Masayuki Takayama is not only a singular journalist in the postwar world but also a true artist who brings hidden truths to light.
His analysis of the “Japan Without Which” speech exposes the stark contrast between U.S. reconstruction policies toward Germany and Japan, revealing the deeper structure of postwar Japan’s containment.

May 11, 2016

For example, the chapter introduced the other day also brilliantly proves this point.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that Masayuki Takayama is not only a singular journalist in the postwar world, but also a true artist.
I believe he is a person who does not seek such praise at all.
For example, the chapter introduced the other day also splendidly demonstrates this fact.

Emphasis within the text, except for the heading, as well as the portions marked with —, are mine.

The Significance of the “Japan Without Which” Speech

Mahathir says:

“After the war, the United States provided reconstruction aid to Germany and Italy, but it did not wish for Japan’s reconstruction.”

This refers to the so-called Marshall Plan.

Germany invaded other countries and committed the grave crime of ethnic cleansing against the Jews, yet the United States actively provided free reconstruction aid.

However, all aid to Japan was provided on a paid basis.

The United States arbitrarily changed Japan’s constitution, forced it to renounce military power, and furthermore, under the direction of Edwin Pauley, dismantled domestic factories and sent them to Korea and China, thereby lowering Japan’s industrial level.

This was the complete opposite of the reconstruction plans implemented for Germany and Italy.

Under the pretext of being an “aggressor nation,” one can discern an intention not merely to prevent Japan’s recovery, but to potentially bring about the disappearance of a country that had delivered a powerful impact to the so-called Third World.

Japan was not brought to ruin only because, at the very moment Pauley arrived to carry out a second round of industrial dismantling, Kim Il-sung launched the Korean War.

For Japan, this was a stroke of fortune.

I chose Osaka as the stage for my life as a businessman.
Perhaps because of that, I had close relationships with several Zainichi Koreans.
Among them was a person connected to Chongryon, who would occasionally say this: Japan profited from the special procurement boom of the Korean War.

Many Japanese people, including myself—especially readers of newspapers such as the Asahi Shimbun—must have been made to think in exactly the same way.

A certain elderly lady from Monaco, whom a world-famous ballerina visiting Japan deeply respected, once said that an artist is someone who can shed light on hidden truths and express them.

By that definition, I believe it would not be an exaggeration to say that there has been no artist in Japan greater than Masayuki Takayama.

At the same time, I also find myself impressive, if I may say so (ha ha, a loud laugh), for being the first to make known to the world concepts such as the “Turntable of Civilization,” or the idea that Japan has remained in the position of a political prisoner in international society even seventy years after the war, or that Donald Trump is the greatest trickster of the postwar era.*