Published on February 6, 2020.
This article discusses Masayuki Takayama’s Shukan Shincho column “White Thieves,” examining a history of plagiarism and false claims by American researchers through examples such as Professor Shinya Yamanaka’s iPS cell research, Jokichi Takamine’s adrenaline, the HIV discovery dispute, and Akira Yoshino’s lithium-ion battery.
It also criticizes the Asahi Shimbun’s postwar tendency to downplay Japanese achievements while praising Americans.

2020-02-06
MacArthur ordered the Asahi Shimbun to “praise Americans and demean Japanese.”
It seems that this still lives on.
The following is from Masayuki Takayama’s serial column, which closes Shukan Shincho.
This week, too, he proves that he is the one and only journalist in the postwar world.
White Thieves
Professor Shinya Yamanaka once spoke thoughtfully in a dialogue about “Americans who calmly tell lies and feel no shame.”
In creating iPS cells, the professor first succeeded in turning ordinary mouse cells into stem cells by adding specific factors.
He published his paper, then worked toward his goal of human iPS cells and succeeded in that as well.
When he applied for a patent on this world-class achievement, American venture companies and universities began saying, “We succeeded first.”
Surprised, he checked the contents of their research, only to find that they were outright bogus papers in which the “mouse” parts of his earlier Yamanaka paper had simply been replaced with “human.”
Seeing American researchers behave no differently from Chinese, the professor was left speechless.
But that was because the professor is Japanese and does not suspect others.
Looking back through history, there have been countless shameless Americans.
For example, Takamine Jokichi succeeded in extracting the adrenal medulla hormone adrenaline.
Following this, John Abel of Johns Hopkins University published a paper saying, “I succeeded first.”
Because of racial prejudice as well, Abel forced his claim through, and Takamine was treated as a thief.
Later, Abel’s paper was examined and found to be a blatant lie.
The same kind of commotion occurred with HIV.
When Montagnier of France’s Pasteur Institute succeeded in isolating the virus, Gallo of the U.S. National Cancer Institute said, “I found it first.”
The dispute continued for twenty years, but Sweden’s Karolinska Institute ruled that “Gallo stole Montagnier’s research,” and Montagnier was awarded the Nobel Prize.
“American scholars are liars” has by now become common sense, yet for some reason the science section of the Asahi Shimbun excessively sides with Americans.
In the HIV dispute, too, it sided with Gallo.
It was the same in the reporting on iPS cells.
It even reported that the American university research institutions that had stolen Yamanaka’s paper were “ahead.”
In fact, even in its reporting on the lithium-ion battery, for which Yoshino Akira of Asahi Kasei won the Nobel Prize, the Asahi Shimbun maintained the line that “Americans are wonderful.”
There were three recipients this time.
The greatest achievement was Yoshino’s, yet the Asahi consistently praised and extolled the achievements of co-recipient John Goodenough.
Its editorial after the award used the same tone, writing that Yoshino, who had “smoldered for nine years at Asahi Kasei’s research institute without producing results,” “found a breakthrough in battery development after encountering a paper by America’s Goodenough.”
It was written almost as if he had become the third recipient thanks to an American.
That differs greatly from the general evaluation.
In the first place, as researcher Mark Buchanan himself recently reported for Bloomberg, when it came to a small, high-capacity, rechargeable battery, it had been studied since the 1970s on the assumption that “there was nothing but lithium.”
Then M. Whittingham of America’s Exxon, who became the third recipient, made a battery using lithium for the negative electrode, but all of them caught fire.
Next, Goodenough, together with a Japanese scholar at Toshiba, developed metallic lithium.
It looked as if it might work, but it lacked stability.
It exploded quickly.
It was called a lithium bomb.
Yoshino, too, chose a lithium electrode, but he struggled with what to use for the other electrode.
The hint came from the conductive polymer material pioneered by Nobel Prize winner Shirakawa Hideki.
After trial and error, he found a good carbon material.
Furthermore, when he tried the reverse idea of placing the lithium that generates ions not at the negative electrode but at the positive electrode, it was a great success.
Even when he struck it with a hammer, it did not explode.
Thus a safe, extremely small, high-capacity battery that could fit into a smartphone was created.
When one speaks of something small, durable, and high-performance, diesel engines and quartz watches are also examples.
It can be called a special skill that only the Japanese have achieved.
The lithium-ion battery is the same.
When one traces the history of its development, Japanese wisdom is involved everywhere.
There is no American wisdom anywhere.
Even so, the Asahi desperately flatters Americans.
MacArthur ordered the Asahi Shimbun to “praise Americans and demean Japanese.”
It seems that this still lives on.