2024-01-23
The following is from Masayuki Takayama’s latest book, “Henken Jizai: Who Buried Shinzo Abe?
This book is the latest in a series of bound editions of his famous columns in weekly Shincho, but the original text has been polished to make it even easier to read.
He deserves the Nobel Prize for Literature for this one book alone.
It is a must-read not only for the Japanese people but for people worldwide.

Don’t expect any ethics from Asahi.
The Japanese army searched for tens of thousands of Korean women to comfort their soldiers, and most of them were beaten to death.　
The public has come to understand that Kimura Tadakazu admitted that the story was a lie concocted by the Asahi Shimbun and that the paper was spared from closure on the condition that he was fired.　
The rest is up to the editorial writers to go around the world apologizing for the lies about comfort women being moved forcibly and so on.　
When Hillary said, “Comfort women? No, they were sex slaves,” I thought the Asahi Shimbun would explain, “Actually, all comfort women were prostitutes.”
I also thought that the Asahi Shimbun would tell Sri Lanka’s lousy woman, Coomaraswamy, to stop lying and order her to destroy the documents she submitted to the UN.　
But it’s been several years, and no sign exists.　
I was wondering if it was another lie by the Asahi Shimbun to say that they have reflected on their actions when I saw the headline in an editorial the other day, “‘Comfort Women’ 30 Years: Relief for Victims is the Starting Point.”　
The victims of the comfort women issue are the Japanese, who have been wrongly stigmatized.　
Will the Asahi Shimbun finally start the global apology campaign that editorial chief Seiki Nemoto has been ignoring?　
Or has the Asahi Shimbun decided to cease publication to apologize for its history of pernicious lies?　
I was astonished to read this article with high expectations.
It was a mistake to expect ethics from the Asahi Shimbun.　
The editorial begins, “It was 30 years ago that Kim Hak-sun came forward and said she was a comfort woman for the Japanese military.　
That’s where it gets weird. 
Kim Hak-sun testified that she was a prostitute sold by a pedant.
Wasn’t it 30 years ago that Takashi Uemura wrote that “the Japanese military forcibly brought her to Japan under the name of Volunteer Corps and turned her into a sex slave on the battlefield“?　
Moreover, this was a time when the term “Volunteer Corps” did not even exist.　
Tsutomu Nishioka and Yoshiko Yokoi pointed out that Uemura fabricated too much, and the court ruled that “it must say that Uemura fabricated it.”　
Why ignore the court’s decision and try to justify the comfort women lie again?　
The editorial says it is because the Japanese government is still living up to the Kono statement that “the honor and dignity of the Korean prostitutes were deeply offended by the involvement of the Japanese military.”　
Why does the Asahi Shimbun put its faith in the Japanese government only here when it always hates the very sight of the Japanese government?
The Kono Statement is based on the “true testimonies” of 16 former sex slaves, who gave their tearful testimonies in the presence of the infamous Mizuho Fukushima.　
However, the identities of these witnesses are uncertain, and none of them match the family registers that the Japanese Imperialists created for them. 
They do not even know if they are persons of doubtful origin.　
In addition, the Sankei Shimbun reported that half of the testimonies were utterly false, such as “I was made a sex slave in Taiwan,” where there were no comfort facilities.　
The intention to put their faith in the dubious Kono story appears in the latter half of the editorial.　
The passage says, “Experts are continuing their research and have found that the reality of the comfort women was diverse.”
The most recent study is a paper by Harvard University professor Ramseyer.
It is filled with supporting materials: “Japan’s pre-war prostitution industry was based on indentured contracts.” “Their years on the battlefield were shortened, and their rewards greatly increased.” “The treatment of Korean comfort women is the same.”　　
The Harvard professor also admits that the Korean comfort women were prostitutes and that they made a lot of money.　
However, the editorial does not include Ramseyer as an “expert” and concludes that both Japan and Korea “Take on the task of healing the wounds of the victims.
The Asahi Shimbun remains the same, referring to the victims as “Korean sex slaves abducted by the Japanese military.”　
The Asahi Shimbun still plays with words, ignores facts, and is not ashamed to say they are right.　
Around the time of this editorial, an editorial appeared in the Asahi Shimbun about DHC TV’s coverage.　
The editorial was in response to a Tokyo District Court ruling that DHC TV had “defamed zainichi activists in Okinawa who campaigned against the base,” and it was terrible.　
The Asahi Shimbun editorial says, “DHC has repeatedly disseminated false information, made ethnically discriminatory statements, and shows no remorse even when criticized by outsiders. DHC’s corporate ethics continues to be seriously questioned.”
It is not a court ruling that Asahi ignored.
It is still at the district court level and is not as definite a false report as Asahi’s.　
Asahi Shimbun does not even reflect on its criticism.
So how dare they call others “business ethics”?　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　
(December 20, 2021 issue)

2024/1/17 in Kyoto