Lessons from a Japanese daily

By Ignas Kleden

TOKYO (JP): On March 22, 1997 the Tokyo-based English-language newspaper of Japan, The Japan Times, celebrated its centennial.

The newspaper was initially a nationalist venture, founded just after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894/1895, a difficult time for Japan.

Toshiaki Ogasawara, the present chairman and publisher, said the paper continues to have two goals; to help the Japanese people and foreign residents understand each other, and to report on both domestic and international affairs.

The inaugural editorial titled Our 'Raison d' etre' read: "It is a remarkable fact that after 40 years of mutual association between His Majesty's subjects and the foreign residents, the unreasonable prejudice and hatred which prevailed in the country under the latter days of the Shogunate era, has long since ceased to influence the minds of the people."

The above quotation reflects the nationalist atmosphere of the time. Japan, a country which had been forced out of isolation by the U.S. was subject to many unequal trade treaties. No wonder then, that the English-language newspaper was supported by important figures of Meiji Era, including the first prime minister of Japan, prince Hirobumi Ito.

The founding of the new Japanese controlled English-language newspaper would allow the publication of Japanese perspectives on the world.

In doing so, The Japan Times contributed to a better understanding of Japan and helped to lobby for the revision of the unequal treaties with the West. The paper became a vehicle for the realization of the intellectual and cultural ideals of the Meiji Restoration.

Now The Japan Times is no longer the only English-language newspaper in Japan. There is the Asahi Evening News, The Mainichi Daily News and The Yomiuri. Nevertheless, The Japan Times still enjoys a special position among its competitors, not only due to its age, but also because it is the only English-language paper without a parent Japanese paper.

In its first century, the newspaper has survived four important periods in modern Japanese history -- the Meiji, the Taisho, the Showa and the present Heisei era. It is interesting to note how the newspaper coped at these different times. During World War II the paper was totally controlled by the military- dominated government of Japan.

During those dark years it was assigned a double mission as propaganda machine. Internally, it was to persuade people of Japan's certain victory, externally it's task was to win international understanding and tolerance of Japan's occupation of such vast colonies.

To ensure the newspapers compliance with the instructions, the foreign ministry was assigned daily management of the newspaper, while three government bodies were responsible for the pre- publication censorship: the interior ministry, the cabinet board of information and the military police.

Yosuhiko Nara, 79, now a successful business consultant, was then a 25-year-old bureaucrat during World War II working with the foreign ministry of Japan. He was given the task of supervising the newspaper. He recently related his job-related internal conflict in a tragic-comic manner to Shinji Ito, a staff writer from The Japan Times.

He said: "I made sure the paper carried full reports of the visits of Japanese leaders to the member states of the Greater East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere and regional leaders visits to Japan". (The Japan Times, March 22, 1997).

The conflict was aggravated by the fact that as a foreign ministry employee, he had access to restricted information about the preeminent military power of the U.S. and the great unlikelihood of a Japanese victory, despite the incessantly propagated gyokusai, the alleged self-immolation of every person in Japan for their country. He admitted, in hindsight, that: "I was doing things I actually didn't want to do. The situation was the same for everyone at The Japan Times. None of them wanted to do the things they were doing".

In a larger sense, however, the conflict involved also an internal conflict between patriotism on the one hand and a sense of responsibility on the other. Journalists were aware that if Japan continued to fight the allies, not only would it lose but the entire country may have been reduced to ashes.

This concern reached its peak after the atomic devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Fear pervaded the country because it was unknown that the United States had no more atom bombs.

To save the country from total annihilation the newspaper published a weekly column written by a person with the pseudonym "Japonicus". The cautious column conveyed a hidden message addressed to the Allied camp that it was untrue that most Japanese were willing to sacrifice their lives for a war that they did not understand. Of course the information was conveyed between the lines, and only attentive readers could uncover meanings concealed by the aesopian manner of writing.

The column was intended to prevent the continuous bombardment of Japan by the Allied Forces. The people's will to fight at this time was greatly diminished. It also conveyed another message; that most people in Japan wanted a negotiated cease-fire and wanted to avoid battles on its own soil. Strangely enough, after secrets have been revealed, "Japonicus", was a professor at the Imperial University of Tokyo.

This is an example of the conflict between the loyalty to the state and responsibility toward the people.

In hindsight, it is difficult to judge whether the actions of the newspaper were a betrayal of the state or genuine patriotism in the interests of the country and it's people. Patriotism, its seems is nothing but particular judgment, point of view, and historical context.

During the war, people at the foreign ministry would have been condemned as traitors. But from the present perspective they can be glorified as those with enough courage to take the risks to save their country from atomic destruction and total annihilation by putting their own lives at the end of a samurai sword.

Running a newspaper is evidently a tough business, but it is different to selling shoes or peanuts. It is not only a matter of making profit and accumulating capital, but also of selling ideas, of expressing aspirations, and taking a position if called on to do so.

In its 100-year history The Japan Times has demonstrated that the moral choices of a newspaper are not always easy. Courage, freedom, and wisdom are different matters.

However, at critical moments, there is a fine line between courage and stupidity, freedom from self-seeking glorification and wisdom from cowardice. Besides this, the choice between political or financial survival, is a choice one must pay for, either by compromise, or financial loss.

Newspapers are the same everywhere. One feels happy if we can celebrate the centennial with the 100th centennial column, bearing congratulations from opinion leaders in business, politics, and other fields. Its demise, for whatever reason, in whatever corner of the globe would bring bitterness and sadness.

The writer is an Indonesian participant at the Asia Leadership Fellow Program at The International House of Japan, Tokyo, March 1997.

Window A: In doing so, The Japan Times contributed to a better understanding of Japan and helped to lobby for the revision of the unequal treaties with the West.

Window B: The cautious column conveyed a hidden message addressed to the Allied camp that it was untrue that most Japanese were willing to sacrifice their lives for a war that they did not understand.