How Japan’s ‘BBC’ is rewriting its role in the Second World War

[jimmy olsen]

I'm always in agreement that their constitution has to be amended, but then a Japanese supporter of that opens their mouth and then I'm back on the fence. Just disgraceful.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/how-japans-bbc-is-rewriting-its-role-in-second-world-war-9115827.html

How Japan's 'BBC' is rewriting its role in the Second World War

Naoki Hyakuta says Japan was lured into the Second World War by America while liberating Asia from white colonialism.

He denies war crimes such as the 1937 Nanjing massacre, when Japanese troops killed thousands of Chinese civilians. Such views are common among revisionists in Japan. Mr Hyakuta, however, sits on the board of the nation's public service broadcaster.

NHK has annual revenue of more than $6bn (£3.7bn), putting it close to the BBC. Like the British broadcaster, it is obliged to be impartial and aloof from the political fray, so the company is under intense fire for the extraordinary views of four its governors, all reportedly handpicked by the right-wing Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe. The 12-member board controls programming policy and budgets.

The furore began two weeks ago in a press conference by NHK's new chairman, Katsuto Momii, who stunned journalists by saying it was "only natural" that NHK should follow the government line on Japan's territorial disputes with its neighbours. "When the government says 'left' we can't say 'right'," he said. He then defended Japan's wartime system of sex slaves, saying such a system was "commonplace" in war.

Next up it was the turn of board member Michiko Hasegawa. In an essay written a month before her appointment, she eulogised an ultra-nationalist who committed ritual suicide a decade ago in protest outside Japan's liberal-left Asahi newspaper. "There could be no better offering," said Ms Hasegawa.

Mr Hyakuta is a vocal supporter of Toshio Tamogami, the candidate for Tokyo governor who was sacked as air-force general in 2007 for denying the accepted narrative of the war. In a speech last week campaigning for Mr Tamogami, he called the Nanking Massacre a "fabrication".

The appointments have crystallised lingering fears about Mr Abe's agenda. He wants to radically overhaul three of Japan's basic modern charters: the 1946 pacifist constitution, the education law and the security treaty with the United States.

Critics say such a far-reaching project would have profound consequences for Japan,  but the NHK controversy seems to show that Mr  Abe intends to shut debate down. "Momii is perfectly willing to, in effect, turn  NHK into a propaganda mouthpiece of the current administration," thundered an unusually fierce editorial in The Japan Times.

The battle lines around Mr Abe's agenda are set to harden. His ruling Liberal Democratic Party is preparing to challenge the constitutional ban on collective self-defence, a pillar of Japan's post-war pacifist stance. Opinion polls suggest that more than half of the public oppose Mr Abe's pet project. Having the state broadcaster on your side no doubt helps.

[The Brain]

Theirs is a fascinating tribe.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

and befor you know it the thought "Two nukes was not nearly enough" pops into mind...

[Valmy]

Naoki Hyakuta says Japan was lured into the Second World War by America while liberating Asia from white colonialism.

That explains it.  China loved White Colonialism and was willing to fight to the death to preserve it.

[CountDeMoney]

Wow, Japan and China in a yet another monkey shitfight over whose interpretation of history is more accurate more emotionally appealing.

[Lettow77]

 This article would have you believe Abe is beset with critics or that this issue has created more internal controversy than is actually the case.

[Siege]

Why is Lettow in every Japanese theme thread?

[Neil]

Well, they were removing white colonization from Asia.  It's just that not only is removing white colonization an objectively bad thing, but even from the point of view of the colonized, being ruled by the Japanese was no better than being ruled by the French, British, Dutch or Americans.

[Razgovory]

Why is Lettow in every Japanese theme thread?

Perhaps you can enlighten us, why does a man sell out to East Asia?

[Josquius]

This article would have you believe Abe is beset with critics or that this issue has created more internal controversy than is actually the case.

Yeah. It's weird really, the way the Foreign press reports on japan. They make it out that because someone with stupid views on certain areas wins in life it was because of those views rather than in spite of them.
Most Japanese people couldn't care less about this sort of thing. Foreign policy ranks very low on voters issues in japan

[Admiral Yi]

Squeeze, you do understand most of us are not going to interpret that statement as a defense of the Japanese people, right?

[Josquius]

It wasn't meant to be. It was a criticism of weird foreign reporting.
Right wingers say stupid crap to appeal to the fringes and life goes on.

[grumbler]

It wasn't meant to be. It was a criticism of weird foreign reporting.
Right wingers say stupid crap to appeal to the fringes and life goes on.

Sounds to me like the foreign press has it right, and the ignorance or indifference of the Japanese voters to the consequences of their choices is to blame.

There's actually nothing "weird" about reporting on the bizarre antics of an elected government.

[Josquius]

There aren't really much in the way of consequences though. That's why most of the population just shrugs off the right wingers trying to gain the extremist vote. The kind of person who wouldn't vote for someone for saying this kind of thing is also the kind of person who is probably never going to vote for a right wing party anyway.
  China being a dick to Japan pre-dates the right's return to power and even the most right wing of politicians have no intention of actually seriously acting on any of the generic far right spleel.

I say it's weird because this kind of thing is a pretty normal part of Japanese politics, a right winger in Japan saying something ignorant about the imperial era is like a republican in the US declaring abortion bad, nothing particularly novel and newsworthy.

[Tamas]

It wasn't meant to be. It was a criticism of weird foreign reporting.
Right wingers say stupid crap to appeal to the fringes and life goes on.

Let's ignore the far-right as some ridiculous band of lunatics who could never get close to power. What could happen.