This essay reexamines a 2015 Asahi Shimbun column to reveal how fabricated “comfort women” narratives and ideological bias damaged Japan–South Korea relations. It exposes Asahi Shimbun’s responsibility for international misinformation and its persistent refusal to acknowledge its historical wrongdoing.

This essay is republished because I want people around the world to read it once again.
2016-08-24
What follows was originally published on September 6, 2015.

This essay is republished because I want people around the world to read it once again.

Below is an article written on September 4, 2015, in a serialized column of the Asahi Shimbun by Tetsuya Hakoda, who was in charge of international editorials.

The passages between the asterisks are my own writing.

“Summer, filled with many turning points, is about to pass.
In August, the mind of South Korean President Park Geun-hye must not have been at ease, because of Prime Minister Abe’s statement marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the war.”

At the time, I had not read this opening passage.

If this had been an editorial written by a Korean journalist, there would be no problem at all.

However, the problem lies in the fact that this was written by a person at the very core of the Asahi Shimbun, a newspaper that is regarded externally as representing Japan, in other words, a person who embodies the ideology of that newspaper.

To those with true discernment, the conclusion is instantly obvious.
That is precisely why Japan–Korea relations deteriorated.

The statement followed what was described as the Abe administration’s policy of “disregarding South Korea.”

It is already a historical fact that the issue of so-called “comfort women,” fabricated by the Asahi Shimbun and spread throughout the world, worsened Japan–Korea relations.

Even so, Prime Minister Abe, as a politician, has tried in some way to improve the situation.
Needless to say, this does not mean acknowledging attacks based on the other side’s absurd lies.

From Japan’s perspective, while suppressing unforgivable anger toward the Asahi Shimbun and dealing with the reality of politics, Abe acted as what I have repeatedly referred to as a rare realist in recent times, that is, a person who holds no distorted ideology whatsoever and looks straight at reality.
To look straight at reality, it goes without saying that history too must be viewed directly, with distorted ideologies cast aside.

That is why the statement was something he was able to accomplish so splendidly.
Yet it is no exaggeration to say that all of this was a calamity brought about by the Asahi Shimbun.

This column, written by a reporter at the core of the Asahi Shimbun who shows not even the slightest sign of reflection over the grave crime committed against Japan and its people, tells us everything about the Asahi Shimbun.

“Nevertheless, in his speech at the ceremony celebrating the 70th anniversary of liberation from colonial rule the following day, President Park offered a certain level of positive evaluation while expressing expectations for Japan’s future efforts.”

If people knew that this was written not by a Korean journalist but by a Japanese journalist at the very center of the Asahi Shimbun, everyone would be astonished.

“The personalities of the leaders of Japan and South Korea are similar in some respects.
In particular, they share a strong sense of self, which makes matters complicated.”

But what kind of person is this man, really.
All decent people would be utterly appalled.

This man is proving, one hundred percent, the correctness of the definition I was the first in the world to articulate regarding what kind of people they are.

“In that respect, President Park is well regarded domestically, and this time she appeared to have shown a ‘mature’ response first.”

This man places Prime Minister Abe, whom I have repeatedly described as a true statesman worthy of a Nobel Prize, on the same level as Park Geun-hye, who does not even know, or realize, the shamefulness of engaging in tattling diplomacy, or rather, he places Park Geun-hye above Abe.
At this point, one can only stand there with one’s mouth agape.

Omitted.

It was the narrow-minded and excessively inward-looking diplomacy on both sides that created today’s disastrous relationship between neighboring countries.

At this point, we can no longer afford merely to be dumbfounded.

Hakoda, what created today’s disastrous relationship between neighboring countries is the fact that you and your colleagues fabricated stories and spread them throughout the world, and that these were seized upon as ideal anti-Japan propaganda material by the children of Syngman Rhee, who were raised under an education system that was Nazism itself, or by people under the influence of North Korea, who have continued to attack Japan and the Japanese people relentlessly across the world with unprecedented “bottomless malice” and “plausible lies.”

The Japanese people, who can be said without exaggeration to be the most gentle and humble people in the world, have finally reached the limit of their tolerance.

Hakoda is completely unaware of this.
He does not understand it at all.

Is this not a truly terrifying situation.

At the same time, what his column clearly indicates is that the Asahi Shimbun has shown absolutely no reflection whatsoever regarding its fabricated reporting on the so-called comfort women.

“It was the narrow-minded and excessively inward-looking diplomacy on both sides.”

Such malicious people, without even realizing that they themselves are such beings, have the audacity to lecture the Japanese government.

Even so, it is astonishing that such a crude and grotesque single reporter, and a newspaper company that lectures a nation and government which is, in substance, still the world’s second-largest economic superpower and a country in which, by the providence of God, the “Turntable of Civilization” is turning, have monopolized Japan’s news reporting.

Japan and the Japanese people must no longer allow their monopolization to continue.

Without a moment’s delay, they must first be made to take responsibility for their reporting on the comfort women, and the Asahi Shimbun must immediately place apology advertisements and advertisements explaining the truth in major newspapers around the world.

The stage at which their wrongdoing could be left unattended has long since passed.