Category: Links

It was a toss up so I am going to post both.

First we have www.Kokueki.com (National Interest). Sayaka pointed this very interesting site to me. You can get all your Japanese nationalist news here, but don’t worry, the site’s mission is to “transcend ideology” in order to concentrate their focus on Japan’s national interest 「イデオロギーを超えて純粋に国益を論じる場」. Everything they write is for the Japanese nation 「すべては日本国のために」. Notice the flags at the top right, which include the Taiwan nationalist flag and the Tibetan flag. Supporting these two nationalist independence movements shows one of the interesting alliances between, for example, Taiwan’s ruling pro-independence nationalists (as opposed to the until recently Chinese nationalist KMT) and the Japanese right-wing. The Taiwanese nationalists save a fairly warm place for Japan in their historical narrative of Taiwan’s colonial history. While they don’t usually reject all the negative aspects of colonial rule, this period is a key transition point for them during which “Taiwanese” identity becomes unique through its long exposure to Japanese culture. This is followed by the cruel and barbaric invasion by the Chinese nationalists at the close of the war when the, “dogs went home and the pigs arrived.” Japanese nationalists naturally find a unique connection with this constituency who occasionally have pleasant words to say about their “civilizing” influence on the island.

Don’t miss out their newspaper review section (click on the 国益のリンク集 link to left). There you get all the newspapers described, and there are no surprises. ◎ “There is no newspaper which considers national interest more than Sankei” 「これ以上の国益新聞はない」. Yomiuri is listed as most read and it gets a △. ×Asahi and ×Mainichi are the evil newspapers that are not recommended. The former we are told, regrettably rejects Japan in its discussions of history-related issues and is totally irresponsible. It used to be the most militarist before the war. What happened to it?! 「歴史認識においては、日本を否定する言動ばかりが目立ち残念である。過去の教科書誤報問題では、国益を著しく損ねた。しかしながら、訂正をいまだしておらず無責任である。　戦前は、最も軍国主義的な論調が目立っていた。いかに変化したか？」. Mainichi is somewhat better, especially their education section, but like Asahi they fall short with respect to the history question. 「歴史認識においては、朝日同様に日本を否定する言動ばかりが目立ち残念である。教育に関する記事は、充実している。」

Runner-up is the Korean Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities or Minjok.or.kr. If I read it correctly, the Korean title is actually something like, “the institute for research on national problems” These trouble makers are, of course, anyone or anything which collaborated with the Japanese during the colonial era. You may have heard mention of this institute in various news reports lately and I think they are actually getting some funding from the Korean government for their efforts.

As soon as I can read Korean well enough, I will be sure to read all I can on this site, and perhaps pay them a visit since my own field of research is related to traitors and treason in modern East Asia. You can find out information on this site about the 친일인명사전 or “A Biographical Dictionary of Traitors” (or “pro-Japanese” elements). They also have an archive section, and other information…lots for me to look through some day.