Why Did Asahi and Japan’s Cultural Elites Never Criticize Korean History Textbooks?The Postwar Abnormality of Japanese Discourse Symbolized by Wakamiya Yoshibumi.
Published on April 21, 2019.
This essay asks why the Asahi Shimbun and the so-called cultural elites who aligned themselves with it never seriously criticized Korean history textbooks or the reality of anti-Japan education in South Korea, despite knowing full well what they contained.
The author argues that, unlike ordinary Japanese citizens who worked in the real world, these media and intellectual figures were in a position to know the inner reality of Korean society, yet chose to tolerate it and even side with it.
Focusing in particular on Wakamiya Yoshibumi, who rose to the position of chief editorial writer at Asahi, the essay uses his case to indict the distortion of postwar Japanese discourse and its relationship with South Korea.
2019-04-21
That man…
Wakamiya Yoshibumi…
was supposed to have risen as far as becoming chief editorial writer of the Asahi Shimbun.
As I have already written, I was appalled by how abnormal and how terrible he was…
The Asahi Shimbun, said to be deeply respected…
and naturally the so-called cultural figures who moved in step with it…
and who have expressed attitudes and opinions toward Korea that were foolishly accommodating…
must have known about Korean textbooks…
and about the matters that Korean writers are pointing out in this month’s issue…
unlike almost all of us citizens who have devoted ourselves to work in the real world.
Why was it that they never even once…
harshly criticized such Korean history textbooks.
Are they really Japanese at all.
As for me,
it was when he was appearing that day as a commentator…
that man…
Wakamiya Yoshibumi…
was supposed to have become chief editorial writer of the Asahi Shimbun.
As I have already written, I was appalled by how abnormal and how terrible he was…
For example, he is now supposed to be a professor at a university in South Korea…
but since he is welcomed there precisely because of those abnormal ideas…
in his case…
perhaps criticism was impossible from the start.
The Asahi Shimbun too is probably exactly the same as he is.
To be continued.