There is a saying in Japan that a fool must die to be cured.
It is a must-read paper for all people who think they are not idiots, i.e., all living with accurate intelligence in the 21st century.
I have spent significantly more time than usual on the English translation of this paper.
The reason for this should be silently understood by all the wise men and women of the world.
It is because this paper is one of the masterpieces of Masayuki Takayama, who is also one of the best writers in the postwar world.
It is also because it is filled with his infinite respect for the late Professor Shoichi Watanabe, one of the most outstanding and genuine scholars in the postwar world.
"Shoichi Watabe's Last Lectures on World History" is a must-read not only for the Japanese people but for people worldwide.
Dr. Watanabe has done an immortal job by being one of the first to realize this and compile a history of Japan that will benefit Japan.
May 18, 2019
The following book is a must-read for all Japanese citizens and people worldwide.
Introduction Why a World History Dialogue - Masayuki Takayama
A Brief Report on the Destruction of Asia by Japan."
When I moved to the U.S. in 1992 as L.A. Bureau Chief and started reading every morning every newspaper in the U.S., what surprised me the most was that there was always abuse against Japan.
Even in a short editorial of 40 lines or so, if the word "Korea" is mentioned, it is always followed by a comma and the explanation, "Korea, once Japan colonized.
Since the 1994 U.S.-North Korea negotiations, in which a freeze on nuclear development was discussed, there have been repeated reports of starvation in the North, only to be met with more reports of "starvation in North Korea, once Japan colonized.
This news offended me so highly that I called a U.S. newspaper editorial board.
I protested that whenever they mention the Philippines, they should always write, "Once the United States occupied the Philippines and killed 400,000 people."
Another thing that offended me was that whenever a U.S. newspaper mentions Southeast Asia, it always inserts the phrase "South East Asia, once Japan occupied and conducted atrocities."
They cite Japan at every turn.
Until the 1990s, this was a regular practice.
Recently, the practice has changed, and it has become an annual event to remind people of "Japanese atrocities" as news originating locally.
Every season, without fail, U.S. newspapers have local reporters write about the Nanking Massacre from Beijing, the Bataan Death March, and the Manila Massacre from Manila.
Their latest favorite is Unit 731. The New York Times, for example, had Foreign Affairs editor Jonathan Teperman write, "Japan has consolidated its foothold in Korea and northern China by brutally exploiting them. The symbol of this is Unit 731, and neighboring countries are reminded of this brutality at every turn."
The impetus was that the Blue Impulse plane that Abe was test-driving in the cockpit had aircraft number 731.
It was just a forced twist to make a fuss over something as simple as that.
Before Obama visited Hiroshima, they ran an elaborate series reporting on Japanese atrocities.
In short, the U.S. media continues to make a point, 70 years after the end of World War II, that "Japan also did such terrible things" so that the atomic bombings and the air raid on Tokyo would not be pointed at as atrocities committed by the U.S.
On the other hand, they beat down the Japanese people based on their historical awareness, leaving them depressed and unable to stand up again.
In Japan, the left-handed intellectuals and the Asahi Shimbun were responsible for such post-war brainwashing.
Dr. Shoichi Watanabe is a leading figure who has continued unyieldingly for more than 40 years since the early 1970s in the fight to uncover their deadly sins and bring them back to a correct view of history.
It is my first time publishing a dialogue between Dr. Watanabe and myself.
About five months before his passing, I had the opportunity to have a long talk with him about the correct evaluation of Japan in the context of world history.
We discussed the "Japan first'' view of world history at the turning point in the history of the Trump era.
Professor Watanabe was the first to warn against the self-deprecating attitude of labeling the last war as a war of aggression, calling it the "Tokyo Trial Historical View.''
That his sense of crisis was correct was proven by Jiang Zemin's admonition to "repeat the history issue to Japan."
Asahi and Katsuichi Honda brought to life the false story of Bates, who told the Tokyo trial that 300,000 people were killed in Nanjing, and they took up Seiji Yoshida's lies as if they were true, resulting in China and South Korea using them in their diplomatic strategies. It was a way.
The adverse effects of China and South Korea taking a joint front on comfort women and conscription are of a different dimension from the domestic self-flagellation controversy.
As Professor Watanabe quotes Kazutomo Wakasa in Chapter 3, the lesson of Spain's defeat in the historical war is significant.
In the past, Britain, France, the Netherlands, and Portugal all built substantial colonial empires, as did Spain.
With its vast colonies in Central America, South America, the Caribbean, the Pacific, and Africa, Spain was defeated in the war of history by a single, thin pamphlet, "A Brief Report on the Destruction of the Indias" (Iwanami Bunko).
In 1542, Las Casas, the son of a clergyman who had been using the Indians as enslaved people on his plantation, presented a fictionalized report to the king on the cruelty of the other Spanish colonists, partly to atone for his sins.
When this was printed in 1552 and disseminated throughout the Western world, Spain faced a barrage of criticism.
Other colonial empires rejoiced.
All the bad ones became Spanish, and the number of colonies dwindled rapidly.
The United States took advantage of Spain's decline in power and enclosed Central and South America and the Caribbean into its own "backyard.''
As you can see, the United States and Britain were able to take over the world because they skillfully reused Las Casas's book and shattered Spain's national consciousness and pride.
Before World War II, General Franco, who hated the U.S., tried to advise Hitler about Germany's nuclear program, but Hitler took no notice, saying, "What do the Spanish have to say about it?
There is no trace of the empire it once was, and other countries do not treat it.
Having lost the right to speak as a nation, Spaniards have become inward-looking and lethargic, and the country has become so dissolute that crime rates are high, and it is said that for every block you walk, you get pickpocketed twice.
It is the fear of losing one's national prestige.
In time, a "concise report on the destruction of Asia by Japan" will be written by the evil scheme of the U.S., China, and South Korea.
If we look at world history in this way, we can see that the crime committed by Asahi was much greater than the Japanese had imagined.
Professor Watanabe, one of the first to realize this and compile a history of Japan that would benefit Japan, has done an immortal work.
This article continues.
