A meticulous historical analysis of repeated attacks on Japanese civilians in Wanxian, Nanjing, Hankou, and Jinan, and the tragic consequences of Shidehara’s non-retaliation diplomacy.
Through vivid records and documented atrocities, Takayama argues that Japan’s excessive goodwill emboldened further violence and demonstrates that economic sanctions—not tolerance—provide the strongest deterrence.

The Chinese knew both Wanxian and Nanjing.
They thought, “The Japanese never retaliate no matter what we do.”
“In that case, attack the Japanese.”
It is no different from a dog’s way of thinking.

November 6, 2023.
The following is from America and China Arrogantly Lie, published on February 28, 2015, a collection centered on the essays Masayuki Takayama wrote anonymously, at the request of the editor-in-chief, for the opening column “Orisetsu no Ki” of the monthly magazine Seiron.
It is essential reading not only for the Japanese people but also for readers around the world.
Everyone will surely be impressed by the sharpness of his words, which reveal hidden truths and bring them to light.
It is no exaggeration to say that this is his highest peak in terms of argumentative clarity.

Long ago, an elderly female professor from the Royal Ballet School of Monaco—deeply respected by primas across the world—visited Japan.
She spoke about the meaning of an artist’s existence.
“Artists are important because they are the only ones who can shine light on hidden truths and express them.”
No one would object to her words.
Masayuki Takayama is not only the one and only journalist in the postwar world; it is no exaggeration to say he is also the one and only artist in the postwar world.
On the other hand, people such as Ōe, Murakami, and Hirano—those who call themselves writers, those who imagine themselves to be artists—are in fact unworthy of the name.
Because they have done nothing but express the lies created by the Asahi Shimbun, rather than shine light on hidden truths and express them.
Such figures must surely exist not only in Japan but in every country of the world.
In other words, true artists are extremely rare.
This book powerfully proves my assertion that, in today’s world, the person most deserving of the Nobel Prize in Literature is none other than Masayuki Takayama.

It was the Japanese who repaid resentment with kindness.

In 1927, when Chiang Kai-shek’s regular army entered politically unstable Nanjing, the resident Japanese “felt relieved” (Tanaka Hideo, Another Nanjing Incident), but that optimism was excessive.
They attacked the Japanese Consulate, shot the guards, stole everything from furniture to the consul’s clothes and shoes, and moreover raped the consul’s wife and thirty other women.
They also attacked the American Goldling University and killed its vice-president, E. Williams.
Teachers at the French Jesuit Université l’Aurore were also brutally murdered.
“Their hair, beards, and even pubic hair were burned off, their thighs severed, and their bodies dumped in the streets” (ibid.).
Pearl Buck lived nearby.
Knowing that the mob was approaching, she fled with her daughter Carol, who suffered from phenylketonuria, into the shed of a Chinese servant.
While hearing the Chinese ransack her home and laughing loudly, she held her daughter’s mouth shut and endured a sleepless night.
The next day, British and American destroyers arrived at Xiaguan outside Nanjing and began indiscriminate shelling into the city.
Into an area the size of Setagaya Ward, over 200 shells per hour were fired, causing more than a thousand casualties.
After the shelling, U.S. Marines landed and rescued her, and she traveled immediately with her daughter to safe Japan, spending a year at the foot of Unzen.

During this indiscriminate shelling by the British and American ships, the Japanese destroyers Hinoki and Momo were also present at Xiaguan.
The British and Americans urged them to fire as well.
But the Japanese ships refused.
Foreign Minister Shidehara Kijūrō had ordered “friendship with China is important,” commanding unlimited tolerance toward the Chinese.
In fact, the previous year in Wanxian, Sichuan Province, Japanese ships had been shot at and a British ship seized.
Britain immediately sent warships and shelled Wanxian indiscriminately, terrifying Commander Yang Sen and securing the release of the ships.
But Shidehara intentionally sent word to Yang Sen that “Japan will not fire.”
The same happened in Nanjing.
He forbade the consulate guards to return fire and allowed the Chinese to plunder and assault to their heart’s content.
Even after the incident, he did not make public the rape of the consul’s wife.
First came “friendship.”
Shidehara never even considered retaliatory shelling.

Did the Chinese appreciate Japan’s kindness?
One week later, in Hankou, Chinese mobs attacked the Japanese Consulate and Japanese residents.
They looted every Japanese home and shop they found, murdered women who had just given birth, and beat dozens of Japanese to death.
Two hundred out of 2,500 Japanese fled the city with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
The Chinese knew about Wanxian and Nanjing.
They thought, “The Japanese never retaliate no matter what we do.”
“In that case, attack the Japanese.”
It is no different from a dog’s way of thinking.

Thus, in May 1928, they caused the Jinan Incident.
Chiang Kai-shek’s troops, newly arrived in the international commercial city, immediately began hunting Japanese and murdered fourteen.
A twenty-nine-year-old woman was gang-raped, her breasts cut off, her abdomen slit open, and a stick shoved into her genitals.
Yet Shidehara preached tolerance and did not release her autopsy photographs.
The autopsy photographs that Japanese people never saw were later turned by Jiang Zemin into “Unit 731 human experiments” and are now printed in Chinese textbooks.

Fukuzawa Yukichi said, “There is no time to wait for the enlightenment of neighboring countries.
We must leave their ranks, join the Western civilized nations, and need not offer special consideration to China or Korea.”
That is why it is hard to say “Japan should have shelled Nanjing indiscriminately together with Britain and America.”
Had Japan fired, the Chinese would not have despised Japan.
And in Hankou, Jinan, or probably Tongzhou, incidents would not have occurred.
However, even if Shidehara had remained silent, the Japanese would hesitate to massacre Chinese indiscriminately like the nation that had been exterminating Indians until yesterday.

Then what should Japan have done?
During the Tiananmen Incident, Japan did not join international sanctions.
Japan also accepted the Chinese request for the Emperor’s visit.
Qian Qichen wrote in his memoirs, “With this, China was saved.”
Having killed 30,000 students, China recovered without reflection, and now the world suffers from marauding Chinese.
Kindness always backfires.

North Korea has finally regained sanity and promised to reinvestigate the abductee issue.
In return, Japan lifted economic sanctions.
Expecting the Mangyongbong-92 to be immediately allowed to enter port, it headed for Niigata.
These two cases show that economic sanctions are more effective than shelling.

South Korea placed a comfort woman statue in front of the Japanese Embassy.
Japan, following Shidehara’s line, had tolerated such offensive acts, but patience has reached its limit.
Japan must abandon kindness.
Close the embassy and cut economic ties.
People like Yonekura will scream about losses, but ignore them.
Even with some damage, Park Geun-hye can be taught the ways of humanity.