This newspaper calls the editorial director "general editor" in the style of a foreign company. As a newspaper reporter, I would be too embarrassed to give such a business card. And that G.E.'s love for Korea is no less than its editorials.
September 26, 2019
The following is from an article by Masayuki Takayama in today's weekly Shincho.
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 people of Japan but for people all over the world.
The last * below annotations are mine.
A Prime Minister Who Admonishes
The Asahi Shimbun becomes watery when it comes to Korea.
They writhe with love.
So if a Japanese magazine even tries to express an opinion on South Korea, they get all riled up and editorialize that "the media is inciting antipathy toward South Korea."
The editorial goes on to say that during the last war, "the media, in line with national policy, instilled hostility toward Britain and the U.S. and contempt for China and Korea."
I know about the "devilish US-UK" policy, but the latter part is new to me.
Or, instead, it is a complete lie.
We treated the Koreans as one nation, Japan and Korea, and gave them equal treatment, exemptions from conscription, and tax breaks.
Japan did not do the outrageous thing that the U.S. did to its colonial Filipinos, and the British did to Indians by using them as shields for their own soldiers.
In China, Japan supported Wang Zhaoming, and in Shanghai and elsewhere, the days of peace and tranquility continued until the war's end.
The people of China enjoyed the stage performances of Li Xianglan, and the people of Wolfsbane Mountain, a suburb of Beijing, were protected by the Japanese army from the looting of the communist guerrillas.
The editorial also wrote, "There was also the spread of civilization from the peninsula."
It, too, is correct: "Culture came from Japan."
Only trouble came from the peninsula.
As proof, a hot pepper from Tang Dynasty China entered Chosun via Japan.
That is why the chairman of Moranbong said, "Chili peppers are called Japanese spices" in the peninsula.
The name of the river is also telling.
The Chinese in the north use "河" like 黄河 and 熱河.
The Chinese in the south, with whom Japan had a relationship, used "江, such as 揚子江 and 黄浦江.
It was transmitted over Chosun via Japan, and they wrote "洛東江" or "漢江."
It is good that you love Korea, but why did you let editorial writer Seiki Nemoto write such an editorial without a shred of truth?
This newspaper calls its editorial director "general editor," like a foreign-affiliated newspaper.
If I were a newspaper reporter, I would be too embarrassed to give out such a business card.
The G.E.'s love for Korea is no less than its editorials.
Nemoto had its former Seoul correspondent Kamiya Takeshi interview Moon Jung-in, special assistant to the South Korean president, which was just as bad.
The aide is surprisingly uneducated.
In his analysis of the current bickering between Japan and South Korea, he says, "Both Japan and South Korea have a structure in which (the administration) gains popularity by hitting the other side.
That is certainly true in South Korea.
When the administration's centripetal force declined in South Korea, it launched an anti-Japanese policy.
It is a way for the regime to regain popularity.
Japanese people don't take it too seriously, but we should know that the people of that country are anti-Japanese to the bone.
That is why Lee Myung-bak, compromised by corruption, was forgiven for climbing Takeshima.
The people were overjoyed when Kim Young Sam blew up the old Korean governor-general's office.
If made in Korea, it would topple over when the wind blows, but Japanese full-scale architecture doesn't collapse easily.
Thanks to this, the Korean people enjoyed the bombing for weeks.
In contrast, no single case of a Japanese administration gaining popularity by beating up on South Korea.
Japan is too soft, but it is not even a political issue regarding South Korea.
Take Nobusuke Kishi, for example.
4,000 Japanese fishermen were captured or killed on the Syngman Rhee Line, which Syngman Rhee arbitrarily set up.
Kishi, who had no military means, signed a "Memorandum of Understanding for Mutual Release of Detainees," which allowed all imprisoned murderers in Japan and smuggled Koreans in Omura to be released and stay in Japan to free the fishermen.
The Japanese did so, hoping it would help Koreans become real human beings.
In 1987, there was the Korean Airline bombing.
Japanese embassy officials in Bahrain took Kim Hyon-Hui into custody, but Noboru Takeshita, out of consideration for Roh Tae-woo, extradited her to South Korea.
As a result, there was a significant delay in confirming the actual status of the abduction of Megumi and others by North Korea.
Roh Tae Woo was given fresh impetus and threatened Toshiki Kaifu to abolish fingerprinting in Japan and apply it to immigrant Koreans.
Soon after the law went into effect, a quadruple murder of a Setagaya family occurred.
The culprit's fingerprints are piled up, but he hasn't been caught yet.
Kiichi Miyazawa co-hosted the World Cup soccer tournament with South Korea.
Junichiro Koizumi gave South Korea the White Country treatment.
He also gave economic aid.
Successive prime ministers believed such generosity would make the country sane, but they were all wrong.
Japan now needs a prime minister who can tell South Korea what is right and wrong.
Now, that is finally happening.
＊If the greatness of Shinzo Abe led to his assassination, it is highly possible that not only China but also Korea (the entire peninsula) was the mastermind behind the assassination of Yonagami.
