The following is from an article by Hiroshi Furuta, professor emeritus at Tsukuba University, which appeared in today's Sankei Shimbun under the title Russia and Korea: The Lie of "History Progresses."
This article also proves that he is one of the world's leading scholars of the postwar era.
It is a must-read not only for the Japanese people but for people worldwide.
The emphasis in the text except for the headline is mine.
Many people still believe that history has progressed.
Humanity has progressed step by step, repeating mistakes, and will eventually reach an ideal society.
In the case of war, we have learned from World War I and World War II mistakes, and we hold the idea that one day we will be able to realize a peaceful world without war and nuclear weapons.
Many people say this are intellectuals and media, especially those who appear in newspapers and on TV.
They try to discuss the world from the progressive view of history, which holds that society progresses through certain developmental stages and that every country can and must modernize.
However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine proved that such people have been spreading the lie of progress.
Russia, which has experienced two world wars, the defeat of the Cold War, and the collapse of the Soviet Union, has launched another war of aggression, threatening not only Ukraine but also other countries with nuclear weapons.
In Ukraine, it is reported that Russia is looting, assaulting, slaughtering, raping, and sending people to camps, the same thing that the Soviet army broke the Soviet-Japanese neutrality pact and invaded Manchuria at the end of World War II did to the Japanese.
Looking at this pre-modern behavior, one has to say that Russia has made no progress in the more than 100 years since the Russian Revolution of 1917.
However, those obsessed with a progressive view of history do not understand this.
That is why so-called Japanese experts think things like, "I never thought they would actually invade Ukraine," but that is the reality of the situation.
The international rules of modern nations cannot explain President Putin's words and actions.
Even when he started the invasion, he said he would "defeat the neo-Nazis in Ukraine and release the Russians," but South Korea said, "Japan's Rising Sun Flag is militarism. Japan is evil." It is the same level of false accusation as "."
It recalls that the Tribe of Ephraim of ancient Israel told the people of the land of Gilead attacked with a false accusation that cannot be reasoned with (Book of Judges, Old Testament) "Why didn't you call the Tribe of Ephraim for reinforcements when another country invaded? That's why we will attack this time."
President Putin's ideas seem closer to ancient times than to modern times.
Apart from the development of science, in a spiritual sense, the idea that Russia should want a modern society in the first place may be a self-serving assumption.
According to a survey, more than 60% of Russians consider the socialist era of the Soviet Union to be the best era.
Still, socialism can be viewed as a pseudo-ancient society because it has many elements similar to ancient civilizations, such as the class system, tyranny, and serfdom (communal farms).
The land is also owned by the emperor (Tsar), which is very similar to the Russian Empire, which had serfdom under the emperor's tyranny.
Enactment of the "Law for the Protection of the Moon Jae-in
The error of the progressive view of history is even more evident in Korea.
The rule of law, the main principle of a modern state, has not taken root in Korea.
The great principle of a modern nation is to keep its promises to other countries, such as treaties. Still, this nation has repeatedly rehashed issues already settled in the Japan-Korea Claims Agreement of 1965. Recently, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Korea, which is supposed to be the guardian of the law, ordered a Japanese company to pay compensation for the so-called "conscripts," wartime workers.
In South Korea, national unity is still not governed by the rule of law but by "anti-Japanese" education.
It may have been unavoidable at the dawn of Korea's independence from Japan. However, more than 70 years later, the emotional argument of "anti-Japan" still takes precedence over the rule of law.
Modern national leaders would be concerned about this reality and try to establish the rule of law, but in South Korea, the president, who is the head of state, tries to castrate the rule of law.
It is no secret that South Korea has a "tradition" of arresting the outgoing president by the next administration, but former President Moon Jae-in, while in office, amended the so-called "Moon Jae-in Protection Act" to prevent his own arrest, depriving prosecutors of most of their investigative powers.
The progressive view of history cannot explain why things it cannot think of in Japan are so common in Korea.
Many people hope that a new president, Yoon Suk-yeol, will change South Korea and improve relations between Japan and South Korea, but I wonder if this is true.
It may sound like I am writing about the abuses of Russia and Korea, but that is not the case.
If you look at Russia and South Korea from the progressive view of history, which holds that any country can progress and modernize, you will find that this view of history is wrong.
Since Russia and South Korea are such countries, we have no choice but to accept them as they are.
If we treat them with the assumption that "Russia and Korea must become such countries" in light of the progressive view of history, we are imposing our selfish ideals on them, which should be annoying to them.
Marx and his ilk are the last vestiges of a dream.
The progressive view of history was once the foundation of the Marxism of intellectuals who believed that a nation would arrive at the socialist ideal after historical progress.
In Japan, intellectuals called "progressive culturists" have been making the rounds of the Asahi Shimbun and other newspapers in the past.
They brought in a convenient case overseas that seemed ideal for them and said, "Japan is behind this."
In their minds, capitalism was inferior to socialism, and they believed that the current capitalism would, and must, progress to the ideal of socialism, that it was a "historical inevitability.
It was not only those who called themselves communists or socialists.
In his lecture notes, Maruyama Masao, one of the leading postwar intellectuals, also taught the historical inevitability of the transition from bourgeois revolution to the proletarian revolution in the tradition of the Marxist school (a school of Japanese Marxists). (Ken Yonehara, "Maruyama Masao and Socialism," Shiso, No. 988, August 2006)
I believe that the socialist ideal attracted Japanese intellectuals because it counteracted the inferiority complex of the Japanese people, who restarted as a backward capitalist nation after the war.
After losing the war to the U.S., Japan had to follow behind that country politically and economically on the path of capitalism, which meant that the Japanese intellectuals who followed them were also followers and immature.
I suspect they pursued a socialist ideal different from the United States to get rid of that inferiority complex.
I believe that the Japanese intellectuals, coming from a defeatist war complex, were not the only ones to pursue this ideal.
The flip side of the anti-American sentiment of the intellectuals comes from their defeat complex.
As expected, such socialism of the aging progressive cultural figures has lost its influence these days. However, the progressive view of history itself is still alive, and the lives of the older men who believed its lies and fell in love with it to the bone will no longer return.
The other day, Fusako Shigenobu, a top official of the Japanese Red Army, was released from prison after serving 20 years.
The Japanese Red Army, which believed in Marxism, shotguns to kill and wound innocent people for the sake of socialist revolution, and committed hijackings, is also the poster child of progressive history.
Summer grasses, All that remains, Of Marx's men's dreams.
It is the progressive view of history that is the guilty one.
This article also proves that he is one of the world's leading scholars of the postwar era.
It is a must-read not only for the Japanese people but for people worldwide.
The emphasis in the text except for the headline is mine.
Many people still believe that history has progressed.
Humanity has progressed step by step, repeating mistakes, and will eventually reach an ideal society.
In the case of war, we have learned from World War I and World War II mistakes, and we hold the idea that one day we will be able to realize a peaceful world without war and nuclear weapons.
Many people say this are intellectuals and media, especially those who appear in newspapers and on TV.
They try to discuss the world from the progressive view of history, which holds that society progresses through certain developmental stages and that every country can and must modernize.
However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine proved that such people have been spreading the lie of progress.
Russia, which has experienced two world wars, the defeat of the Cold War, and the collapse of the Soviet Union, has launched another war of aggression, threatening not only Ukraine but also other countries with nuclear weapons.
In Ukraine, it is reported that Russia is looting, assaulting, slaughtering, raping, and sending people to camps, the same thing that the Soviet army broke the Soviet-Japanese neutrality pact and invaded Manchuria at the end of World War II did to the Japanese.
Looking at this pre-modern behavior, one has to say that Russia has made no progress in the more than 100 years since the Russian Revolution of 1917.
However, those obsessed with a progressive view of history do not understand this.
That is why so-called Japanese experts think things like, "I never thought they would actually invade Ukraine," but that is the reality of the situation.
The international rules of modern nations cannot explain President Putin's words and actions.
Even when he started the invasion, he said he would "defeat the neo-Nazis in Ukraine and release the Russians," but South Korea said, "Japan's Rising Sun Flag is militarism. Japan is evil." It is the same level of false accusation as "."
It recalls that the Tribe of Ephraim of ancient Israel told the people of the land of Gilead attacked with a false accusation that cannot be reasoned with (Book of Judges, Old Testament) "Why didn't you call the Tribe of Ephraim for reinforcements when another country invaded? That's why we will attack this time."
President Putin's ideas seem closer to ancient times than to modern times.
Apart from the development of science, in a spiritual sense, the idea that Russia should want a modern society in the first place may be a self-serving assumption.
According to a survey, more than 60% of Russians consider the socialist era of the Soviet Union to be the best era.
Still, socialism can be viewed as a pseudo-ancient society because it has many elements similar to ancient civilizations, such as the class system, tyranny, and serfdom (communal farms).
The land is also owned by the emperor (Tsar), which is very similar to the Russian Empire, which had serfdom under the emperor's tyranny.
Enactment of the "Law for the Protection of the Moon Jae-in
The error of the progressive view of history is even more evident in Korea.
The rule of law, the main principle of a modern state, has not taken root in Korea.
The great principle of a modern nation is to keep its promises to other countries, such as treaties. Still, this nation has repeatedly rehashed issues already settled in the Japan-Korea Claims Agreement of 1965. Recently, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Korea, which is supposed to be the guardian of the law, ordered a Japanese company to pay compensation for the so-called "conscripts," wartime workers.
In South Korea, national unity is still not governed by the rule of law but by "anti-Japanese" education.
It may have been unavoidable at the dawn of Korea's independence from Japan. However, more than 70 years later, the emotional argument of "anti-Japan" still takes precedence over the rule of law.
Modern national leaders would be concerned about this reality and try to establish the rule of law, but in South Korea, the president, who is the head of state, tries to castrate the rule of law.
It is no secret that South Korea has a "tradition" of arresting the outgoing president by the next administration, but former President Moon Jae-in, while in office, amended the so-called "Moon Jae-in Protection Act" to prevent his own arrest, depriving prosecutors of most of their investigative powers.
The progressive view of history cannot explain why things it cannot think of in Japan are so common in Korea.
Many people hope that a new president, Yoon Suk-yeol, will change South Korea and improve relations between Japan and South Korea, but I wonder if this is true.
It may sound like I am writing about the abuses of Russia and Korea, but that is not the case.
If you look at Russia and South Korea from the progressive view of history, which holds that any country can progress and modernize, you will find that this view of history is wrong.
Since Russia and South Korea are such countries, we have no choice but to accept them as they are.
If we treat them with the assumption that "Russia and Korea must become such countries" in light of the progressive view of history, we are imposing our selfish ideals on them, which should be annoying to them.
Marx and his ilk are the last vestiges of a dream.
The progressive view of history was once the foundation of the Marxism of intellectuals who believed that a nation would arrive at the socialist ideal after historical progress.
In Japan, intellectuals called "progressive culturists" have been making the rounds of the Asahi Shimbun and other newspapers in the past.
They brought in a convenient case overseas that seemed ideal for them and said, "Japan is behind this."
In their minds, capitalism was inferior to socialism, and they believed that the current capitalism would, and must, progress to the ideal of socialism, that it was a "historical inevitability.
It was not only those who called themselves communists or socialists.
In his lecture notes, Maruyama Masao, one of the leading postwar intellectuals, also taught the historical inevitability of the transition from bourgeois revolution to the proletarian revolution in the tradition of the Marxist school (a school of Japanese Marxists). (Ken Yonehara, "Maruyama Masao and Socialism," Shiso, No. 988, August 2006)
I believe that the socialist ideal attracted Japanese intellectuals because it counteracted the inferiority complex of the Japanese people, who restarted as a backward capitalist nation after the war.
After losing the war to the U.S., Japan had to follow behind that country politically and economically on the path of capitalism, which meant that the Japanese intellectuals who followed them were also followers and immature.
I suspect they pursued a socialist ideal different from the United States to get rid of that inferiority complex.
I believe that the Japanese intellectuals, coming from a defeatist war complex, were not the only ones to pursue this ideal.
The flip side of the anti-American sentiment of the intellectuals comes from their defeat complex.
As expected, such socialism of the aging progressive cultural figures has lost its influence these days. However, the progressive view of history itself is still alive, and the lives of the older men who believed its lies and fell in love with it to the bone will no longer return.
The other day, Fusako Shigenobu, a top official of the Japanese Red Army, was released from prison after serving 20 years.
The Japanese Red Army, which believed in Marxism, shotguns to kill and wound innocent people for the sake of socialist revolution, and committed hijackings, is also the poster child of progressive history.
Summer grasses, All that remains, Of Marx's men's dreams.
It is the progressive view of history that is the guilty one.
