Did Asahi Bear Witness, Report Propaganda And Politics In 20th-Century Japan

Writing your own history has its perils: focus and emphasis can be skewed, events interpreted unevenly, and critical assessment may be lacking. This is something to keep in mind while reading Media, and Propaganda and Politics in 20th-Century Japan, which reflects on historical action, inaction, and reaction at home and abroad, and probes the dynamic between power, politics and the press through some six decades of reporting from respected Japanese daily the Asahi newspaper.

Scrutiny is required as senior Asahi journalists draw on documents, interviews and ephemera for self-inspection, keen for reflection and, at times, self-stricture. Bringing balance and perspective to such an undertaking is a big ask. Journalism, too, is a tricky business.
Asahi is an influential liberal voice in Japan, so editors may well ask whether their journalism has withstood the test of time. Did Asahi bear witness, report truthfully and inform debate? Has it reported freely and fairly, holding power to account? These are the expectations of journalism as understood by this author over a 30-year international reporting and editing career. Asahi’s answer to these questions: not always, no.

The book explores themes which are relevant both within Japan and without, thereby joining a wider conversation about the country’s place in the postwar world. From the construction of national myths to the rise of militarism, from the notion of Japan as Asia’s liberator to the question of wartime responsibility, the book offers insights into the roots of past and present conflicts and frictions. In considering Depression-era economics, postwar globalisation and financial recalibration, Asahi editors show savvy in identifying key 20th-century
This volume attempts to capture it all. Scope, however, is one of its failings: the book simply tries to do too much. Chapters at the outset on the splintered nature of prewar politics and patriotic societies and then on Okinawa and bribery scandals towards the end could do with a tighter edit. They have more interest at home than abroad. More could have been written on Asahi’s coverage of wartime behaviours in China, sex slavery, and the atomic bombings, though this would likely have made the volume unmanageable. Asahi’s sight is sometimes blinkered. As an example, the chapter on visits by national leaders to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, which commemorates the war dead, including convicted war criminals, spends more time on constitutional concerns than the more significant international