In one book, crazed Chinese Communist guerrillas spray benevolent Japanese troops with cyanide. In another, savage Korean immigrants massacre innocent Tokyo residents in the wake of World War II.
If this sounds like a reversal of Japan's history of aggression in Asia, that is just what the authors intend. The scenes appear in two best-selling examples of a growing literary genre in Japan: nationalist comics.
The trend, typified by the runaway hits Hate Korea: A Comic and Introduction to China, has struck a chord among young readers who resent Japan being cast as the bully in 20th century history -- and say it is time for a change.
PHOTO: AP
"These books finally depict history from a Japanese perspective, and there is nothing wrong with that," says Atsushi Iwata, 22, a student at Tokyo's prestigious Waseda University who attends a weekly seminar by a co-author of Introduction to China.
"It's the right of any nation to interpret history as it feels it should," he said.
The interpretation in the recent comic books is nothing short of provocative -- at a time of rising tensions between Tokyo and its neighbors, and as Japan takes a decided tilt toward an unapologetic view of previous military action.
Hate Korea tells the tale of wide-eyed Japanese college freshmen who discover that Japan's colonial rule over the Korean peninsula from 1910-45 -- seen in Korea as brutal subjugation -- was a well-intentioned attempt to bring civilization to a backward country.
"It's not an exaggeration to say modern Korea was built by Japan," one of the Japanese students, eyes shining, declares toward the end of the book. Her Korean debate opponent, fuming at the mouth, is unable to respond.
The China tome covers similar territory, vehemently denying Japanese atrocities in China during its invasion in the 1930s and 1940s, such as biological experiments carried out by the Imperial Army's top-secret Unit 731.
Even more venom is reserved for modern Chinese. The book accuses Beijing of distorting history, running crime syndicates in Japan and flooding the country with "AIDS-infested prostitutes," and calls for stricter immigration controls against Chinese workers.
The formula sells: The Korea book has gone through five reprints and sold more than 320,000 copies since its release in September. The China book has sold 180,000 copies since its appearance in August.
The comics build on a genre established by comic artist Yoshinori Kobayashi in the 1990s.
His Manifesto of New Pride series of comics -- which claim Japan waged a noble war to liberate Asia from a racist world order -- have sold over a million copies.
Proponents expect the trend to expand. But many Japanese are disturbed by the trend.
Toshio Hanafusa, an activist who has campaigned for compensation for Korean women forced to work as wartime prostitutes for Japan's Imperial army, blames the insecurity and disillusionment of younger Japanese for the popularity of the books.
"Perhaps they seek pride in the idea of a more assertive Japan," he said. "And cleansing Japan's history of any sense of guilt bolsters that pride."
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday announced a deal with the chief of Kurdish-led forces that includes a ceasefire, after government troops advanced across Kurdish-held areas of the country’s north and east. Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said he had agreed to the deal to avoid a broader war. He made the decision after deadly clashes in the Syrian city of Raqa on Sunday between Kurdish-led forces and local fighters loyal to Damascus, and fighting this month between the Kurds and government forces. The agreement would also see the Kurdish administration and forces integrate into the state after months of stalled negotiations on
RSS