Published on October 29, 2019. Based on an essay by Shigeki Miyajima published in the Sankei Shimbun on October 24, 2019, this article addresses the teacher-on-teacher bullying case uncovered in Suma Ward, Kobe, criticizing the anonymity granted to the offending teachers, the police response, and the double standards of the teachers’ union and Henoko activists.

October 29, 2019.
The people occupying the tent village in Henoko posted photographs of the faces of local police officers as if they were publicly wanted criminals, didn’t they?
Why won’t you people publish the photographs of those bullying teachers’ faces?
The following is from an essay by Shigeki Miyajima published in the Sankei Shimbun on October 24 under the title “So Lenient Toward ‘Bullying Teachers.’”
Really, what on earth is going on with my hometown, Kobe?
Well, to be precise, the place where this humble Miyajima was born and spent eighteen years of his life was Akashi, surrounded by Kobe and the Seto Inland Sea.
What am I talking about?
I am talking about the “bullying” among teachers that came to light in Suma, Kobe, the same Kobe where the Sakakibara incident, which shook all of Japan twenty-two years ago, took place.
In a certain sense, the teachers were committing violence so horrifying and malicious that it was even worse than the incident twenty-two years ago.
Of the four offending teachers, one was a female teacher, they say.
And the bullying had continued since last year.
What is the Hyogo Prefectural Police doing?
According to reports, they plan to investigate the case on suspicion of assault, but with that much evidence already gathered, when are they going to question them?
If a crime syndicate based in the same city of Kobe had done the same thing, they would have been arrested immediately.
And yet, the offending teachers have not been arrested and have not resigned from teaching.
Far from that, even their names and faces have not been revealed.
Will it end with anonymous, hypocritical “apology comments”?
From those perfunctory words, I cannot feel even the slightest trace of “remorse.”
And now they are gracefully “on paid leave,” are they?
Then, after a while, once the commotion dies down, they will calmly stand at the lectern in another school, won’t they?
The Hyogo Prefectural Police are tough on crime syndicates, but they are lenient toward teachers.
Isn’t this…
A violation of the Constitution, which proclaims equality under the law?
If schools and the police cannot touch them, and if teachers are truly a “sanctuary,” then it should be the Japan Teachers’ Union that properly scolds those teachers.
If they have time to go all the way to Henoko in Okinawa and complain to Japan Coast Guard officers and police officers about “forced removal” and “violence,” why do they not denounce the extremely malicious violence and bullying committed by teachers?
The victimized teacher continued to suffer bullying beyond description.
The people occupying the tent village in Henoko posted photographs of the faces of local police officers as if they were publicly wanted criminals, didn’t they?
Why won’t you people publish the photographs of those bullying teachers’ faces?