In my September 5, 2017 article, “Even If Only to Read His Essay, Every Japanese Citizen Must Go to the Nearest Bookstore Immediately,” I clearly contrasted Masayuki Takayama with Haruki Murakami.
Masayuki Takayama is the one and only journalist in the postwar world.
There is no one who has so brilliantly revealed the hidden truths of the postwar world, the distorted histories, and the facts that the Asahi Shimbun and the Western media do not tell.
If the true artist is the person who can shine light on hidden truths and concealed truths and express them in words, then it is no exaggeration to say that Masayuki Takayama is worthy of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Haruki Murakami, on the other hand, had appeared before me as an existence at the opposite extreme.
Media that spread fake news without shame, the Asahi Shimbun-like discourse space that has carried out fabricated reporting, and the false image of a “world-famous writer” created amid a publishing recession.
Within that environment, Haruki Murakami, without correctly understanding Japanese history, placed in his work a description that seemed to lend force to the false report known as the Nanjing Massacre.
Far from criticizing the absurd figure of 300,000 in the Nanjing Massacre, he circulated within his novel the even more dangerous figure of 400,000.
Whether that was flattery toward the Asahi Shimbun and China, or whether it came from a desire for the Nobel Prize, I will not assert.
However, as a result, his description was something that could be used by China’s anti-Japanese propaganda.
If Masayuki Takayama is a genuine man of speech who reveals the hidden truths of the world, Haruki Murakami is a fake artist who relies on Asahi Shimbun-like pseudo-moralism and a false historical awareness.
At that point, I clearly saw the difference between the two.
One shines light on the darkness of history.
The other gives literary decoration to false history.
This difference is decisive.