The following is from Masayuki Takayama's column in Themis, a monthly subscription magazine that arrived at my home today.
It is no exaggeration to say that I subscribe to this monthly magazine just to read his columns.
This article also proves that he is the one and only journalist in the postwar world.
It is a must-read not only for the Japanese people but for people worldwide.
Asahi Shimbun turns a blind eye to "facts" by flattering Kenzaburo Ōe
It irresponsibly praises false books such as "Okinawa Note" and "The Devil's Boredom.
The text is so verbose that it would usually be rejected.
Wu Zixu, whose father and brother were killed by King Ping of Chu, flees to the neighboring Eastern Wu to serve Helü of Wu.
When the reign of Fuchai of Wu came, he proposed a plan to defeat the hated King Ping of Chu (state) and defeated Chu.
He defeated Chu (state), but King Ping of Chu was already dead.
What would it be like if you were Japanese?
You would relax, your shoulders and elbows would be relieved, and you might even find yourself grimacing and wondering why you had gotten so worked up over something like this.
But the Chinese are different.
Wu Zixu uncovered the tomb of King Ping of Chu, dragged out the corpse, and flogged it.
Flogging the corpse 300 times / Then it was over," says Sima Qian in his "Records of the Grand Historian.
It means that he is finally satisfied after whipping the corpse 300 times.
It is the story that gave rise to the expression "flogging a dead man," but if you were to take this to this extent in Japan, you would be scorned.
Even the wicked are Buddhas when they die.
There is an atmosphere that says, "That's enough.
But some people can't get away with it," reads the column "New Inconvenient Japanese" in the pamphlet "National Polity Culture" that I received the other day.
The author is Toshiaki Ohno.
The author is Toshiaki Ohno, a junior colleague from my days in the Sankei Shimbun's Social Affairs Department.
Although he has his quirks, his writing is soft and enjoyable, with a great deal of knowledge.
To quote the author, "I don't like to whip the dead, but I have to say something about this man, Kenzaburo Ōe.
When Ōe died, "every TV station and newspaper in Japan, including Sankei, mourned him and carried articles and biographies praising his achievements.
If we left it as it was, it would be taken as approval rather than forgiveness of this man's sins.
That is unforgivable.
In fact, I was thinking of writing about the same thing here but got carried away.
I want to take advantage of this column to say a few words.
Ōe is a man of letters.
I write using the same characters as he does.
As a desk clerk, I have also seen human manuscripts.
When I look at Ōe's writings with my own eyes, I find them verbose and sometimes even nonsensical.
Usually, he would have been rejected.
If I corrected it, 100 lines would be reduced to 20.
No, no, no, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature for that.
That, too, is a mistake without a doubt.
There are many mistakes in that prize.
For example, the Nobel Prize was awarded to English physicist Joseph Thomson, who advocated the grape-pan atomic model of "electrons encrusted in a loaf of proton bread," without Hantaro Nagaoka, who advocated the Saturnian nuclear model.
In another case, the U.S., which dislikes Japan's nuclear armament, took advantage of Eisaku Sato's statement of the "three non-nuclear principles" and hastily awarded him the Peace Prize.
The Commander-in-Chief was desperate to stop the suicides.
Ōe's writings are beyond anyone's assessment.
Instead, it should be seen as an award based on political recognition as an anti-Japanese ideologue.
If you are not convinced, read Kazuo Ishiguro.
His translations are plain and easy to understand, and like "Never Let Me Go," he questions the foundations of human dignity with a fresh sensitivity.
It's a world of difference from Ōe's.
In addition, there is the stench of postwar democracy.
Masato Inui, former editor-in-chief of the Sankei Shimbun, wrote with dismay that Ōe "repeatedly called out" Prime Minister Abe from the podium at a rally to defend the Constitution.
Literary people value words.
Even gentle words touch one's heart deeply.
If he can only express himself in abusive language, he is no better than Jiro Yamaguchi.
There is another book that the Asahi Shimbun praised in its review, "Okinawa Notebook.
Ōe wrote that the local commander at Tokashiki "forced the islanders to commit mass suicide so that they would not be a liability to the Imperial Army and reduce the amount of food they could eat.
Ayako Sono was suspicious and interviewed the local commander, who was the one who desperately tried to stop the suicides.
However, after the war, when she learned that they would receive a survivors' pension if he pretended that they had committed suicide on military orders, she arrived at the truth: "I gave up my honor and pretended that I had given the order to commit suicide."
Ayako Sono must have been highly annoyed by Ōe's irresponsible writing.
Still, Ōe is urine on a frog's face.
He did not correct it.
Neither did Iwanami put the book out of print.
The family of the local commander appealed to the court, but the verdict was that Ōe was not guilty.
Ōe gets all worked up and says, "I don't care about the facts. I write from a high position that the Japanese military is to blame, and the Japanese government is to blame," Ohno continued.
"No one will complain because he is a Nobel Prize-winning author. They accept it as the truth." "Does this man have a conscience?
No one will complain," including newspapers.
Reporters also silenced Ayako Sono.
There are many intellectuals in the world.
They did not follow Ayako Sono.
In fact, there is another reason.
Writers write for newspapers and magazines.
However, there are strange ties in that world.
For example, Iwanami and Kodansha, for instance, have Ōe write for them, which raises their market price.
The publishing houses that sell Ōe are adamant that they will not print any criticism of Ōe in their publications.
Newspapers that cater to Ōe also do not carry such commentary.
There is a strictly closed discourse space.
The source of the story is a Communist Party member's lie.
Soon after Ōe died, writer Seiichi Morimura died.
He started his career as a mystery writer, but for some reason, when he became successful, he wanted to switch to the socialist side of the field.
So he wrote "The Devil's Boredom" about Unit 731.
The source of the story was a certain Shimozato of the Communist Party.
The source was a lie created by the Chinese Communist Party.
At that time, Sankei denounced it, but other newspapers remained silent.
This time, we thought Asahi would correct the mistake with a review of Morimura's biography, but instead, the headline read, "The Devil's Boredom.
As if the brutal acts of Unit 731 were fact.
Kentaro Ogura, whom Toyoko Yamazaki used as a model for her book "The Sun That Never Sets," was an agent of the Japanese Communist Party (JCPO), which prevented the reconstruction of Japan's aviation industry.
The publishers similarly buried this story.
People make mistakes.
Morimura is said to have regretted his mistake.
But Ōe and Yamazaki are convicted criminals.
Even if the newspaper and publishing companies have been hiding things for their own reasons, at the very least, they should rewrite the story honestly when they close the lid of the coffin.
Otherwise, a false book like "Okinawa Note" will remain as it is.
2024/6/12 in Kanazawa