Masayuki Takayama, one of the very few genuine journalists of the postwar era, reveals historical truths long hidden from readers raised on Asahi Shimbun. This essay examines media indoctrination under GHQ policies and leftist ideology, the silence during China’s Cultural Revolution, and the continued pretense of moral authority by Japanese media today.

2016-02-17

Because Masayuki Takayama is, without exaggeration, one of the only truly genuine journalists in the postwar world, he is able to teach us historical facts that were completely unheard of to Japanese citizens like myself, who had continued to read Asahi Shimbun and similar newspapers since becoming aware of the world.

This in itself is astonishing—and terrifying.

After the war, it was not only Asahi Shimbun and similar outlets that were brainwashed by GHQ policies and then by a chaotic strain of left-wing ideology.

Those of us who kept subscribing to them were, as a result, also perfectly brainwashed.

This shows just how frightening media propaganda truly is.

The fact remains that it is always the media that misleads the people.

When China was carrying out the Cultural Revolution, the correspondents stationed there reported not a single truth.

With the sole exception of Sankei Shimbun reporter Shibata—who, as a result, was expelled from the country, and whose newspaper was forced to close its bureau.

Thus, Japanese citizens who read Asahi Shimbun and similar papers were also brainwashed by so-called cultural figures represented by Kenzaburō Ōe, foolishly believing that the Cultural Revolution was some kind of admirable reform.

Even now, Asahi Shimbun and TV Asahi repeatedly claim, at every opportunity, that they are guardians of democracy and bastions of anti-establishment resistance—engaging in conduct as foolish as it is possible to imagine.

Serving as the intellectual backbone of the equally foolish Democratic Party, they align themselves with people like Mizuho Fukushima, whose actions amount to nothing less than those of a traitor.

Together with those who scream shrill accusations at the administration—accusations that should instead be directed at themselves—they continue to wear, even now, the mask of justice.

This shamelessness is precisely what can be described as having “a thousand layers of skin on their faces.”

It goes without saying that since August two years ago, I have felt nothing but the deepest contempt for Asahi Shimbun and those aligned with it who continue to shout slogans such as opposition to so-called war legislation.