Japan Institute for National Fundamentals
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Speaking out

Yoshiko Sakurai

【#276】NYT’s Malicious Japan Bashing

Yoshiko Sakurai ／ 2014.12.11 (Thu)


December 8, 2014

　　　　　The New York Times has harshly bashed Japan. In his December 3 article headlined "Rewriting the War, Japanese Right Attacks a Newspaper," NYT Tokyo Bureau Chief Martin Fackler concluded denunciations of The Asahi Shimbun over the comfort women issue as actions of "the right" and "ultranationalists" and depicted former Asahi reporter Takashi Uemura as a victim of Japan's political right.
　　　　　On December 4, the NYT took up the anti-Asahi campaigns in its editorial titled "Whitewashing History in Japan." "Right-wing political forces in Japan, encouraged by the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, are waging a campaign of intimidation to deny the disgraceful chapter in World War II," it said in a tone similar to the one seen in the Fackler article. But the newspaper did not point out that Uemura forged a story of former Korean comfort woman Kim Hak-sun and that testimonies by former comfort women were groundless.

NYT carried contribution defaming Emperor Showa
　　　　　Themes for this kind of unilateral Japan bashing reports by the NYT are not limited to the comfort women issue. On September 30, the newspaper carried a contribution by U.S. historian Herbert P. Bix headlined "Hirohito: String Puller, Not Puppet."
　　　　　Bix's denunciation of Emperor Showa, Japan and the Abe administration is too biased to be intellectually fair. His groundless assertions said that "Hirohito (known in Japan as Showa, the name of his reign) represented an ideology and an institution — a system constructed to allow the emperor to interject his will into the decision-making process" and that "even after the war, when a new, American-modeled Constitution deprived him of sovereignty, he continued to meddle in politics." "Hirohito was a timid opportunist, eager above all to preserve the monarchy he had been brought up to defend," Bix also said, finding no shame in making defamatory assertions that any scholar or researcher should avoid. The NYT finds no shame in carrying such assertions.

Deep-rooted vigilance against Japan
　　　　　Why does the newspaper carry malicious assertions so frequently? History indicates that such assertions are deep-rooted among some people in the United States.
　　　　　As indicated by the 1906 Orange Plan, the United States grew more vigilant against Japan that won the first Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War. The vigilance led the abrogation of the Anglo.-Japanese alliance at the 1922 Washington Conference. Anti-Japan sentiment was strong then in the United States, as pointed out by strategist George Kennan, who said most of U.S. diplomatic actions were designed to prevent other countries, especially Japan, from pursuing unfavorable actions for the United States.
　　　　　After Japan's defeat in World War II, the United States occupied Japan for the purpose of preventing Japan from becoming a strong, independent country again, as indicated by the Government Section at the General Headquarters of the Allied Powers, the occupation forces. Japan bashing by the NYT and Bix over comfort women and Emperor Showa have the same root as the bashing over Japanese politicians' visits to Yasukuni Shrine and controversial constitutional amendments, inheriting the U.S. willingness to keep Japan weak lacking will to become an independent country.

Yoshiko Sakurai is President, Japan Institute for National Fundamentals.