Through a Sankei Shimbun series, the true nature of Manchukuo emerges for the first time, alongside revelations about the Cultural Revolution shown by Bloomberg and NHK. This article examines distorted postwar historical narratives and the responsibility of Asahi Shimbun in shaping them.

About Manchukuo, which is currently being serialized by the Sankei Shimbun.
2016-12-23
Regarding Manchukuo, now being serialized by the Sankei Shimbun, I had lived my life without knowing any of the facts this series conveys.
What I had been told were outrageous distortions completely different from reality, such as the notion that Manchuria was merely the beginning of the Japanese Army’s reckless rampage.
From a historical perspective, I had been given knowledge at a level below that of a kindergarten child.
Needless to say, it was the Asahi Shimbun, which I had subscribed to for many years, that educated us in this way.
Recently, Bloomberg reported that there exists a gap in perception between Japan and the international community regarding Manchukuo.
It told us that Changchun, the capital of Manchukuo at the time, was one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
In other words, Manchukuo was an exceptionally advanced and refined world.
Needless to say, Asahi Shimbun never taught us that fact.
The same can be said of the program on the Cultural Revolution that NHK BS1 aired until just moments ago today.
In China, the excavation of the true facts of the Cultural Revolution has not progressed.
Those who began to speak out, saying that history must not be allowed to fade, were Chinese people living in the United States.
From their testimonies, realities different from conventional views have emerged.
It was not the young intellectuals known as the Red Guards who spread the terrifying upheaval of the Cultural Revolution, but rather opposing groups called rebel factions, consisting of young people and workers.
What happened.
The crowd psychology that emerges.
And those who have begun to raise their voices to pass on the memory of this negative chain to future generations.
Thoughts and realities at the fiftieth year.
Even by watching only part of it, I felt that the reality of the Cultural Revolution was almost a civil war, and that the prototype of the factional fighting seen in Japan’s Zenkyoto era lay here.
Asahi Shimbun is truly an outrageous newspaper.
I have long believed that my entire life has been a victim of Asahi Shimbun.