Published on April 21, 2019.
Continuing from the previous chapter, this essay criticizes the mental structure of the Asahi Shimbun and other mass media outlets, along with the so-called cultural elites who echoed them, for eagerly embracing any information that could be used to denigrate Japan and the Japanese military, regardless of whether it was true.
It points to the false testimony of Seiji Yoshida, the misidentification of a photograph as proof of poison gas use, the authority lent by former military men and university professors, and the responsibility of the media that amplified such claims without proper verification.
The essay argues that the real problem lies not merely in individual false reports, but in the deeper intellectual disposition of media and opinion leaders who delight in narratives that cast Japan in the worst possible light.

2019-04-21
In any case…
the real problem lies…
in the mental structure of the mass media, led by the Asahi, which gladly jump at any information that can be used to denigrate the Japanese state and the Japanese military,
and of the so-called cultural figures who have gone along with them.

The following is a continuation of the previous chapter.
The person at Yomiuri TV who made this program is a highly suspicious person.
Or else an exceptionally great fool.
It must be one or the other.
Because…
Seiji Yoshida also said that he himself was a former serviceman…
and the person who brought to the Asahi Shimbun…
a photograph showing the smoke screen laid by the Japanese Army during the war as part of a river-crossing operation…
claiming it was undeniable proof that the Japanese military had used poison gas…
was also a former serviceman.
When the Asahi Shimbun, having been given the photograph, requested an expert appraisal…
even decent people inside Asahi could understand that it was probably a colored smoke screen…
if it were poison gas, would not the enemy be able to recognize it if it were colored…
yet in response to Asahi’s request for appraisal, it was judged to be poison gas…
and the Asahi Shimbun, treating it as if this proved the point and as excellent material with which to attack Japan and the Japanese government, made it into a scoop article and ended up bringing great shame upon itself…
and this too was an appraisal by a former serviceman who was a university professor.
In any case…
the problem lies…
in the mental structure of the mass media, led by the Asahi, which gladly seize upon any information that can be used to denigrate the Japanese state and the Japanese military,
and of the so-called cultural figures who have followed in step with them.