Published on August 5, 2019.
Continuing from the previous chapter, this article introduces a dialogue among Sekihei, Yang Haiying, and Yaita Akio.
It argues that Japan cannot continue to take an ambiguous position between the United States and China amid the U.S.-China confrontation, and criticizes politicians and media figures who lean toward excessive accommodation of China, described here as a “yakuza state.”
The article discusses the Senkaku Islands, the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, Hong Kong, Uyghurs, Tibet, and Inner Mongolia, stressing that Japan must clearly stand as a breakwater for the free world.

August 5, 2019.
There are now, in some quarters, movements that amount to entrusting Japan’s security to the yakuza.
For example, even though Chinese government vessels are coming to the Senkaku Islands, the governor of a certain prefecture says things like, “Let us not provoke them too much.”
The following is the continuation of the previous chapter.
Japan Cannot Remain “Neither Here Nor There.”
Yaita:
That is why Japan is now wondering whether the yakuza are bad or the police are bad.
Of course the yakuza are bad, but when they shout that loudly, people begin to hesitate.
Sekihei:
Yes.
The worst thing is to try to look good to both the yakuza and the police.
If you do that, in the end you will be abandoned by the yakuza and disliked by the police as well.
Yang:
It is dangerous unless Japan makes its position clear.
There are now, in some quarters, movements that amount to entrusting Japan’s security to the yakuza.
For example, even though Chinese government vessels are coming to the Senkaku Islands, the governor of a certain prefecture says things like, “Let us not provoke them too much.”
I was astonished by this.
It is as if pirate ships are coming, and one says, “Do not provoke them, otherwise you will be attacked.”
Depending on the case, it is the idea that one should even pay protection money behind the scenes.
If Japanese politicians and intellectuals create that kind of atmosphere, from America’s point of view it is unbearable.
It could lead to the question of why America needs to defend such a country.
Sekihei:
From the feelings of the police, even though they are risking their lives in their work to protect citizens, if the citizens are siding with the yakuza, it becomes, “Then why don’t you just let the yakuza take care of you?”
Yaita:
When the police are protecting the safety of the citizens, the citizens are bringing lunch boxes to the yakuza, so the police also begin to feel something like, “We will not protect you anymore.”
Yang:
I think there is an aspect in which present-day Japan is not as firm as it was during the Cold War.
During the Cold War, Japan did at least side with the West.
But in present-day Japan, is there not some hesitation over whether to side with America or China?
Sekihei:
Well, even in America, for decades, from around the time Edgar Snow’s Red Star Over China appeared, people misread the true nature of the yakuza.
Even before the Chinese Communist Party went to Yan’an, ordinary landlords were being killed, and Mao Zedong’s purges had already begun.
Yang:
Rather than purges, it was internal strife.
Sekihei:
Even within the Red Army, the Communist Party army, hundreds of thousands of people were killing one another.
Yang:
It is said that it was to the point that two army corps disappeared.
Sekihei:
Exactly.
Then, when an American inspection group went there, Mao Zedong and the others deliberately wore tattered clothing and welcomed the American delegation with simple meals.
And the American inspection group was moved by this.
In reality, Mao Zedong and the others were usually eating luxurious meals.
Yang:
That was quite different from Chiang Kai-shek.
Sekihei:
America was deceived by the Communist Party, and as a result lost China.
Then Deng Xiaoping appeared next, and America was deceived again by the reform and opening-up line.
After the Tiananmen Square Incident ended, America was deceived once more, and only now have both the Democrats and the Republicans in America somehow come to realize the true nature of the yakuza.
Yaita:
The present U.S.-Japan Security Treaty was created during the Cold War.
At that time there was a confrontation between socialism and capitalism, and in order to stop the red wave of the Soviet Union, North Korea, China, and Vietnam from surging eastward, the Western world needed Japan.
However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the confrontation with socialism no longer existed, did it?
People thought that China, too, had in effect abandoned socialism and would become a member of the Western world, but in fact it became clear that China was a yakuza state, and there the U.S.-China confrontation began again.
Then what is Japan’s role, and what is its utility value?
If Japan does not fulfill the role of a breakwater, then Japan is not necessary for America, and the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty is no longer needed either.
That leads to President Trump’s remarks.
Japan seems to be complacent on that point.
There is a strong complacency that because Prime Minister Abe and President Trump are friends, America will protect Japan.
For America, Japan has utility value in confronting China together.
If that utility value is not there, then the conclusion will be that the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty is no longer needed.
Yang:
Before the G20, there were large-scale demonstrations in Hong Kong.
There were also anti-China demonstrations in Osaka, and the Sankei Shimbun carried the stories of Andy Chan Ho-tin, who came from Hong Kong, and the Uyghur Rebiya Kadeer, but although people from Inner Mongolia had also come, that was not reported at all.
At the venue, Uyghurs, Mongolians, and Tibetans were all doing their best, but the Japanese media cover Hong Kong while trying not to cover the other ethnic issues.
Probably at the Japan-China meeting, Prime Minister Abe, in some form, also spoke very softly about Uyghur human rights issues and Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems,” but the Chinese side did not announce this.
Not announcing it means, in short, that they did not take it properly.
Looking at public opinion on the internet as well, the Japanese people regard the Uyghur issue, or the issues of ethnic minorities, and the Hong Kong issue as important, but the mass media do not try to treat them as anything more than brief filler articles.
I think that is an extremely serious problem.
To be continued.