Drawing on Tadao Umesao’s words, “Repetition is originality,” this essay examines the decisive difference between repeatedly defending what is right and repeatedly spreading falsehoods or malicious claims.

July 11, 2020
The late Tadao Umesao was one of the most distinguished intellectuals produced by postwar Japan.
As an ethnologist and scholar of civilization, he accomplished work of international importance.
His achievements went far beyond the boundaries of academic research.
He presented the world with an original perspective from which to consider how civilizations are formed and how human societies develop.
Among the many words he left behind is the following statement:
“Repetition is originality.”
This is a profoundly essential insight of the kind that can emerge only from a truly exceptional intellect.
To continue speaking the truth.
To continue defending what is right.
To continue protecting values that are important to humanity and society.
These actions are not mere repetition.
To repeat rightful words, without yielding to the prevailing mood of the age or to political power, is itself an act of originality.
However, even when an action is repeated, its meaning becomes entirely different if what is being repeated consists of falsehoods, defamation, manipulation of information, or distortion of history.
If repeating what is right constitutes originality, then deliberately repeating what is false or malicious constitutes an act of harm against society and may, in some circumstances, deserve to be called a crime.
For many years, I have directed severe criticism at certain opposition politicians, newspapers such as the Asahi Shimbun, left-wing media organizations including NHK that echo similar positions, and those commonly described as cultural intellectuals, human-rights lawyers, and citizens’ groups.
My criticism does not arise merely because their political or ideological positions differ from mine.
It arises because I believe that, in repeating the same arguments, they have too often selected only convenient facts, concealed inconvenient information, and subjected particular politicians or countries to one-sided attacks.
The same criticism can be directed at the information control, human-rights abuses, and political exploitation of history repeatedly practiced under the one-party dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party.
The anti-Japanese education that has continued for many years in South Korea must also be examined from this perspective.
When education is used to cause children to regard an entire people as enemies, it becomes an extremely dangerous mechanism for reproducing hatred between nations.
Education should teach children facts and give them the ability to think for themselves.
When a state uses education to implant hatred toward a particular nation or ethnic group, it ceases to be education and becomes political propaganda.
In a moral sense, I believe that those who repeatedly engage in such conduct must be described as offenders against society.
This does not necessarily mean that every such act immediately satisfies the legal definition of a crime.
It means that distorting facts, spreading hatred, and obstructing society’s ability to make sound judgments constitute grave offenses against human society.
Perhaps only those who commit such acts fail to understand their seriousness.
Perhaps they mistakenly believe that their actions are permissible because they are not immediately punished in this world.
Yet some acts, even when they are not punished by law, will still be judged by history and by the human conscience.
I have repeatedly written that King Enma, the judge of the dead in Buddhist tradition, awaits them with the severest possible punishment.
This is not merely a religious metaphor.
It means that those who repeatedly spread falsehoods, injure others, and lead nations and societies in the wrong direction will one day be required to answer for what they have done.
Tadao Umesao’s words give courage to those who continue to speak the truth and defend what is right.
At the same time, they issue a stern warning to those who repeatedly spread falsehoods and malice.
Repeating what is right is originality.
Repeating what is wrong or malicious is never originality.
It is an act that corrodes society and an offense against the human conscience.