2017-12-31
The following is from an article on page 14 of today’s Sankei Shimbun.
Behind South Korea’s Anti-Japanese Sentiment Lies the Shadow of the Asahi Shimbun
Dialogue: The Comfort Women Issue as a Chinese Stratagem
Whether or not forcible abductions occurred, how greatly the claims made by South Korea and the Asahi Shimbun falsify historical facts, and how far removed they are from historical reality.
Until now, the comfort women issue has been addressed from this perspective.
In reality, however, this issue is by no means such a simple matter.
It is an international stratagem and political operation positioned within China’s national strategy of demeaning the nation of Japan and driving the Japanese people into a corner.
Such a stern recognition is indispensable from the outset.
In the March issue of Seiron, American journalist Michael Yon and journalist Yoshihisa Komori discussed “the front lines of the history war.”
Komori warned, “Many Japanese people tend to believe that the comfort women issue is the work of South Koreans, but the true mastermind at its core is China.”
Yon responded, “We must not overlook China’s operations, which skilfully manipulate the Korean national temperament of never forgetting a grudge, inflame anti-Japanese sentiment, and drive people toward extremism.”
Japanese people are subjected to discrimination and attack solely because they are Japanese, and this eventually escalates until they become targets of murder and terrorism.
Even now, it is said, China is working feverishly to construct such an “encirclement of the Japanese people” throughout the world.
This discussion compels us to consider carefully what the comfort women issue truly is.
Even so, one point must be made.
The responsibility of the Asahi Shimbun for inflaming the comfort women issue to this extent remains enormous.
Whether its actions were intentional or whether it was merely manipulated, the day will come when its reporting is severely condemned for having assisted foreign stratagems and operations and for having betrayed the Japanese people.
(Keita Andō)