A dialogue between Masayuki Takayama and Miki Otaka arguing that, as the abduction of Japanese citizens by North Korea was coming to light, the Asahi Shimbun revived comfort women reporting associated with Seiji Yoshida, Takashi Uemura, and Yoshiaki Yoshimi, thereby pushing the abduction issue into the background.
The discussion connects the Moritomo and Kake controversies, the cherry-blossom viewing party controversy, the United States Committee on Public Information, and the Nanking issue, while questioning the role of politically motivated propaganda and the Japanese press.

2020-08-05
About This Article
This article presents a dialogue between Masayuki Takayama and Miki Otaka concerning the Asahi Shimbun’s intentions in reviving coverage of the comfort women issue and the Jeam-ri Church Incident at a time when the abduction of Japanese citizens by North Korea was becoming increasingly apparent.
The speakers argue that after Kim Hyon-hui’s confession brought the names of Yaeko Taguchi and Megumi Yokota to public attention, reports concerning Seiji Yoshida, Takashi Uemura, and Yoshiaki Yoshimi were revived and the abduction issue was gradually pushed into the background.
They also criticize the Asahi Shimbun for concentrating on the Moritomo and Kake controversies and the cherry-blossom viewing party at critical moments involving North Korean nuclear and missile tests, the Wuhan virus originating in China, and Japan’s national security.
In the latter half, the discussion turns to the propaganda activities of the United States Committee on Public Information, which supported American entry into the First World War, its activities in Shanghai, and the roles attributed to Edgar Snow, Martha Gellhorn, Pearl S. Buck, Chiang Kai-shek, and anti-Japanese propaganda surrounding the Nanking issue.
The following is the complete text originally published on August 5, 2020, retaining its arguments and dialogue format.
The Malicious Intent of the Asahi Shimbun
Takayama: After all, there are a great many Japanese people who say, “I am Las Casas.” [Laughter]
Moreover, they exist in every field.
The Asahi Shimbun, in particular, has completely reduced itself to being the servant of China and Korea.
In 1987, the bombing of Korean Air Flight 858 occurred.
Although Kim Hyon-hui, one of the perpetrators, was captured by officials of the South Korean embassy in Bahrain, she was immediately handed over to South Korea.
During her confession, the names of Yaeko Taguchi and Megumi Yokota emerged.
Otaka: The reality of North Korea’s abductions became apparent.
Takayama: As the controversy spread, what did the Asahi Shimbun do after the beginning of the 1990s?
It brought forward Takashi Uemura’s reporting on the comfort women issue.
It revived Seiji Yoshida, drew out Yoshiaki Yoshimi’s theory of military involvement, and even brought up the Jeam-ri Church Incident.
Through this barrage of anti-Japanese articles, the abduction issue was pushed into the background before anyone realized it.
Otaka: Yayori Matsui and Katsuichi Honda both made statements to the effect that, “Since Japan once forcibly took away 200,000 women in East Asia, it cannot complain about the abduction issue.”
The intention of fabricating the forcible abduction of comfort women and using it to relativize the abduction issue was clearly visible in left-wing magazines at the time.
For example, an article entitled “The Connection Between the U.S. House ‘Military Comfort Women’ Resolution and the Asian Solidarity Conference” stated, “The more Japan calls exclusively for a resolution for the abductees and their families, the more demands will naturally increase throughout the world for Japan to listen seriously to the voices of the ‘military comfort women’ and to offer apologies and compensation” in the July 2007 issue of Mass Media Citizen.
Takayama: It was a deliberate operation.
At that time, the head of the Asahi Shimbun was Toshitada Nakae.
With the intention of crushing the abduction issue, he had the newspaper bring forward a spin-off version of Seiji Yoshida’s claim that comfort women had been forcibly abducted.
In 2014, the Asahi Shimbun apologized for and corrected its articles concerning Seiji Yoshida.
Nakae, who had already stepped down, also expressed words of apology.
Deep inside, he must have felt considerable remorse.
Why did the newspaper publish Yoshida’s false accounts in the early 1980s and then bring them back again ten years later, after the beginning of the 1990s?
Otaka: The Jeam-ri Church Incident had originally been reported in the 1970s, yet for some reason the Asahi Shimbun brought it up again in 1991.
Takayama: Uemura’s articles appeared around the same time.
The Asahi Shimbun acted politically and deliberately, drew in the foolish Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa, and attempted to bury the abduction case.
It then caused the neighboring countries clause to be established so that suspicions of abduction could no longer be voiced.
The neighboring countries clause is a provision in Japan’s textbook authorization standards requiring that “necessary consideration be given, from the perspective of international understanding and international cooperation, to the treatment of modern and contemporary historical events involving neighboring Asian countries.”
The Asahi Shimbun can now be described as an agent.
It has connections not only with South Korea and North Korea but also with China.
Whenever information inconvenient to those three countries emerges, it invariably publishes articles intended to cancel it out.
When North Korea began conducting nuclear tests and launching missiles, the Asahi Shimbun brought forward the Moritomo and Kake controversies and created an uproar that lasted for two years.
Were a nuclear-armed North Korea and South Korea to form a loose federal government, it would become difficult for Japan to hold its ground.
Even though a grave national-security situation had arisen, the Asahi Shimbun filled its coverage entirely with the Moritomo and Kake controversies.
Otaka: The timing was far too convenient.
Takayama: Furthermore, during the present Wuhan virus crisis, when Japan should have shut out Chinese nationals and freed its economy from dependence on China, the Asahi Shimbun extensively reported on the cherry-blossom viewing party.
Otaka: There were many stories far more important than suspicions surrounding Mrs. Akie Abe’s cherry-blossom gathering.
Takayama: At a time when the Japanese people should have united under the Abe administration, the suicide note of an official of the Kinki Local Finance Bureau emerged, and once again an attempt was made to revive the Moritomo and Kake controversies.
The reason he committed suicide was probably the relentless reporting by the Asahi Shimbun and other media organizations.
Otaka: The Asahi Shimbun seems to believe that it should simply fire in every direction.
Many of its shots fail to explode, however.
Takayama: In 1917, the United States cited the sinking of the Lusitania by a German U-boat in 1915 as a reason for entering the First World War.
But that had happened two years earlier. [Laughter]
At that time, the United States government’s Committee on Public Information, or CPI, and the press worked together to manipulate public opinion and justify entry into the war.
The CPI’s original purpose was to use newspapers and magazines to conduct propaganda encouraging the United States to enter the First World War.
The atmosphere was created, the United States entered the war, and Germany was defeated.
Otaka: The CPI had completed its role at that point, but instead of being abolished, it established a Shanghai committee.
Centred on that organization, Edgar Snow, who wrote Red Star Over China, and Martha Gellhorn, the third wife of Ernest Hemingway, author of The Old Man and the Sea, also participated in the CPI’s activities, promoting Chiang Kai-shek and attacking Japan.
It has even been said that the Nobel Prize in Literature awarded to Pearl S. Buck, author of The Good Earth, was entirely directed by the CPI.
Takayama: At the height of this anti-Japanese wave, Chiang Kai-shek was made to launch the Second Shanghai Incident, namely the Sino-Japanese War.
Beginning in 1937, public-opinion surveys measuring American sentiment toward Japan and China were conducted for three years.
China had the benefit of Pearl S. Buck’s books.
Its approval rating remained above 70 percent.
Japan’s, however, stood at 1 percent. [Laughter]
When Japan somehow defeated Chiang Kai-shek’s forces, Germany then appeared and demanded that Japan conclude an armistice with Chiang.
Japan understood the intention of the Western powers to attack it, rejected the Trautmann mediation effort, and advanced on Nanking.
The CPI then acted and caused the Nanking Massacre story to be created.
The Chicago Tribune was the first to circulate the Nanking Massacre story, after which missionaries such as Magee and Bates told godless lies about having witnessed a great massacre.
The United States was so cunning that there was scarcely any role left for the Comintern.
Otaka: Chinese propaganda organizations may also have largely imitated the CPI.
Takayama: Japanese newspapers should study such matters more carefully, yet instead they take the lead in cooperating with the CPI.
They look like a service organization devoted to anti-Japanese states.