However, his view of history is mixed with hatred for modern Japan and a childish worship of foreigners. It is no coincidence that it is strangely similar to the Asahi Shimbun, which criticizes the 150th anniversary of the Meiji era.
September 28, 2019
Why did Shiba imitate Honda Katsuichi?
His portrayal of people also surpassed Ijichi Kosuke.
It is the chapter I published on September 29, 2018.
I subscribe to Shukan Shincho magazine every week to read Takayama Masayuki's and Sakurai Yoshiko's serialized columns.
This week's column also beautifully proves his vast knowledge, insight, brilliant verification, and high reporting ability.
Ryotaro Shiba was a senior reporter at Sankei Shimbun and would have been familiar to him.
I'm not proud to say that I have never read any of his books—I have never wanted to—but I knew him well.
I have been a regular subscriber to the Asahi Weekly for a long time.
I read Shiba's "Kaido ga Yuku" (On the Highway), the magazine's flagship serial, almost every week.
At the same time, I felt a kind of fate because I had run into him twice at the bar of the Hotel Okura Tokyo.
At the time, I was chatting with a very close friend from Dentsu, and he was having a meeting with people in the industry.
I had run into him twice, sitting right next to him.
So, in 2010, shortly after I reluctantly appeared on the Internet, the most extensive library in the history of humankind, I wrote an article mocking him.
I was familiar with Takayama's brilliant criticism in this week's issue.
A friend, a keen reader, made fun of me, saying that only you and Takayama could criticize Ryōtarō Shiba.
Emphasis in the text other than the headline is mine.
It is in the 150th year of the Meiji era.
When I joined the Sankei Shimbun, Shiba Ryotaro's serial "Ryoma ga Yuku" was carried in the evening edition.
I remember being very impressed by the portrayal of the characters.
"Clouds Above the Hill" was also serialized in the Sankei evening edition around the time of the 1970 Security Treaty Crisis.
I couldn't wait for the evening paper to arrive.
My brother, who had always said stupid things like "The Asahi is the best newspaper," also switched to Sankei.
It was the effect of "Clouds Above the Hill."
However, as the serialization progressed, the portrayal of the characters that had impressed me became strangely heavy, and I even began to dislike reading it.
For example, he harshly criticized Nogi Maresuke, who caused many casualties in the capture of Port Arthur.
He called him incompetent and other such scathing criticisms.
He hurled even more scathing abuse at his staff officer, Ijichi Kosuke.
I don't know any Japanese writer who can insult people to this extent.
Recently, Hosaka Masayasu wrote a scathing piece about Tojo Hideki.
I think Shiba gave citizenship to vulgar portrayals that are un-Japanese, like Korean criticism of Japan.
When the serialization ended, I was at the press club at Haneda.
While visiting airlines, I found that one of the executives at Japan Airlines was the grandson of Abo Kiyokazu, the chief gunner of the Combined Fleet.
He was the man who was next to Togo Heihachiro and led the concentrated bombardment of the Baltic Fleet.
At ANA, the grandson of Ijichi Kosuke, whom Shiba had so harshly criticized, was the head of the business management department.
I asked the two of them about their impressions of Shiba's depiction of their grandfather, but there were plenty of objections.
I wanted to ask Shiba about it directly, but before I knew it, he had moved from Sankei to Asahi and started writing travelogues.
Around that time, Shiba's writing style began to take on a strange Asahi-like tone.
Around that time, he commented, "Let's run them over and kill them."
Before the end of the war, Shiba returned from Manchuria and was stationed at a tank base in Sano City, Tochigi Prefecture.
There were rumors of a US military landing.
The Imperial General Headquarters staff ordered them to go down from Sano and stop them at the water's edge.
But the roads were filled with people fleeing.
When asked what they should do, Imperial General Headquarters replied, "Run them over."
It was fitting for an officer of the "brutal Japanese army" that Asahi had created, but I thought it was odd.
The tank unit was still hanging around in Sano just as the US forces were landing, and everyone was fleeing Tokyo.
Is it possible they were thinking, "Well, it's about time we got going"?
In fact, none of the tank unit comrades heard what the staff officer said.
Why did Shiba imitate Honda Katsuichi?
His portrayal of people also surpassed that of Ijichi Kosuke.
In his Shimabara Travelogue, he spoke of Matsukura Shigemasa, who oppressed Christians, saying, "There is no more detestable person in Japanese history than him."
His basis for this was the records of a Portuguese captain and the head of the Dutch factory.
For example, "They dressed the believers in straw raincoats and set them on fire."
But I wonder if he verified the records.
If one were to examine it, one would find that it perfectly matches the description in Las Casas's "Concise Report on the Destruction of the Indies," a best-seller in Europe at the time.
This yellow country cheekily rejected Christianity, calling it a heretical religion that knew no mercy.
It would make more sense to see the author imitating Las Casas' portrayal of cruel Japan, hoping to slander it in retaliation.
The Asahi Shimbun worships MacArthur and other white people without questioning them.
Did Shiba also become infected with this?
In the European Travelogue, it is described with glee that when Tokugawa Yoshinobu's younger brother, Akitake, visited Belgium, King Leopold II "showed special kindness."
However, the king then plotted to make Japan a colony.
He also said, "The uncivilized land of Asia will surely welcome European civilization."
In the end, the king colonized the Congo, cut off half the residents' wrists, and killed 70% of the population.
Not a single word of criticism was said about such a king.
Shiba seems to have completely adapted to the Asahi Shimbun's culture of being "strict on Japanese people, but highly esteeming foreigners, even Koreans."
Shiba's view of history is that "after reaching the top, Japan became arrogant and headed for ruin."
However, his view of history is mixed with hatred for modern Japan and a childish worship of foreigners.
It is no coincidence that his view is strangely similar to the Asahi Shimbun, which criticizes the 150th anniversary of the Meiji era.
September 28, 2019
Why did Shiba imitate Honda Katsuichi?
His portrayal of people also surpassed Ijichi Kosuke.
It is the chapter I published on September 29, 2018.
I subscribe to Shukan Shincho magazine every week to read Takayama Masayuki's and Sakurai Yoshiko's serialized columns.
This week's column also beautifully proves his vast knowledge, insight, brilliant verification, and high reporting ability.
Ryotaro Shiba was a senior reporter at Sankei Shimbun and would have been familiar to him.
I'm not proud to say that I have never read any of his books—I have never wanted to—but I knew him well.
I have been a regular subscriber to the Asahi Weekly for a long time.
I read Shiba's "Kaido ga Yuku" (On the Highway), the magazine's flagship serial, almost every week.
At the same time, I felt a kind of fate because I had run into him twice at the bar of the Hotel Okura Tokyo.
At the time, I was chatting with a very close friend from Dentsu, and he was having a meeting with people in the industry.
I had run into him twice, sitting right next to him.
So, in 2010, shortly after I reluctantly appeared on the Internet, the most extensive library in the history of humankind, I wrote an article mocking him.
I was familiar with Takayama's brilliant criticism in this week's issue.
A friend, a keen reader, made fun of me, saying that only you and Takayama could criticize Ryōtarō Shiba.
Emphasis in the text other than the headline is mine.
It is in the 150th year of the Meiji era.
When I joined the Sankei Shimbun, Shiba Ryotaro's serial "Ryoma ga Yuku" was carried in the evening edition.
I remember being very impressed by the portrayal of the characters.
"Clouds Above the Hill" was also serialized in the Sankei evening edition around the time of the 1970 Security Treaty Crisis.
I couldn't wait for the evening paper to arrive.
My brother, who had always said stupid things like "The Asahi is the best newspaper," also switched to Sankei.
It was the effect of "Clouds Above the Hill."
However, as the serialization progressed, the portrayal of the characters that had impressed me became strangely heavy, and I even began to dislike reading it.
For example, he harshly criticized Nogi Maresuke, who caused many casualties in the capture of Port Arthur.
He called him incompetent and other such scathing criticisms.
He hurled even more scathing abuse at his staff officer, Ijichi Kosuke.
I don't know any Japanese writer who can insult people to this extent.
Recently, Hosaka Masayasu wrote a scathing piece about Tojo Hideki.
I think Shiba gave citizenship to vulgar portrayals that are un-Japanese, like Korean criticism of Japan.
When the serialization ended, I was at the press club at Haneda.
While visiting airlines, I found that one of the executives at Japan Airlines was the grandson of Abo Kiyokazu, the chief gunner of the Combined Fleet.
He was the man who was next to Togo Heihachiro and led the concentrated bombardment of the Baltic Fleet.
At ANA, the grandson of Ijichi Kosuke, whom Shiba had so harshly criticized, was the head of the business management department.
I asked the two of them about their impressions of Shiba's depiction of their grandfather, but there were plenty of objections.
I wanted to ask Shiba about it directly, but before I knew it, he had moved from Sankei to Asahi and started writing travelogues.
Around that time, Shiba's writing style began to take on a strange Asahi-like tone.
Around that time, he commented, "Let's run them over and kill them."
Before the end of the war, Shiba returned from Manchuria and was stationed at a tank base in Sano City, Tochigi Prefecture.
There were rumors of a US military landing.
The Imperial General Headquarters staff ordered them to go down from Sano and stop them at the water's edge.
But the roads were filled with people fleeing.
When asked what they should do, Imperial General Headquarters replied, "Run them over."
It was fitting for an officer of the "brutal Japanese army" that Asahi had created, but I thought it was odd.
The tank unit was still hanging around in Sano just as the US forces were landing, and everyone was fleeing Tokyo.
Is it possible they were thinking, "Well, it's about time we got going"?
In fact, none of the tank unit comrades heard what the staff officer said.
Why did Shiba imitate Honda Katsuichi?
His portrayal of people also surpassed that of Ijichi Kosuke.
In his Shimabara Travelogue, he spoke of Matsukura Shigemasa, who oppressed Christians, saying, "There is no more detestable person in Japanese history than him."
His basis for this was the records of a Portuguese captain and the head of the Dutch factory.
For example, "They dressed the believers in straw raincoats and set them on fire."
But I wonder if he verified the records.
If one were to examine it, one would find that it perfectly matches the description in Las Casas's "Concise Report on the Destruction of the Indies," a best-seller in Europe at the time.
This yellow country cheekily rejected Christianity, calling it a heretical religion that knew no mercy.
It would make more sense to see the author imitating Las Casas' portrayal of cruel Japan, hoping to slander it in retaliation.
The Asahi Shimbun worships MacArthur and other white people without questioning them.
Did Shiba also become infected with this?
In the European Travelogue, it is described with glee that when Tokugawa Yoshinobu's younger brother, Akitake, visited Belgium, King Leopold II "showed special kindness."
However, the king then plotted to make Japan a colony.
He also said, "The uncivilized land of Asia will surely welcome European civilization."
In the end, the king colonized the Congo, cut off half the residents' wrists, and killed 70% of the population.
Not a single word of criticism was said about such a king.
Shiba seems to have completely adapted to the Asahi Shimbun's culture of being "strict on Japanese people, but highly esteeming foreigners, even Koreans."
Shiba's view of history is that "after reaching the top, Japan became arrogant and headed for ruin."
However, his view of history is mixed with hatred for modern Japan and a childish worship of foreigners.
It is no coincidence that his view is strangely similar to the Asahi Shimbun, which criticizes the 150th anniversary of the Meiji era.
2024/9/26 in Umeda, Osaka
