At the center of Japan’s largest spy scandal stood an Asahi Shimbun employee. This essay traces how communist ideology permeated academia and media, shaping postwar discourse in Japan.

2016-05-04

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Sorge Incident, one of the largest spy cases in Japanese history, was an incident whose central figure was Ozaki Hotsumi, an employee of Asahi Shimbun.

In other words, Asahi Shimbun had many individuals who either embraced communist ideology or sympathized with it.

Before the war, communism was like a disease afflicting many intellectuals.

After the war, Japan’s university faculties of law and economics were occupied by Marxist scholars. Even today, a considerable number likely remain so.

Graduates from these institutions entered the media, not only commenting on Japan’s politics and economy, but also dominating Japan’s discourse, reporting, and academia—fields oligopolized by outlets such as Asahi and Mainichi.

Isn’t that a chilling thought?

From this perspective, considering the reporting surrounding the death of Wakamiya Yoshibumi is by no means a waste of time.

The Communist Party’s specialty lies in hiding the truth and spreading false propaganda.

While sensing that something is wrong, one may come to see hidden truths and concealed realities.

Now then,

To dispel such doubts, those absolute anti-nuclear advocates at Asahi and elsewhere—whose persistence has been astonishing, as I have repeatedly noted—along with the scholars who echo them and so-called civic groups aligned with the Democratic Party and the Communist Party, must act if they truly believe they are right.

They should immediately go to China and South Korea and carry out opposition activities against the massive expansion of nuclear power there, with even greater persistence than what they do in Japan.

If, as before, they do absolutely nothing, then Japan and the Japanese people should apply the label they themselves love so much—treating them as spy-like entities manipulated by China or South Korea.