Published on October 17, 2019.
This essay discusses foreign correspondents such as Pio d’Emilia, the conduct of foreign reporters who denigrate Japan, the insult directed at Yoshiko Sakurai, and the author’s complex feelings toward postwar Japan and Italy, while reflecting on the meaning of Japan as the country where the Turntable of Civilization is turning and expressing anger toward anti-Japanese rhetoric.

October 17, 2019.
Why has Italy, ever since the war, remained in a state of social instability and, whenever something happens, in the position of being Europe’s burden?
It is no exaggeration to say that this is the result of an attitude that, unbelievably, sends such fools to Japan.
I am republishing the chapter I sent out on July 29, 2019, under the title: It is no exaggeration to say that this is the result of retribution for, unbelievably, sending such fools abroad.
The reason is clear from the previous chapter.
This is the chapter I sent out on December 27, 2018, under the title: When I learned that, despite having been an ally, Italy took advantage of Japan’s defeat to wring reparations from Japan, my infinite elegia for Italy became 100 yen cheaper.
As the people around me also know, I love Italy.
I now have something I want to say to Italy.
Pio d’Emilia, who is acting as if he controls the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan… this person is probably under the influence of the intelligence agencies of anti-Japanese states such as China and the Korean Peninsula… and cannot be a proper journalist.
A person of such ugly and lowest-level character…
All the more so if many Italians are Catholics and have respect for those who have been called saints in history,
please immediately recall this disgrace to Italy back to his home country.
It was several decades ago, when I was visiting the home of a classmate and close friend who was living in Rome, that I conceived the idea of “The Turntable of Civilization.”
In July 2010, having no choice, I appeared on the Internet in this way and began writing.
From August five years ago, especially concerning postwar Japan, I began to learn countless truths that I had never known at all while I was subscribing to the Asahi Shimbun.
Among them, when I learned that Italy, despite having been an ally that had, so to speak, stood on the side of the defeated nations, took advantage of Japan’s defeat to wring reparations from Japan, my infinite elegia for Italy became 100 yen cheaper.
The conduct of the above-mentioned Italian named Pio d’Emilia and others,
who insulted Yoshiko Sakurai,
a true saint existing in today’s Japan and the person most worthy of receiving the People’s Honor Award,
at a press conference of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan, in the most extreme possible manner, is truly unforgivable.
How much did it damage the feelings of the Japanese people?
My infinite elegia for Italy plunged so sharply that it was equivalent to the collapse of the Italian economy.
It is no exaggeration to say that the reason Italian society continues to be unstable is that it allows such types, unbelievably, to attack and denigrate Japan.
Think about it.
Not a single Japanese person,
not even one Japanese person in Italy,
would attack or denigrate a saint in your country who would be worthy of your country’s People’s Honor Award.
That, too, is what it means for the Turntable of Civilization to be turning.
Why has Italy, ever since the war, remained in a state of social instability and, whenever something happens, in the position of being Europe’s burden?
It is no exaggeration to say that this is the result of an attitude that, unbelievably, sends such fools to Japan.
Especially now, Japan is the country where the Turntable of Civilization is turning… as readers know, I placed its beginning, as if together with Byron, in Italy…
Because Italy allows such a lowest-level person to commit evil deeds in Japan, divine punishment falls upon it.