Through NHK’s documentary series The Pacific War and 400 Hours of Testimony from the Imperial Japanese Navy, this essay examines the postwar structure of broadcasting that has consistently demonized the Japanese military and guided viewers toward a defeatist view of history.
By tracing the lineage of producers, editors, and narrative construction, it sharply questions the depth of historical bias within Japan’s public broadcaster.

2019-04-13
[The Pacific War Documentary] 1992–93…
A program that may well be regarded as the original prototype of the kind that thoroughly demonizes and degrades the Japanese military.

This is a repost of the chapter I published on 2019-02-22 under the title:
Anchor Yamamoto Hajime said…
That it is still the same today, that Japan cannot change without strong external pressure.
That the Japanese have not properly reflected.
What follows is a continuation of the previous chapter.

[The Pacific War Documentary] 1992–93.

It omitted all the victorious battles from the opening phase of the Japan-U.S. war and featured only the losing battles of the latter half.
It was a program that served as a kind of original model for the thorough demonization and degradation of the Japanese military, and it appears to have become the prototype for recently broadcast programs such as Imphal and Nomonhan.

At the end of the series, anchor Yamamoto Hajime made such remarks as:
“The day of the end of the war was the day when the people were liberated from military oppression.”
“It was the Soviet entry into the war and the atomic bomb that shattered Japan’s military authorities. Even today, Japan cannot change without strong external pressure.”
“The Japanese have not properly reflected.”

Professor Koyama Kazunobu and others held a screening of this series for members of the Diet and tried to denounce NHK’s biased broadcasting in the Diet, but the reality was that lawmakers, frightened by NHK’s powerful influence over elections, were reluctant to take action.

“Episode 1: The Achilles’ Heel of the Empire of Japan — The Pacific Sea Lane Operation”
Anchor: Yamamoto Hajime
Editors: Yoshioka Masaharu, Funaki Rie
Composition: Shono Motoya
Production: Nakata Seiichi, Hashimoto Yuji, Ogasawara Masao

“Episode 2: Knowing Neither the Enemy nor Oneself — Guadalcanal”
Editors: Yoshioka Masaharu, Funaki Rie
Composition: Hashimoto Yuji, Taguchi Kyomi
Production: Nakata Seiichi, Ogasawara Masao
Note: It also refers to Nomonhan in connection with criticism of staff officer Tsuji Masanobu.

“Episode 3: Electronics Decides the War — Mariana and Saipan”
Editors: Yoshioka Masaharu, Funaki Rie
Composition: Minowa Takashi
Production: Nakata Seiichi, Hashimoto Yuji, Ogasawara Masao

“Episode 4: A Battlefield Without Responsibility — Burma and Imphal”
Editors: Yoshioka Masaharu, Funaki Rie
Reporting: Minowa Takashi
Researcher: Shin Rika
Composition: Hayashi Shin
Executive Production: Nakata Seiichi, Hashimoto Yuji, Ogasawara Masao
Award: Galaxy Award Encouragement Prize
Note: It also refers to the Indian National Army.

“Episode 5: The Southern Islands Trampled Underfoot — Leyte and the Philippines”
Editors: Yoshioka Masaharu, Funaki Rie
Reporting: Shono Motoya
Composition: Yamashita Nobuhisa
Executive Production: Nakata Seiichi, Hashimoto Yuji, Ogasawara Masao
Note: It also depicts the process by which, after the American victory, the United States turned the Philippines into a de facto economic colony.

“Episode 6: The Road to One Hundred Million Glorious Deaths — Japan-Soviet End-of-War Negotiations”
Editors: Yoshioka Masaharu, Funaki Rie
Reporting: Sato Chie
Researcher: Yoshimi Naoto
Composition: Tsutsumi Keisuke
Executive Production: Nakata Seiichi, Hashimoto Yuji, Ogasawara Masao

[400 Hours of Testimony from the Imperial Japanese Navy] 2009.

This was a three-part series produced on the basis of audio tapes from the “Navy Reflection Meetings,” where former Imperial Navy officers gathered to discuss the causes of defeat.
What is incomprehensible is that none of the recollections or reflections by former servicemen concerning the many naval battles appears at all.
NHK seems to have produced the program by paying no attention whatsoever to operational analysis that might lead to a reassessment of the former navy, and instead obsessively digging up only the negative remarks concerning war crimes and the like.
The military dead are given no peace.

“Part 1: The Outbreak of War — ‘A Navy Without a Nation’”
Reporting: Migita Chiyo, Uchiyama Taku, Yoshida Yoshikatsu
Director: Yokoi Hidenobu
Executive Production: Takayama Hitoshi, Fujiki Tatsuhiro

“Part 2: Special Attacks — Shameful Silence”
Reporting: Yoshida Yoshikatsu, Yokoi Hidenobu, Uchiyama Taku
Directors: Migita Chiyo, Mayuzumi Takeo
Executive Production: Fujiki Tatsuhiro, Takayama Hitoshi

“Part 3: War Crimes Trials — The Second War”
Reporting: Migita Chiyo, Yokoi Hidenobu, Yoshida Yoshikatsu
Director: Uchiyama Taku
Executive Production: Fujiki Tatsuhiro, Takayama Hitoshi