorial monument modeled on the railway tracks at Auschwitz.
Between the tracks, the Anti-Japanese League has embedded a stone tablet engraved with the words "250,000 Korean women were made into sex slaves by the Japanese military", and they hold ceremonies as if Japan were complicit in the Holocaust.
We also need to keep a close eye on the anti-Japanese movements of the Chinese and Korean communities in the US.
This article continues.
2024/9/26 in Umeda
