In this essay, the author, who long held deep admiration and affection for Italy, sharply criticizes the conduct of Pio d’Emilia at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan and questions Italy’s honor and posture toward Japan.
Through the insult directed at Yoshiko Sakurai, biased reporting on Japan, and distorted understandings of postwar Japan, the essay traces how the author’s boundless elegy for Italy was profoundly shaken.
At the same time, it denounces the folly of demeaning Japan abroad, based on the conviction that Japan is a country where the “turntable of civilization” is turning.

2019-03-23
Pio d’Emilia, who is active in dominating the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan….

When I learned that, despite having been an ally, Italy took advantage of Japan’s defeat and extracted reparations from Japan, my boundless elegy toward Italy became 100 yen cheaper.
2018-12-27 13:44:09 | Diary
As those around me know well, I love Italy.
Now I have something I wish to say to Italy.
Pio d’Emilia, who is active in dominating the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan….
This man is probably someone under the influence of the intelligence operations of anti-Japan states such as China and the Korean Peninsula….
He cannot possibly be a proper journalist.
Such an ugly and lowest-level human being….
All the more so if many Italians are Catholics and hold feelings of reverence toward those who have been called saints in history,
Please recall this disgrace to Italy to the home country at once.
It was several decades ago, when I was visiting the home of a classmate and close friend who was living in Rome, that I conceived of “The Turntable of Civilization.”
In July 2010, unwillingly, I appeared on the Internet like this and began to write.
Since August four years ago, in particular….
I began to learn many truths about postwar Japan that I had never known at all when I was subscribing to the Asahi Shimbun.
Among them….
When I learned that Italy, so to speak, although it had been an ally that stood on the side of the defeated nations….
Had taken advantage of Japan’s defeat and extracted reparations from Japan, my boundless elegy toward Italy became 100 yen cheaper.
That an Italian such as the above-mentioned Pio d’Emilia,
Would insult, at a press conference of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, to the utmost possible degree, Yoshiko Sakurai….
Who is a true saint existing in Japan today and the person most worthy of receiving the People’s Honour Award, is truly unforgivable.
If one asks how deeply this damaged the feelings of the Japanese people….
My boundless elegy toward Italy….
Plunged as sharply as the collapse of the Italian economy.
It is no exaggeration to say that the reason Italian society continues to remain unstable….
Is because it allows people of this sort….
Incredibly enough….
To attack Japan and demean it.
Just think about it.
Not a single Japanese person,
In your country….
Would ever attack or demean a saint worthy of your country’s highest national honor….
There is not even one such Japanese in Italy.
That too is part of what it means for the Turntable of Civilization to be turning.
Why has Italy, throughout the postwar years, remained socially unstable and time after time….
Become a burden upon Europe?
It is no exaggeration to say that this is the result, the retribution,
Of letting such fools….
Incredibly enough….
Loose in foreign countries.
Especially now….
Japan is the country where the Turntable of Civilization is turning….
And as my readers know, I placed its beginning in Italy, almost as Byron is written upon the stone monument at the entrance of the Borghese Gardens….
Because in Japan….
You are allowing such a despicable person to commit evil acts….
And so divine punishment falls upon you.