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'Nationalism' frenzy created by U.S. media
by Naoki Inose
Special to The Daily Yomiuri
August 30, 1999
The cover of the Aug. 16 issue of Time magazine carried a photo of a young Japanese man who appeared to be a rightist, brandishing paper fans with a Hinomaru motif. The man's eyes were closed, his teeth bared and his face contorted into what appeared to be an expression of both elation and savagery.
The title superimposed over the photo was "Japan Returns to Nationalism," but the story leaves Time open to accusations of gross exaggeration and sensationalism.
Such energetic young nationalists are nowhere to be found in Japan today. Quite the opposite--in the dictionaries of Japan's lazy university students, represented by the youth who wander the streets of Shibuya, Tokyo, the word "nation" seems not to exist, and thus there is no room for nationalism in their minds.
It is likely that such a stereotype, a wary portrayal of Japanese nationalism, stemmed from the passage of the defense cooperation guideline bills, which included a law providing for contingencies in areas surrounding Japan and a revision to the Self-Defense Forces Law, as well as a bill to officially designate the national flag and anthem.
When discussions on the defense cooperation guideline bills began about half a year ago, the March 29 issue of Newsweek magazine carried on its cover an image of a silhouette of a soldier carrying a gun against a background of a military Hinomaru flag, resembling the logo of The Asahi Shimbun.
The image introduced a story titled "The Land of the Rising Gun," an apparent parody of the famed reference to Japan as "The Land of the Rising Sun." The headline of the main story was sensational--"Smoke Alarms."
In contrast, the March 31 issue of the Japanese version of Newsweek had a different cover title "Japan That Cannot Fight." And the main story translated into Japanese was under a headline that offered an entirely different impression to "Smoke Alarms." Headed "The Time to Be Aware as a Pacifist State," what a great double standard the comparison offered!
The headlines in the Japanese-language version portrayed the opinions of the Japanese editors. If the English headlines had been directly translated, Japanese readers would have been confused and surprised, and left wondering to whom the headlines were referring.
I wonder whether the U.S. media really believe that Japan may return to fascism when the national contingency law or the flag-anthem law is enforced. I am amazed. Applying the simple theory that history repeats itself shows an ignorance and a lack of awareness on the part of the media.
Making analogies of situations in the 1930s and 1940s with those of the present had been a common practice for many years since I was a child.
The theory was dubbed "reversal course," and was cheap, scaremongering propaganda on the part of communists. If it were true, Japan would have returned to militarism long ago, but this has not happened.
The flag and anthem bill was passed and became law, but most Japanese are uninterested and unconcerned about it
Furthermore, U.S. urging was the main motivation in pushing for a law covering the country's options for action in the event of emergencies in areas surrounding Japan. Japan did not instigate the move independently, therefore, U.S. media outlets like Time leave themselves open to ridicule with their loud proclamations of Japan's "return to nationalism."
In the same story, Time also referred to the communications monitoring law, or "wiretapping law," stating that it violated Article 21 of the Constitution, which guarantees the protection of communications privacy.
Of course, this argument is not necessarily in error. I opposed the law's passage in its current form, as I believed limits ought to have been imposed to prevent police from abusing their authority.
But again external influence was a factor.
The United States has a longer history of wiretapping. The Time cover story failed to mention that the law followed requests from Washington, where drug and other crimes are rampant, and that the Japanese people had not sought its passage.
Meanwhile, after more careful observation of the cover, I was surprised to recognize that the man was not a rightist, but instead a fan of a Japanese soccer team.
Likely to have been one of the empty-headed soccer supporters who attended the World Cup finals in France last year, the man wore what at first glance appeared to be mock ancient combat headgear made of paper. On closer inspection, it became clear that the headgear was fashioned in the design of a flame emblazoned on the uniform of the Japanese national soccer team.
In my opinion, the fuss created by Japanese supporters at the World Cup was unrelated to issues of nationalism, no matter how many times "Kimigayo" was sung with gusto and Hinomaru flags were waved during the matches.
A year ago, I wrote in a column "A television scene of a young woman clad in a replica of the national team's blue uniform and carrying a stuffed animal as she wept in front of a stadium (in France), saying she could not get a ticket, was rather weird--beyond a sense of displeasure. But what is really weird is the total emptiness it reflects, in which everyone has the same values and is uninterested in things."
I wish both Time and Newsweek would publish calm, correct and in-depth reports.
(Naoki Inose is a social critic.)
© 1999 The Yomiuri Shimbun
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