This essay reexamines the wars of the twentieth century, arguing that ideology shaped by newspapers—not soldiers—was the decisive force that led nations into war, particularly in prewar Japan.

June 29, 2016
The following is an essay published on May 27, 2016, titled “People in every field and at every level throughout Japan were reading newspapers, led by the Asahi Shimbun.”
Recently, in a chapter titled after my hometown’s Teizan Canal, I wrote about war.
At that time, I arrived at yet another idea that was, once again, the first of its kind in the world.
I wrote that the twentieth century was a century of war.
I pointed out that the wars of the twentieth century were brought about by Western colonialism and competition for colonies.
However, in Japan, people have been steeped in an entirely different historical view created by the Asahi Shimbun (which is, in truth, a truly absurd view of history).
That is, the Asahi Shimbun has continued to write that Japanese soldiers started the war, that the origin of those soldiers was the Emperor, and therefore that the Emperor bore responsibility for the war.
There is no room for debate about this when one looks at the existence of Matsui Yayori, the Korean newspaper world that could be described as children of the Asahi Shimbun, the Okinawan newspaper world, and overseas readers such as Alexis Dudden.
People like myself, who had subscribed to the Asahi Shimbun for many years, must all have thought in this way.
But would soldiers really think about starting a war?
To start a war, one must have an ideology, so to speak.
I state, for the first time in the world, something completely opposite to conventional thinking: soldiers do not start wars.
It was the Asahi Shimbun that made soldiers start wars.
Before the war, there was, of course, no internet, not even television.
What existed then?
Needless to say, there were only newspapers.
As an adjunct to that, radio existed in much the same position as it does today.
People in every field and at every level throughout Japan were reading newspapers, led by the Asahi Shimbun.
It is impossible to think that all soldiers were reading ideological treatises intended to start wars.
Almost everyone read newspapers.
They may also have listened to the radio.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that their ideology was newspapers and radio.
In other words, newspapers made soldiers wage war.
Yes, a fact that no one had ever mentioned before flashed into my mind, a mind granted by God precisely for that purpose.