A dialogue between Masayuki Takayama and Miki Otaka arguing that missionary propaganda was involved not only in the Jeam-ri Church Incident but also in inflaming the Nanking and comfort women controversies.
Through a discussion of foreign journalists and missionaries in Nanking, the United States government, Western journalism, the Asahi Shimbun, Katsuichi Honda, Tomoo Hirooka, Yukio Hatoyama, and Japan’s textbook authorization system, the speakers examine the enduring structure of “Japan’s Las Casas.”

2020-08-05
About This Article
This article presents a dialogue between Masayuki Takayama and Miki Otaka concerning the argument that, as in the case of Las Casas, missionary propaganda was involved not only in the Jeam-ri Church Incident but also in inflaming the Nanking and comfort women controversies.
The speakers discuss foreign journalists and missionaries in Nanking, the United States government and Anglo-American journalism, the Asahi Shimbun, Katsuichi Honda, Tomoo Hirooka, Yukio Hatoyama, and Japan’s textbook authorization system.
Through these subjects, they examine what they describe as the continuing structure of “Japan’s Las Casas” in postwar Japan.
The following is the complete text originally published on August 5, 2020, retaining its arguments and dialogue format.
Volunteering to Become Las Casas
Otaka: Missionary propaganda was involved not only in the Jeam-ri Church Incident but also in inflaming the Nanking and comfort women issues, just as it had been in the case of Las Casas.
Takayama: Yū Ikeda’s The Truth of the Nanking Incident Revealed by Primary Sources, published by Tendensha, introduces a list of the foreigners who were in Nanking.
The list includes journalists and missionaries, but with the exception of Rabe, the Siemens arms dealer, they were all anti-Japanese Americans imitating Creelman.
Otaka: Because there was no denunciatory account equivalent to that of Las Casas that could be used against Japan, they fabricated the Nanking Incident.
Takayama: Exactly.
It is often described as propaganda conducted by the Nationalist Government, but it was entirely made in the United States.
Reporters from The New York Times and Timperley of The Manchester Guardian assisted in it.
Timperley had originally been a reporter for The Daily Telegraph, but that newspaper was backed by the United States government and was engaged in anti-Japanese operations in China.
The United States government, journalism, and Japan’s own Las Casas figures joined together and continued their anti-Japanese activities.
Katsuichi Honda of the Asahi Shimbun then eagerly embraced the Nanking Incident that had been fabricated in this way.
Otaka: Honda must also be regarded as a star-class “anti-Japanese apology man.”
Hirooka, who was president of the Asahi Shimbun at the time, transformed Honda, who had worked as a proofreader, into a star reporter.
Was this not done so that Hirooka could manipulate him as he wished?
Hirooka also spent several weeks in China around the time of the restoration of diplomatic relations between Japan and China, so perhaps it was there that he was stripped of his backbone.
In any case, it was Hirooka who turned Honda into the Iris Chang of his time.
Regarding Hirooka, Mr. Hasegawa points out in The Collapse of the Asahi Shimbun, published by WAC, that Hirooka’s roots were in China.
Takayama: That is precisely the point.
Figures such as Yukio Hatoyama then began voluntarily declaring, “I will become Las Casas.”
Today, the Asahi Shimbun remains at the centre of efforts to carefully preserve the system created during the GHQ era.
Otaka: Has that system not yet come to an end?
Takayama: Considering that the expression “military comfort women” was restored in the recent history textbook authorization process, I believe the problem remains deeply rooted.
Otaka: Among the bureaucrats of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the members of the Textbook Authorization Research Council, there remain Las Casas-like figures resembling vengeful spirits.
Far from freeing themselves from the self-denigrating view of history, they are attempting once again to indoctrinate children with it.