This article analyzes the coral reef incident and the Asahi Shimbun’s internal investigation report to reveal the persistent ideological structure that seeks to degrade the Japanese people. It argues that even if the photograph had been genuine, the fundamental criminality of “Asahi-style thinking” would remain unchanged.

The photograph was accompanied by a draft written by photographer Honda, but according to the report, “On April 18, Furuhata was troubled by the absence, in Honda’s draft, of any expression of shock or anger at discovering the outrageous graffiti. Judging from the photograph, he believed that a style of writing that denounced the act of defiling nature was appropriate, and therefore boldly rewrote it” (Asahi Shimbun, October 9, “Investigation Report on the Coral Reef Damage Incident”).

However, if one’s purpose is to denounce an act of destroying nature, there is absolutely no necessity to attribute that act to the guilt of the Japanese people.

Graffiti exists everywhere in the world in countless instances.

Then was it simply the personal disposition of the writer, reporter Furuhata, that led him to conclude that this was a crime committed by the Japanese?

No, that is not the case.

This is precisely what should be called “Asahi-style thinking.” Masayuki Furuhata had thoroughly internalized Asahi-style thought, and the moment he saw the photograph taken by photographer Honda, the Asahi-style thinking rooted in prejudice and discrimination was activated, giving birth to a powerful piece of writing that degraded the Japanese people as a whole.

It was later exposed that the photograph had been fabricated, but had that not been the case, the Japanese people would have been made to bear, forever, the stigma of coral destruction as a national disgrace.

The point that must be most carefully noted, however, is that even if the photograph had not been fabricated and had been genuine, the fundamental criminality of Asahi-style thinking, which deliberately seeks to degrade the Japanese, would not change in the slightest.

Because the photograph was a fabrication, attention has been drawn exclusively to that fact, and as a result, it can be said that the criminal nature of this Asahi-style thinking has, on the contrary, become harder to perceive.

To be continued.