NHK’s coverage of Okinawa distorts the reality surrounding U.S. bases and fuels division within Japan by portraying Okinawa as a one-sided victim.
This article sharply criticizes the structure of such information manipulation, focusing on the reality inadvertently revealed by aerial footage of Ginowan, the relationship between U.S. bases and Okinawa’s postwar economy, and the shaping of public opinion on Okinawa.
It is also a warning against uncritically accepting television and major newspapers as trustworthy sources.

2019-03-06
Those who think themselves righteous and exemplary citizens.
You ladies who do nothing but watch television, and you people who subscribe to newspapers such as the Asahi, Mainichi, Tokyo, and Chunichi and watch NHK’s watch9.
Know shame.

Those who commit evil deeds always, without exception.
Like people who hide their heads but not their backsides.
Eventually reveal themselves.

Those who watched watch9’s biased reporting and information manipulation on Okinawa the day before yesterday must remember that NHK repeatedly aired aerial footage of Ginowan City.
That very footage.
Captured the truth of Okinawa that even watch9’s biased reporting and information manipulation could not conceal.

When the great tsunami of the Great East Japan Earthquake struck my hometown of Yuriage, the only buildings that remained standing, without collapsing or being swept away, were reinforced concrete structures.
The reality of Ginowan City shown in the aerial footage repeatedly aired by NHK was the sight of a town where splendid, solid reinforced-concrete buildings stood in orderly rows, better than those in rural areas on the mainland.

That Okinawa is a key point in Japan’s defense strategy was something the U.S. military, which never for a moment forgets military strategy, understood as naturally as anything, without needing to learn it from the fierce Battle of Okinawa.
That is why GHQ built U.S. military bases in Okinawa at the same time it occupied Japan.

At the same time, that also meant this.
Compared with mainland Japan, which had been turned into a burnt wasteland by indiscriminate bombing and incendiary bombs in 127 cities, and then in one stroke reduced to the poorest country in the world by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Okinawa prospered through the special demand generated by the bases, and the people of Okinawa also welcomed the U.S. bases and promoted coexistence and mutual prosperity.

And yet the truly foolish and malicious agents who have infiltrated and taken control inside NHK, helping China and Korea in their efforts to divide Japan, repeatedly and obsessively had a man styling himself a professor at Okinawa International University, a title that makes one laugh, and even such a man is supported by Japanese tax money, say over and over that these were opinions induced by the U.S. military, that they were speaking under U.S. military guidance.

This was truly Japan’s state broadcaster using the nation’s airwaves for an operation to divide Okinawa.
What it is ultimately aiming at is reporting meant to lead things in the direction desired by China and Korea, toward something called Okinawan independence.

Back when I was still subscribing regularly to the Japanese edition of Newsweek, there was a special feature on Okinawa.
What an Okinawan said there was this.
“When we watch rural areas on the mainland on television, we feel that we ourselves are living much better lives.
And regarding the fact that enormous subsidies are being poured into us at the expense of infrastructure development in the provinces on the mainland.
We feel sorry about it.”

You who lurk inside NHK, true villains and genuine traitors to the nation.
And you who watch the programs they make without the slightest doubt.
Thinking, poor Okinawa, the government is to blame, and the like.
You who are utterly unstudious, and do not even realize that you yourselves are nothing more than weak and vulnerable consumers of information, while thinking yourselves righteous and exemplary citizens.
You ladies who do nothing but watch television, and you people who subscribe to newspapers such as the Asahi, Mainichi, Tokyo, and Chunichi and watch NHK’s watch9.
Know shame.