A Discipline Captured by the Left and the New Left — How Neutral Historical Research Was Suppressed
This essay examines how New Left historiography, emerging in the 1960s–70s United States, came to dominate Japanese and American historical academia, marginalizing neutral and balanced historical research.
There are only left-wing and New Left historical associations, and fair and neutral historical research is not permitted.
2016-12-12
The following is a continuation of the previous chapter.
Emphasis in the text is mine.
This represents the major postwar current in the United States from the 1960s to the 1970s.
In recent years, the reevaluation of the communist Herbert Norman has also become active.
The other day, the American historian Jason Morgan, author of Why Does America Look Down on Japan? Correcting the Error-Filled “Historical View of Japan”, came to Japan and was interviewed by Will, and he said that the American historical academy is worse than Japan’s.
There are only left-wing and New Left historical associations, and fair and neutral historical research is not allowed.
It appears that the New Left faction of John Dower has taken control.
Ito.
If one does not belong to the Dower faction, one cannot obtain a position, nor receive research funding.
I know an American who came to Japan, earned a degree here, and works at a Japanese university.
He must have fallen out of the Dower faction.
Ezaki.
I have watched the trends in New Left Japanese studies in the United States from the standpoint of a conservative activist.
After Dower, who reevaluated Herbert Norman, emerged, the Japanese people were no longer regarded as victims of Japanese militarists, but rather as perpetrators against Asia, and it was argued that Japan’s responsibility as a perpetrator should be pursued more aggressively, and more specifically, that Japan’s democratization should be evaluated based on whether it would pursue the Emperor’s responsibility and responsibility for the war against Asia, which had not been addressed at the Tokyo Trials.
The previous Tokyo Trial historical view, flawed as it was, at least regarded the Japanese people as victims of Japanese militarists, yet this marked a further major shift and a grave deterioration.
This basic New Left way of thinking was established in the 1970s.
Based on it, research questioning Japan’s responsibility as a perpetrator regarding so-called comfort women, the Nanjing Incident, and Unit 731 came to be conducted simultaneously in Japan and the United States.
Left-leaning intellectuals in both Japan and the United States pursued only what might be called Japan’s responsibility in the past perfect tense, and whenever objections were raised, they labeled them as revisionists.
Looking at the flow of historical and political movements, that is what has been happening.
I believe that today’s historical academies in both Japan and the United States have been swallowed up by this current.
To be continued.
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