Published on July 14, 2019.
Based on an essay by Masayuki Takayama, this article examines Asahi Shimbun’s correction of its comfort women articles, its “North Korea is paradise on earth” reporting, the Ito Ritsu interview article, and the poison gas photograph report, recording the issues of erroneous reporting, fabrication, and Sankei Shimbun’s challenge to the authority of a major newspaper.

July 14, 2019
Asahi Shimbun’s arrogant correction of its comfort women articles is laughable.
The following is a continuation of the previous chapter.
Asahi Shimbun’s Arrogant Correction of Its Comfort Women Articles Is Laughable.
The same method it used when making excuses for the “North Korea is paradise on earth” campaign.
Sankei challenged the “prestige” of a major newspaper.
Newspapers make erroneous reports.
One example is a case in which they accidentally confuse perpetrator A and victim B and write “perpetrator B.”
In such cases, the proper form for a newspaper is to correct the error and apologize.
Among such cases, there are also unbelievable ones in which it is not merely a mistaken name, but the entire article was false.
That was the “Interview with Ito Ritsu” article that appeared in Asahi Shimbun in September 1950.
A reporter from the Kobe bureau claimed to have met Ito on Mount Takarazuka under the moonlight and had him speak about his life in hiding.
The entire text was false.
Asahi apologized and withdrew the article.
That was still at a time when Asahi could distinguish good from evil, but before long that became doubtful.
In its pages in October 1984, Asahi published a photograph of thick black smoke rising, claiming it was “the scene where the Japanese military used poison gas.”
Professor Fujiwara Akira of Hitotsubashi University gave it his endorsement, saying, “Yes.
This is poison gas.”
However, a reporter at Sankei Shimbun knew the original version of that photograph.
It was a scene from a river-crossing operation in Hunan Province, and the billowing smoke was a smoke screen.
“Do not slander other newspapers” was the rule of the newspaper world at the time, and above all, saying anything about Asahi, which reigned over the newspaper world, was the greatest taboo.
But lies cannot be allowed.
The author, who was a desk editor at the time, published an article saying that “Asahi falsely presented a smoke screen as poison gas and degraded Japan.”
Immediately, Asahi’s executives came storming in.
On the Sankei side, both the director in charge of editing and the editor-in-chief suddenly developed stomachaches, and the social affairs department chief also had urgent business and disappeared.
That shows just how great Asahi’s prestige was, but no matter how much they threatened us, the article had already been published.
I told them that, to begin with, it was wrong to think that poison gas would be pitch black and billow up into the sky.
This essay continues.