The following is from Masayuki Takayama's serial column bringing the Weekly Shincho, released on May 11, to a successful conclusion.
This article also proves that he is the one and only journalist in the postwar world.
It is a must-read for the Japanese people and people around the world.
*Nobuseri annotations are mine.
The Rights of the A-bombed Nation
When I saw Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai," I felt uncomfortable.
Wild thieves attack the village after the harvest, as they do every year.
According to the movie, they steal the harvest, rape women, and even kill those who defy them.
There were indeed wild thieves in the Warring States period.
However, in those days, they were usually peasants in the village.
Whenever there was a battle nearby, they would go out to fight.
There is a story that during the Battle of Sekigahara, they brought their lunch boxes and watched the battle.
When the battle was decided, and the warriors fell, the peasants were instantly transformed from spectators to strippers.
It is called "Nobuseri."
*Nobuserit is the name given to armed people in medieval Japan who hunt in the mountains and fields against a warrior who survives and escapes as a loser in a war."*
The peasants would attack and take away the worth weapons money, and if they were famous warlords, it would rewarded them with the head of the warrior's clan.
Shimazu Yoshihiro, who had broken through the enemy, was also beaten up by these peasants after escaping from Sekigahara.
Incidentally, the battle of Sekigahara also waited until the peasants had harvested their rice and finished hanging it on a cross.
It fought the battle with the peasants in mind.
Because of that, I am not comfortable with the setting of Kurosawa's film, in which the Nobuseri attack their village.
It would be rather convincing if A defeated warrior that fled the enemy attacked the village, but Japanese history denies it.
For example, after the Dan-no-ura battle, the remnants of the Heike clan fled just single-mindedly.
The destination of the fall is Akaya in Fukui or Minamiaizu.
There are still hidden villages around Hachinohe where the defeated soldiers are fleeing the enemy.
The late critic from Nikkei, Kazuo Ijiri, was a descendant of the warlord Sasaki Rokkaku.
They were defeated in Omi and fell to Ijiri Village in Yamanashi, where he changed their surname from Rokkaku to Ijiri.
Liu Bang never gave up even after losing 99 times, but the Japanese gave up after just one defeat.
That is the samurai.
Another thing is that samurai did not kill and loot as they pleased just because they won a battle.
Even in the Battle of Sekigahara, except for Ishida Mitsunari, the victors of the war, the Eastern forces only reduced the diminution of the Western lords to the extent of a crop yield.
Europe also signed the Treaty of Westphalia at that time, which forbade self-serving plunder and made states liable for reparations.
For example, in the form of war, Napoleon and the European army decided to fight at Waterloo in Belgium.
Japan also practiced gentle warfare in the Russo-Japanese War.
They even allowed the wives of prisoners of war to come to a camp in Shikoku to nurse their husbands.
In the 20th century, the world seemed to have awakened to the Japanese way of warfare.
Some countries rehashed the old ways of warfare. It was the United States.
The U.S.-Japan war that began at Pearl Harbor involved the islands of the Pacific, but the U.S. went beyond that and attacked Japan directly on the mainland.
MacArthur called it Operation Stepping Stone, otherwise known as Sand Creek.
It was the name of a Cheyenne reservation in Colorado, where the U.S. cavalry waited for the warriors to go hunting and attacked the settlement, killing all 600 women and children.
To end a people, kill their women.
It is less dangerous and quicker than killing warriors.
The U.S. used the Japanese as the Cheyenne of Sand Creek, killing women and children concentrated.
The symbol of this was the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The U.S. calls such a war of extermination a "total war."
Why not just call it a war of ancestral return?
It is ironic that Japan, which nurtured the ethics of war, was baptized into the most brutal primitive war, but how should we respond to this?
Or, as the "only country to have experienced the atomic bombings," will they run away and say, "We will not repeat our mistakes."
Or, "We have the three non-nuclear principles, so we think nothing of it" (Fumio Kishida), or "Japan will get a third bullet if it turns its back on the Nuclear Weapons Convention." (Beatrice Finn of ICAN)?
There is a lot of noise about bullshit.
But as the invasion of Ukraine shows, ethics is necessary for war.
Japan is a country that can teach that.
The words that follow "the only country to have suffered atomic bombings" must be "We have the right to have nuclear weapons in preference to any other country to protect our people from barbarism."
Yet, because Japan is obsessed with the MacArthur Constitution and reserves the right, even China and North Korea are getting in on the act.
All countries, including Russia, believe that war means massacre, rape, and pillage, but they will all shut up if Japan has nuclear weapons.
This article also proves that he is the one and only journalist in the postwar world.
It is a must-read for the Japanese people and people around the world.
*Nobuseri annotations are mine.
The Rights of the A-bombed Nation
When I saw Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai," I felt uncomfortable.
Wild thieves attack the village after the harvest, as they do every year.
According to the movie, they steal the harvest, rape women, and even kill those who defy them.
There were indeed wild thieves in the Warring States period.
However, in those days, they were usually peasants in the village.
Whenever there was a battle nearby, they would go out to fight.
There is a story that during the Battle of Sekigahara, they brought their lunch boxes and watched the battle.
When the battle was decided, and the warriors fell, the peasants were instantly transformed from spectators to strippers.
It is called "Nobuseri."
*Nobuserit is the name given to armed people in medieval Japan who hunt in the mountains and fields against a warrior who survives and escapes as a loser in a war."*
The peasants would attack and take away the worth weapons money, and if they were famous warlords, it would rewarded them with the head of the warrior's clan.
Shimazu Yoshihiro, who had broken through the enemy, was also beaten up by these peasants after escaping from Sekigahara.
Incidentally, the battle of Sekigahara also waited until the peasants had harvested their rice and finished hanging it on a cross.
It fought the battle with the peasants in mind.
Because of that, I am not comfortable with the setting of Kurosawa's film, in which the Nobuseri attack their village.
It would be rather convincing if A defeated warrior that fled the enemy attacked the village, but Japanese history denies it.
For example, after the Dan-no-ura battle, the remnants of the Heike clan fled just single-mindedly.
The destination of the fall is Akaya in Fukui or Minamiaizu.
There are still hidden villages around Hachinohe where the defeated soldiers are fleeing the enemy.
The late critic from Nikkei, Kazuo Ijiri, was a descendant of the warlord Sasaki Rokkaku.
They were defeated in Omi and fell to Ijiri Village in Yamanashi, where he changed their surname from Rokkaku to Ijiri.
Liu Bang never gave up even after losing 99 times, but the Japanese gave up after just one defeat.
That is the samurai.
Another thing is that samurai did not kill and loot as they pleased just because they won a battle.
Even in the Battle of Sekigahara, except for Ishida Mitsunari, the victors of the war, the Eastern forces only reduced the diminution of the Western lords to the extent of a crop yield.
Europe also signed the Treaty of Westphalia at that time, which forbade self-serving plunder and made states liable for reparations.
For example, in the form of war, Napoleon and the European army decided to fight at Waterloo in Belgium.
Japan also practiced gentle warfare in the Russo-Japanese War.
They even allowed the wives of prisoners of war to come to a camp in Shikoku to nurse their husbands.
In the 20th century, the world seemed to have awakened to the Japanese way of warfare.
Some countries rehashed the old ways of warfare. It was the United States.
The U.S.-Japan war that began at Pearl Harbor involved the islands of the Pacific, but the U.S. went beyond that and attacked Japan directly on the mainland.
MacArthur called it Operation Stepping Stone, otherwise known as Sand Creek.
It was the name of a Cheyenne reservation in Colorado, where the U.S. cavalry waited for the warriors to go hunting and attacked the settlement, killing all 600 women and children.
To end a people, kill their women.
It is less dangerous and quicker than killing warriors.
The U.S. used the Japanese as the Cheyenne of Sand Creek, killing women and children concentrated.
The symbol of this was the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The U.S. calls such a war of extermination a "total war."
Why not just call it a war of ancestral return?
It is ironic that Japan, which nurtured the ethics of war, was baptized into the most brutal primitive war, but how should we respond to this?
Or, as the "only country to have experienced the atomic bombings," will they run away and say, "We will not repeat our mistakes."
Or, "We have the three non-nuclear principles, so we think nothing of it" (Fumio Kishida), or "Japan will get a third bullet if it turns its back on the Nuclear Weapons Convention." (Beatrice Finn of ICAN)?
There is a lot of noise about bullshit.
But as the invasion of Ukraine shows, ethics is necessary for war.
Japan is a country that can teach that.
The words that follow "the only country to have suffered atomic bombings" must be "We have the right to have nuclear weapons in preference to any other country to protect our people from barbarism."
Yet, because Japan is obsessed with the MacArthur Constitution and reserves the right, even China and North Korea are getting in on the act.
All countries, including Russia, believe that war means massacre, rape, and pillage, but they will all shut up if Japan has nuclear weapons.
