The Tokyo Trial narrative still dominates postwar historical views in Japan and abroad.
By persistently sharing General MacArthur’s testimony through civil society rather than abrupt political action, Japan can gradually reshape global historical understanding and restore balance to postwar narratives.

2017-06-19
The following is a continuation of the previous chapter.
I myself have spoken about MacArthur’s testimony whenever the opportunity arose, but although my readers may know it, it has not easily spread to the wider public.
“Channel Sakura” broadcast it daily for several months, but since it is not terrestrial television and is watched mostly by conservatives who already know the issue, it has not spread widely.
Nevertheless, it would be truly regrettable not to make use of this fact.
The so-called “Tokyo Trial historical view,” which still dominates postwar perceptions in both the world and Japan, should be replaced by the “Tojo–MacArthur historical view.”
I believe that continuing to transmit the testimony of the “revisionist” MacArthur to the world on a permanent basis is one of the important missions of the second Abe administration.
If this is pursued too hastily in the political arena, the backlash may be excessive, so all Japanese should repeatedly state, whenever the opportunity arises, that “MacArthur testified that the Greater East Asia War was not a war of aggression but a war of self-defense.”
After all, it is like the magic words “Open Sesame,” and when this is said to those who loudly accuse Japan of being an aggressor nation, they fall silent.
That is only natural, because no one can refute it.
That MacArthur was a revisionist was once well known in the United States.
That is why Americans at that time were friendly toward the Japanese.
In the 1960s, on two occasions at American airports, I was asked, “Are you Japanese,” and when I answered that I was, I was treated to coffee.
However, Americans have now forgotten such things.
There is no reason for them to remember forever what Japan itself does not try to know.
Therefore, we Japanese citizens must first fully understand this matter ourselves.
And then it is necessary to gradually spread it to the world from the private sector.