Published on November 14, 2019. Based on Masayuki Takayama’s column in Shukan Shincho, this essay examines how November 3, originally Meiji-setsu, came to be called Culture Day. It discusses the historical significance of Emperor Meiji, the Asahi Shimbun’s accusation of a “return to prewar Japan,” the meaning of hakkō ichiu, and the malice embedded in making the promulgation day of MacArthur’s Constitution coincide with Emperor Meiji’s birthday.

November 14, 2019.
Everyone knows that it was originally Meiji-setsu, the birthday of Emperor Meiji.
Voices are spreading that it should simply and honestly be called Meiji Day.
The Asahi Shimbun has picked a quarrel with that.
The following is from Masayuki Takayama’s column, which adorns the end of the issue of Shukan Shincho released today.
All those who subscribed to and read it must surely have reaffirmed that he is the one and only journalist in the postwar world.
Culture Day Was an Act of Malice.
Masayuki Takayama.
April 29, which was the birthday of Emperor Showa, somehow became Greenery Day.
Why green?
Will they create a “Yellow Day” next?
Criticism poured in, and it was honestly changed to Showa Day.
In fact, there is still another such meaningless national holiday.
Everyone knows that it was originally Meiji-setsu, the birthday of Emperor Meiji.
Voices are spreading that it should simply and honestly be called Meiji Day.
The Asahi Shimbun has picked a quarrel with that.
“The aim is a return to prewar Japan,” editorial writer Akira Fujiu points out in a column.
One of those who once promoted Meiji-setsu was “a religious figure who advocated hakkō ichiu,” and people in that line are behind the present movement.
If Meiji-setsu is restored, militarism will immediately be revived, and the sound of military boots will resound in the classrooms.
Therefore, it is fine as Culture Day, he says.
He declares this firmly in the tone of Nikkyoso, but for all that, the article contains many lies and concealments.
One of them is his explanation of hakkō ichiu.
It comes from the Nihon Shoki phrase, “to cover the eight directions and make them one house,” and its meaning is “the world is one family, all mankind are brothers.”
Fujiu’s claim that it was “a slogan for the Japanese military’s invasion of Asia” was rejected even by that biased Tokyo Trial.
The very core of the article is a lie.
The column says that Culture Day is superior to Meiji Day, but it does not write what makes it superior.
The significance of Emperor Meiji, whom he says is inferior, is far greater.
His Majesty admonished the Choshu foot soldiers who clung to politics by close aides and hastened the opening of the Diet.
When Chinese warships intruded into Tokyo Bay and their military threat became clear, he issued an imperial rescript, leaving aside the noisy Diet, ordering that “half of the Imperial Court expenses be allocated to shipbuilding costs for the next six years” and that “officials also contribute 10 percent of their salaries.”
The Diet hurriedly passed budgets for national defense and the development of key industries.
Thanks to that, Japan survived two national crises, the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars, and grew into an industrial nation standing alongside Europe and America.
The significance is great.
Then what is the significance of Culture Day?
The writer conceals it.
So, when I looked in a dictionary, it said “a day to love freedom and peace.”
There is no solemnity at all as a national holiday.
Then why did he conceal it?
Was he afraid that, if he wrote it, perceptive readers would think, “Could its source be MacArthur’s Constitution?”
In fact, that is the correct answer.
It was made by connecting “freedom” and “love peace” from the preamble to the new Constitution.
Actually, although the column avoids going around it, this day is precisely the anniversary of the promulgation of MacArthur’s Constitution.
Why did MacArthur overlap the promulgation of the new Constitution with Meiji-setsu and have it called Culture Day?
This man deeply resented Japan.
As commander in the Philippines, he was in truth cowardly, and when he was informed of the outbreak of war, he only panicked.
Without taking any measures, he allowed the Japanese military to destroy his precious air force, fled to Corregidor, and then abandoned his troops and fled to Australia.
Moreover, before fleeing, he had extorted 500,000 dollars from the Philippine government.
This cowardice and greed became known throughout America.
That is why, for the ten years until he was dismissed by Truman after the war, he could not even return home.
He bore a grudge, believing that the Japanese were the root cause that had driven him into becoming the “wandering marshal.”
When he came to Japan, he first wrote the new Constitution renouncing military force and, on February 22, 1946, had Prime Minister Shidehara accept it.
In Mark Gayn’s Japan Diary, it says, “because that day was Washington’s birthday.”
There is an episode about Washington cutting down the cherry tree that his father cherished.
It was a metaphor for cutting off the lifeline of Japan, the land of cherry blossoms.
MacArthur had the Class A war criminals indicted on Emperor Showa’s birthday that year.
When the death sentences of seven war criminals were decided, he had the executions carried out on December 23, the Crown Prince’s birthday.
MacArthur took revenge with such bad taste.
The finishing touch was to make the promulgation date of the ruinous Constitution of renouncing military force coincide with the birthday of Emperor Meiji, who had created modern Japan.
After GHQ ordered that, in order to hide its malice, it said that the name of the holiday could be “anything other than Constitution Memorial Day.”
The Asahi Shimbun is still faithfully preserving that malice even now.