This blog entry dated November 30, 2020 (republished on May 23, 2024) recommends subscribing to the monthly magazine Themis solely to read Masayuki Takayama’s column “Japan, a Warning to the Nation,” arguing that his work has enough value to justify subscription-only access.
The cited essay, titled “No Need for Goodwill Toward a Korea That Repays Kindness with Spite—If They Insist on Imposing the Resentment of ‘Han,’ We Should Consider an Olympics without Koreans,” traces postwar Japan–Korea relations from Syngman Rhee’s establishment of the Syngman Rhee Line and the seizure of Takeshima, through large-scale arrests of Japanese fishermen and the later release of 474 Korean criminals in Japan, to Park Chung-hee’s exploitation of Japanese “good nature,” Reischauer’s role in the Japan–Korea normalization treaty, and Japan’s role in the “Miracle on the Han River.”
It further criticizes subsequent Korean leaders—Roh Tae-woo’s handling of Kim Hyun-hui and the abduction issue, Japan’s welfare and tax privileges for Koreans in Japan, Miyazawa’s decision to co-host the 2002 World Cup, Asō’s support for Ban Ki-moon’s UN appointment and the “East Sea” campaign, and Koizumi’s granting of “white country” export status—arguing that Japanese goodwill has been repeatedly betrayed, culminating in allegations that strategic materials were diverted to North Korea.
Takayama praises the Abe administration’s removal of South Korea from the “white country” list as the first real break with a one-sided “kindness policy,” portrays Korean reactions and renewed demands over wartime labor and export status as further evidence of ingratitude, and concludes that, given this pattern and proposals to turn the Tokyo Olympics into a “unification stage,” Japan should seriously consider “an Olympics without Koreans.”

I have, for some time now, been subscribing to the monthly magazine Themis, which is not sold in bookstores but is available only by subscription.
It is no exaggeration to say that I do so in order to read Masayuki Takayama’s article titled “Japan, a Warning to the Nation.”
He is the one and only journalist in the postwar world.
Those who think, “Exactly so,” should, like me, take out a subscription in order to read his essays.
This article proves that they are worth that much.
The essay by him that arrived in this month’s issue today is also an eye-opening piece, truly a genuine article.
I have the pride that I am doing work for 120 million people—no, for 6.5 billion people—but I believe that Masayuki Takayama has the same pride and resolve as I do.

No Need for “Goodwill” Toward a Korea That Repays Kindness with Spite
If They Insist on Imposing the Resentment of “Han,” We Should Consider an Olympics without Koreans

Independence Day That Stirs Up the Resentment of “Han”
Korea was granted independence by the United States.
MacArthur, though he could have chosen any day, deliberately made Korea independent on August 15, Shōwa 23 (1948), the day of Japan’s surrender.
Everything this man did was mean-spirited, and he did not even try to hide his racial prejudice and desire for revenge.
A good example is that he indicted the Class-A war criminals on the birthday of the Shōwa Emperor, and carried out the death sentences on the birthday of His Majesty the Emperor Emeritus, who was then the Crown Prince.
By overlapping Korea’s Independence Day with Japan’s End-of-War Memorial Day, his aim was to make Koreans recall Japanese rule every year, to stimulate the national character of “han,” and to stir up ever more intense resentment against Japan.
The Koreans fell perfectly into that scheme, and even now they are working themselves up and making a racket, their hatred freshly increasing.
The first Korean to go mad with resentment was the first president, Syngman Rhee.
Until he returned, the peninsula was being looked after by Japan.
Japan had built the roads and railways, and it was Japan that created the sanitary environment in which Koreans now boast of things like “K-quarantine.”
However, with Japan’s defeat in the war, no one was going to give them money anymore.
Up to 80 percent of the national assets consisted of public and private property left by Japan.
In that case, they should simply have worked as they had been taught by the Japanese, but Syngman Rhee, just as before the war, could think only of leeching off Japan.
What he came up with was to take part in the San Francisco Peace Conference as one of the Allied nations and to extract money in the name of war reparations.
However, MacArthur brushed him off, saying, “You are neither a victor nor a defeated nation.
You are nothing more than third-country people.”
So Syngman Rhee decided to blackmail Japan on his own.
That was the establishment, on February 8, Shōwa 27 (1952), of the Syngman Rhee Line, which arbitrarily expanded Korea’s territorial waters.
By this, they seized Takeshima, began seizing Japanese fishing boats that came to fish, and started detaining their crews.
Using that as a pretext for blackmail, Syngman Rhee visited Japan on January 6 of the following year, and demanded of Shigeru Yoshida ransom money for the fishermen and compensation for colonial rule.
Yoshida reproached Rhee for his outrages and sent him packing, and he also refused to make a return visit to Korea that would have been the courtesy due after a presidential visit.
Enraged, Rhee made the seizure of fishing boats thoroughgoing, and in total 233 boats were taken and 2,791 Japanese fishermen were detained.

The Release of 474 Korean Criminals in Japan
The detention facilities were in a terrible condition, and five of the captured fishermen died while in captivity.
When Yoshida learned of this, he flew into a rage and, as a first step toward severing diplomatic relations, notified the Korean side that Japan would close the Korean Legation in Japan, carry out retaliatory arrests of illegal Korean residents, and use force to drive off Korean vessels that came to make seizures.
Syngman Rhee trembled with fear, appealed to the United States in tears, and rushed to create a Japan–U.S.–Korea friendship and security treaty plan, having the United States keep Japan in check.
The cabinet of Ichirō Hatoyama, who succeeded Yoshida, was incompetent and believed in nothing but friendship.
On the grounds that consideration for the other side is important, they withdrew Yoshida’s hard-line measures and accepted a prisoner-exchange arrangement proposed by South Korea.
Under this, the Korean side would release the Japanese fishermen they were holding, and in return the Japanese side was forced into a one-sided concession: the release of all Korean illegal immigrants held in the Ōmura Detention Center, plus 474 Korean criminals in Japan who were serving sentences for crimes including murder, all with permission to remain in Japan.
Japan not only accepted this, but even added a gesture of goodwill by renouncing all state and private assets it had left on the peninsula.
At the value of money at the time, this amounted to seven trillion yen.
It was a sum big enough to set one country on its feet, larger than the public finances of Israel at the time of its founding.
Korea suddenly became a rich country.
Even after making such an unjust profit, Korea was still not satisfied.
Park Chung-hee, who became president in the 1960s, had a natural gift for exploiting the good-naturedness of the Japanese.
He himself had been able to advance from elementary school through normal school free of charge thanks to Japanese goodwill.
That would have been more than enough, and yet, when he was nearly thirty he now wanted to go to the military academy, and he submitted a blood-written petition.
The Japanese are easily swayed by such showy displays of passion.
They were completely taken in and allowed him to enter the Manchukuo Army Officer School.
After the Korean War, when he became president, he made full use of that technique of manipulating Japan.
At that time Japan, using its American-made constitution as a shield, was refusing rearmament and not even cooperating in the Vietnam War.
Park then announced that he would send 300,000 Korean troops “in place of Japan,” and while receiving aid from the United States he also tried to extract compensation from Japan.

Welfare Benefits and Tax Privileges for Koreans in Japan as Well
On that basis, Reischauer forced on Japan the Japan–Korea Treaty that made Japan pay 500 million dollars, and in addition he had Japan undertake everything from steelworks and shipbuilding to power plants—what became the so-called “Miracle on the Han River.”
Even after that, Japan continued to shower consideration on Korea.
To Roh Tae-woo, Japan, out of kindness, handed over Kim Hyun-hui, the bomber of the KAL aircraft, whom staff of the Japanese Embassy had captured in Bahrain.
She gave detailed testimony about the North Korean abductions including that of Megumi Yokota, but Roh Tae-woo withheld this, and as a result the clarification of the abductions was delayed more than ten years.
Out of goodwill, Japan also granted welfare benefits and even tax privileges to Koreans in Japan who had simply stayed on in Japan of their own accord.
Japan did retain the right to deport murderers, but Roh Tae-woo had Toshiki Kaifu promise that even Korean murderers in Japan would “not be deported.”
Out of consideration, Kiichi Miyazawa allowed the FIFA World Cup, which Japan was to host, to be co-hosted with South Korea.
The tournament became notorious as “the dirtiest World Cup in the world,” because of Korea’s filthy referee-buying and rough play.
Tarō Asō, sympathizing with Korea, which was being mocked by the international community, recommended Ban Ki-moon for the post of UN Secretary-General.
In return, Ban loudly advocated at the United Nations that the “Sea of Japan” should be called the “East Sea.”
He also expressed his anti-Japanese stance by taking part in the Beijing ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of victory in the “War of Resistance Against Japan.”
Jun’ichirō Koizumi granted Korea the status of a “white country,” treatment reserved only for clean, trustworthy nations.
The Koreans abused this and resold strategically important materials such as hydrofluoric acid to terrorist states including North Korea.
Taking them to task for their betrayal, the Abe administration removed Korea from the white-country list and for the first time shifted away from the policy of generosity.
The Koreans, who had come to take Japanese consideration for granted, were as shocked as if the heavens and earth had turned upside down.
Envoys have been coming from Korea one after another.
On top of demands such as “Pay compensation even to fake conscripted workers” and “Restore us to white-country status,” they are ingratiatingly insisting, “We will make the Tokyo Olympics a glorious stage for the unification of the peninsula.”
Even the good-natured Japanese have finally grown sick of this lack of repentance and sheer self-centeredness.
On the contrary, it may be time to consider an Olympics without Koreans.