Originally published on October 17, 2019.
Continuing from the previous chapter, this article draws on a dialogue between Takayama Masayuki and Miyawaki Junko to discuss Ishiba Shigeru’s defense of South Korea, postwar education and the Shiba view of history, reports of Korean massacres during the Great Kanto Earthquake, Asahi Shimbun editorials, the image of the Japanese recorded by Edward Morse and Rudyard Kipling, and the history of looting on the Korean Peninsula.

October 17, 2019.
Another strange thing is that Ishiba Shigeru says the same kind of thing as Nishihara and Sonobe.
Their generations are completely different, so why does he rush to defend South Korea?
The following is a continuation of the previous chapter.
The History of Looting.
Takayama.
Another strange thing is that Ishiba Shigeru says the same kind of thing as Nishihara and Sonobe.
Their generations are completely different, so why does he rush to defend South Korea?
Miyawaki.
He is probably judging that way only from the knowledge stuffed into his head.
Takayama.
He still has the idea that Japan destroyed the Korean Empire.
It can truly be called the Shiba view of history.
Miyawaki.
In Japan’s postwar education, after the defeat, the whole nation fell into a state of collective repentance, and then, because it could not move toward the future if everyone was to blame, it was replaced by the idea that the military was entirely evil.
That continues even today.
Takayama.
Asahi still brings up the massacre of Koreans during the Great Kanto Earthquake.
It complained in an editorial that Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko again this year did not send a message of condolence to the memorial ceremony at Yokoamicho Park in Sumida Ward.
It wrote, “The report of the Central Disaster Management Council of the Cabinet Office, in 2008, estimates that one thousand to several thousand people were killed,” dated August 29.
In other words, it insists that the government itself has acknowledged the fact of the massacre.
Miyawaki.
Research on this has advanced, and the actual numbers have become clear.
Takayama.
Kato Yasuo and Kudo Miyoko have been writing about it with great effort.
Also, foreigners witnessed major natural disasters that occurred in Japan and recorded various things about the behavior of Japanese people at those times.
When Edward Morse, the American zoologist, encountered the great fire of Yokohama, everyone was burned out, yet there was not a single case of looting, and everyone was smiling and tackling the rubble, saying, “Now, let us rebuild.”
He wrote, “Why does this people accept calamity with a smile?”
Rudyard Kipling encountered a great earthquake.
In the house where he was staying, the wall on the second floor cracked, and the situation was such that shoes were jumping around by themselves on top of the piano; he was so terrified that his legs gave way, and when he finally came down the stairs and rushed outside, Japanese people were smiling and saying, “It is over now.”
Kipling wrote, “The Japanese would pass through even the Last Judgment with a laugh.”
Miyawaki.
There are no Japanese people who will fall into hell. (laughs)
Takayama.
No matter how tragic the situation, they do not lose their composure, and there was not even the shadow of rampant looting.
At the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake, the world actually witnessed that.
Taking that into account, I cannot understand why only at the time of the Great Kanto Earthquake Japanese people supposedly ran into massacres like Chinese or Koreans.
If Asahi Shimbun claims that only at that time Japanese people went mad, then it must properly prove that in an editorial.
Conversely, Koreans have always rushed into looting at such times.
Miyawaki.
That is the history of the peninsula itself.
Takayama.
During the Russo-Japanese War, Akiyama Yoshifuru led a cavalry unit and fought at Nanshan, south of Jinzhou Castle on the Liaodong Peninsula.
It became a fierce battle, and Nogi Maresuke composed the Chinese poem, “Mountains, rivers, grasses, and trees have all turned desolate; for ten ri the wind smells of blood; on the new battlefield the warhorses do not advance; men do not speak; outside Jinzhou Castle I stand in the slanting sun.”
It is recorded that when Chinese soldiers fell at Jinzhou Castle, Koreans swarmed around them and stripped off their clothes; even if they were still alive, they looted them without concern.
There is such an unchanging ethnic character.
It must therefore be proven that, only at the time of the Great Kanto Earthquake, Koreans abandoned that ethnic character, behaved properly, and did no looting at all.
Only after both are proven can one say that Japanese people ran into massacre.
Miyawaki.
Records also remain that Japanese people formed vigilante groups in order to be on guard against Koreans in Japan and to prevent looting.
That means there actually was looting.
However, it is certain that there were various aspects, including excesses, so if one wants to nitpick, one can do so endlessly.
Takayama.
The final decisive factor is Yoshino Sakuzo.
From the standpoint of an intellectual, he decided that Japanese people were evil.
Yoshino was a Christian.
It is also strange that, somehow, whenever Christianity appears, the story all begins to sound false.
Miyawaki.
The smarter a person is, the more he thinks in terms of official principles and storylines.
Takayama.
Koike exposed herself as a useless governor over the Tsukiji relocation issue, but regarding her response to the memorial monument, she did something so right that I would like to praise her. (laughs)
This article continues.