Published on September 5, 2019.
Based on Yoshiko Sakurai’s essay “NHK’s End-of-War Reporting Remains Full of Problems,” published in Shukan Shincho, this article examines the bias seen in NHK’s historical programs, its treatment of the prewar Nihon Shimbun, comparisons with the prewar reporting of the Asahi Shimbun, the handling of Michiji Tajima’s “Audience Records,” Emperor Showa’s remarks on rearmament and constitutional revision, and the danger of politically exploiting the Emperor.
It points out problems in the historical narrative presented by NHK and argues that careful rules are needed regarding the public disclosure of diaries kept by close aides who served the Imperial Household.

September 5, 2019.
If, as NHK claims, Nihon Shimbun had enough power to move public opinion and politics, in other words, if it was so passionately supported by the people, why was it driven to discontinuation after only ten years?
Yoshiko Sakurai is a treasure of Japan.
Those who call themselves professors, journalists, lawyers, and so on, and who endlessly repeat words and actions that denigrate Japan, especially the men among them, must boil the dirt from under Sakurai’s fingernails and drink it.
The following is from an essay by Yoshiko Sakurai published in Shukan Shincho released today under the title “NHK’s End-of-War Reporting Remains Full of Problems.”
Every year when August comes, NHK broadcasts its so-called “historical specials.”
Among NHK’s works on history, there are not a few in which bias, distortion, and fabrication are conspicuous, such as “JAPAN Debut” in April 2009 and “The Truth of Unit 731: Elite Medical Scholars and Human Experimentation” in August 2017.
For that reason, I have spent my days thinking that I do not want to watch NHK’s historical programs.
However, this year I thought it was absolutely necessary to watch them, and so I did.
The two works I watched were “Thus ‘Freedom’ Died: A Newspaper and the Road to War” and “What Did Emperor Showa Say? First Public Release: The Secret Audience Records.”
The former was an NHK Special on August 12 and took up Nihon Shimbun, which had been published for only ten years before the war.
The latter was broadcast on the 17th and was based on the diary of Michiji Tajima, the first Grand Steward of the Imperial Household Agency.
Both works were dramatized productions using actors.
To say “as expected” is an ironic expression, but the former was finished exactly as one would expect from an “NHK historical program.”
I also had many questions about the latter.
First, regarding the “newspaper” program, the program proceeds with narration in a gloomy tone of voice.
Nihon Shimbun was founded in Taisho H, 1925, by Minister of Justice Ogawa Heikichi, and among its supporters were Hiranuma Kiichiro and Tojo Hideki.
The program introduces the gist that all of them “shared the idea of absolutizing Japan as a country that revered the Emperor of an unbroken imperial line, as stipulated in the Meiji Constitution.”
This is impression manipulation that makes the bloodline of the “unbroken imperial line,” one of the basic principles expressing the national character both in the Meiji Constitution and in the current Constitution, appear as if it were a value that should be condemned.
The message of the program is that Nihon Shimbun advocated the Emperor-centered state system of “Japanism” in its first issue, and that this Japanism drove all of Japan toward militarism.
The height of lack of study.
However, the program lacks persuasiveness.
Its structure merely skims the thinnest film from the surface of history and connects various events without context, and in no scene is the causal relationship of the developments proved by historical materials or evidence.
When I think that NHK produced this ridiculous work, based solely on impressions, using the reception fees it forcibly collects from the people, my anger doubles.
The circulation of Nihon Shimbun, which is said to have exerted enough influence to create a wave of militarism throughout Japan and drive Japan to war, was only about 16,000 copies.
Moreover, as mentioned above, it was published for only ten years, until Showa 10.
If, as NHK claims, Nihon Shimbun had enough power to move public opinion and politics, in other words, if it was so passionately supported by the people, why was it driven to discontinuation after only ten years?
One of the newspapers that had far greater influence at the time was the Asahi Shimbun.
The Asahi was founded in Osaka in Meiji 12, 1879, much earlier than Nihon Shimbun, expanded into Tokyo nine years later, and by one year before the founding of Nihon Shimbun had become a major newspaper with a circulation proudly exceeding one million copies.
The Asahi increased its circulation by inciting the military with reporting that was like the far right regarding the Manchurian Incident and other matters, so why did NHK focus only on Nihon Shimbun as a medium that incited militarism?
It is the height of lack of study.
After this program on Nihon Shimbun, with August 15 in between, the program on the Tajima diary, namely the “Audience Records,” was broadcast.
Behind the structure of pairing these two works, I felt there might be an intention to link the evils of militarism to the constitutional revision that Prime Minister Abe Shinzo is trying to realize and thereby block it.
That is because the Audience Records made clearer than ever the fact that Emperor Showa desired rearmament and constitutional revision.
Before going further into the contents of the “Audience Records,” I would like to point out that NHK has not disclosed the whole of Michiji Tajima’s diary.
We cannot judge whether NHK’s broadcast correctly reflects the whole picture.
NHK distributed materials concerning the Tajima diary at the Imperial Household Agency press club, but what was distributed was not the entire diary, only the parts selected by NHK.
There was also an explanation that these were the parts approved by Tajima’s bereaved family, but that is only what NHK reported.
The contents subsequently reported by newspapers and other companies inevitably became basically the same as NHK’s, because the materials distributed by NHK were all the materials each company possessed, and thus they ended up expanding NHK’s viewpoint.
Another point is that NHK advertises this broadcast as a “first public release” and “secret records,” but the Tajima diary had already been introduced by Kato Kyoko in the June and July 2003 issues of Chuo Koron and Bungei Shunju sixteen years earlier.
What Kato conveyed was the point that Emperor Showa frequently reflected on and regretted the war, and in NHK’s program, passages expressing such thoughts are also performed in the heavy tone of an actor.
The political use of the Emperor.
Sixteen years ago, Bungei Shunju also reported the full text of the “Draft Imperial Rescript of Apology to the People by Emperor Showa,” under the phrase “Because of My Lack of Virtue, I Am Deeply Ashamed Before the World.”
Kato introduced, through Tajima’s agonized efforts to realize Emperor Showa’s wishes, how this draft, due to opposition from Prime Minister Yoshida Shigeru and others, had expressions of reflection on the past and other points changed into “inoffensive expressions,” according to Kato.
The new aspect of NHK’s reporting is that it clarified this point in the form of a dialogue between Emperor Showa and Tajima.
On the other hand, the most impressive aspect of NHK’s reporting is the aforementioned point concerning constitutional revision.
Emperor Showa specifically spoke of his thoughts on rearmament and constitutional revision, which until now could only be inferred through imperial poems and other sources.
In 1952, Emperor Showa often referred to Japan’s rearmament and constitutional revision, and on February 11 he stated, “It would be better to revise only the point concerning military armament, openly, fairly, and堂々と, without touching any other revisions.”
On March 11, he pointed out, “If the world becomes one without aggressors, armaments will not be necessary, but as long as aggressors exist in human society, a military is unavoidably necessary,” and on June 1, 1953, he showed a common-sense view toward the movement opposing U.S. military bases, saying, “Idealism that forgets reality is troublesome.”
Knowing the feelings of Emperor Showa that have thus been made clear, I am deeply moved by his figure of trying to take responsibility for the way the Japanese state should be.
However, both the people and the government must be cautious.
Japan is a constitutional monarchy, and the Emperor, as monarch, reigns but does not govern.
That is because everyone must refrain from the political use of the Emperor.
To begin with, I have doubts as to whether the diary of a close aide should be made public in this way.
Until now, many close aides have published diaries and notes, but surely they must be extremely cautious about disclosing information they heard and saw while serving the Emperor, information they obtained, so to speak, in the course of their duties.
Once it is made public, naturally, we read it with strong interest.
However, is that not a betrayal of the Emperor who trusted his close aides?
With things like this, one cannot help but ask whether the Imperial Household, and Japan, which reveres the Imperial Household, will be all right, and whether the national character can be maintained.
Rules are needed for the people who serve the Imperial Household.