Published on September 25, 2019.
This essay discusses Yamanoue no Okura, the Man’yōshū, the Kojiki, the Nihon Shoki, mythology, the tomb of Emperor Nintoku, and the words of Empress Michiko, while examining the postwar structure through which historians, literary scholars, Asahi Shimbun, and Iwanami degraded Japan and elevated China and Korea.

September 25, 2019.
As long as someone says something that degrades Japan and elevates China or Korea, Asahi and Iwanami pick it up and praise it without verification.
And that is the structure by which it spreads among the Japanese people.
This is a chapter published on March 3, 2019, under the title: Postwar textbooks decided not to take up the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki.
I am republishing once again the chapter published on June 25, 2017, under the title: A recently awarded Man’yō scholar published in Iwanami’s Bungaku the theory that the famous poet Yamanoue no Okura was a naturalized person.
The following is the continuation of the previous chapter.
A recently awarded Man’yō scholar published in Iwanami’s Bungaku the theory that the famous poet Yamanoue no Okura was a naturalized person, and it created a great reaction.
However, in the Man’yōshū, there is a poem by Okura praising Empress Jingū, who carried out the conquest of the Three Korean Kingdoms.
Furthermore, Okura also composed a poem praising Japan: “Since the age of the gods, it has been handed down that the land of Yamato, sky-filled, is the solemn land of the imperial gods, the land where the spirit of words brings blessing…”
There could not possibly have been such a naturalized person at that time.
He was probably a returnee from the Korean Peninsula after the defeat at the Battle of Baekgang.
A Man’yō scholar who does not notice that becomes a Man’yō scholar who has not even read the Man’yōshū.
In this way, postwar Japanese historians and literary scholars have been saying terribly shoddy things.
As Mr. Hasegawa says, as long as someone says something that degrades Japan and elevates China or Korea, Asahi and Iwanami pick it up and praise it without verification.
And that is the structure by which it spreads among the Japanese people.
Postwar textbooks decided not to take up the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki.
Therefore, ancient history in textbooks is all archaeology, such as the Stone Age, the Jōmon period, and the Yayoi period.
When one looks at the chronology of the Japanese Historical Association, even though the tomb of Emperor Nintoku exists, Emperor Nintoku does not appear.
Hasegawa.
Even though, in reality, there is a large keyhole-shaped imperial tomb in Osaka Prefecture?
Watanabe.
If you ask people on the left, archaeology does not require it to be an imperial tomb at all.
They say mythology is out of the question, and that the only things that can substantiate the existence of emperors are Chinese and Korean historical materials, and if a person who seems to be a Japanese emperor appears there, they start writing from around that point.
But if we think with common sense, ancient Chinese and Koreans could not possibly have known what was happening in Japan.
Therefore, they could not possibly have written about it.
What impresses me is that the first course in Japanese history created at the University of Tokyo in the Meiji period began with mythology.
It is not that one must believe in mythology; rather, there are historical circumstances that cannot be explained if mythology is ignored.
It takes the position that if mythology is denied, later explanations become impossible.
Hasegawa.
Her Majesty Empress Michiko clearly states, in her book Building Bridges, the idea that studying mythology is extremely important.
She says that mythology itself is not reality, but it reflects something about Japanese society.
Watanabe.
What I think is truly admirable about Her Majesty Empress Michiko is that, and I think she has written this somewhere as well, she has the resolve of Princess Ototachibana.
Ototachibana-hime was the woman who threw herself from the boat in order to save Yamato Takeru.
Yamato Takeru no Mikoto lamented, “Azuma haya, my wife!”
Of course, neither Yamato Takeru no Mikoto nor Ototachibana-hime ever appears in left-leaning textbooks.
They say that at that time it was not yet the historical age.
It does not matter whether there is a place name called “Azuma” or a city called “Yaizu.”
Because there are no Chinese documents written about it, laughter.