This essay contrasts Japan’s actual governance of Korea with Western colonial rule, criticizing Asahi Shimbun for deliberately portraying it as equivalent while depicting French Indochina as a paradise, abandoning any commitment to truth.

2016-04-26

In hindsight, Japan may well have done many unnecessary things, but Asahi Shimbun portrayed such governance of Korea as if it were the kind of colonial rule spoken of by the West.

What follows is a continuation of the previous section.

Emphasis in the text is mine.

This prison island remained in active use until the time of the Vietnam War and was commonly known as the “Tiger Cages.”

Japan did not impose poll taxes or salt taxes on Korea.

Income tax was also kept to one-seventh of the level on the mainland.

Instead of building prisons, Japan laid railways, supplied electricity, built schools, and literacy rates rose to over 90 percent.

Looking back now, Japan may have wasted its efforts, but Asahi Shimbun depicted this kind of governance of Korea as though it were Western-style colonial rule, while writing as if French Indochina had been a paradise.

Its resolute stance of “to hell with the truth” remains unshaken, but if that is the case, it would be better for it to stop calling itself a newspaper.

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