Fri, Dec 02, 2005 page5

• Nationalist comics click in Japan

  REINTERPRETING HISTORY Controversial comic books attacking Chinese and Koreans and touting Japan's `war of liberation' have struck a chord among young readers

  • AP
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  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.

  

  Takushoku University professor Ko Bunyu, who penned ``Introduction to China,'' speaks during an interview in Tokyo on Wednesday. The comic book says many of Japan's war crimes are lies spread by the Chinese government.

  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."
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