A comfort-woman statue was erected in Berlin, revealing Germany’s growing anti-Japan sentiment.
Local history teacher Andreas Szagun and other German activists attack Japan emotionally without any historical verification, repeating propaganda spread by Korean anti-Japan groups.
This essay exposes the ideological bias behind Germany’s stance and highlights the international “information war” Japan now faces.

One of them is Andreas Szagun, a local history teacher.
March 26, 2021
The following is from the special dialogue titled “The Hidden Motives Behind Germany’s Japan-Bashing over the Comfort-Women Issue,” featuring journalist Kisa Yoshio and information-strategy analyst Yamaoka Tetsuhide, published in this month’s issue of Will magazine.
As I say every month, Will, Hanada, and Seiron are filled with genuine essays that every Japanese citizen—and indeed people around the world—must read.
This essay proves that fact brilliantly.
When I was still subscribing to Newsweek Japan, I once read a shocking article reporting that nearly half of Germans hold anti-Japanese sentiments.
Since then, I have continuously criticized Germany, and I have harshly condemned so-called “cultural figures” who used to say “Learn from Germany,” including Umehara Takeshi and Yamazaki Masakazu, whose writings I had read directly.
As Kisa Yoshio and Yamaoka Tetsuhide—both national treasures in the sense defined by Saichō—now demonstrate perfectly, my criticism of Germany was 100% correct.
Japanese citizens must go to their nearest bookstore and buy this issue.
I will inform as many people around the world as I can.
Germany’s distorted mentality that seeks to make Japan the new scapegoat for war crimes
Self-righteous criticism
Yamaoka
A comfort-woman statue was erected for the first time on public land in the Mitte district of Berlin (September 2020).
Many Japanese must have been shocked, wondering why such a thing happened in Germany.
What exactly is the German view of Japan?
The answer is in Mr. Kisa’s new book The True Nature of Germany Turning “Anti-Japan” (WAC).
Kisa
Thank you.
Let me ask you, Mr. Yamaoka: When a comfort-woman statue was about to be erected on public land in Strathfield, Australia in 2015, what was the reaction around you?
Yamaoka
Some people simply weren’t interested, while others sympathized with South Korea.
Left-leaning journalists jumped on the Korean narrative and wrote one-sided articles blaming Japan.
Among ordinary residents, however, the reaction was: “Japanese people are polite and decent neighbors. Why bring this up now?”
Kisa
So there was a certain distance, then.
Yamaoka
Another factor was that some local politicians wanted the votes of Chinese and Korean immigrants, so they supported the statue.
At the city’s public hearing, Chinese and Korean groups mobilized a Jewish Holocaust researcher and a Greek genocide researcher to testify.
They repeated the Korean and Chinese claims verbatim.
Kisa
Germany is different.
Before the Berlin statue, Benjamin Ortmeyer, a German Nazi-studies scholar, teamed up with a Korean anti-Japan group and even wrote the foreword for an exhibition catalog titled “Statue of a Girl for Peace.”
The content was almost identical to the propaganda of these anti-Japan groups.
Yamaoka
No other country has such cases.
Germans enter a state of mental paralysis when it comes to the comfort-women issue.
They abandon verification entirely and rush headlong into pure emotionalism.
One such person is Andreas Szagun, the local history teacher.
When Japan protested the erection of the statue in Mitte, he wrote an article for “Moabit Online,” the district’s local website (October 9, 2020).
Its content was filled with hostility to a pathological degree.
Here is a partial summary:
“Japan has not sufficiently faced its history. The angry reactions from Japan over the comfort-woman statue show that Japan has never offered true apology or compensation.”
He went on to assert that “the Japanese Emperor and Hitler can be considered equivalent,” adding that the Emperor was “a god-like figure in Shinto,” condemning Japan to the very end.
It is astonishing to see such naked hatred toward Japan.
Kisa
Completely unreasonable.
Yamaoka
Another open letter written by Szagun to the district mayor has also been published.
It reads: “We face our own history. As for your country (Japan), which was our ally then and is now, it would be far more appropriate for you to play a role in ensuring that Japan takes a step toward reconciliation and peace, instead of continuing to treat its neighbor (South Korea) as a defeated party.”
This is the usual tactic—interfering in Japan’s internal affairs and insisting that forcing guilt upon Japan for alleged wartime sexual crimes is a morally righteous act.
They refuse to look at historical truth and indulge in self-satisfaction and self-righteousness.
To be continued.