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Conservative group says Allies brainwashed Japanese people in postwar era

(ECAJTI)
(ECAJTI)
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09 Jan 2025 05:01:16 GMT9
09 Jan 2025 05:01:16 GMT9

Arab News Japan

TOKYO: A conservative Japanese group calling itself the “Experts’ Council Aiming at Japan’s True Independence” held a press conference on Monday saying that the Japanese people were “brainwashed” by the Allies following World War II.

The Council objected the Allies’ General Headquarters Line (GHQ), a defence line built in the United Kingdom during World War II to contain an expected German invasion.

The GHQ was “forcing” newspapers to run a series of articles in the postwar era titled “History of the Pacific War,” saying it was propaganda provided by GHQ’s Civil Information and Education Bureau. The articles emphasized Japan’s aggression and wartime misdeeds.

The group said GHQ’s censorship and control has resulted in Japanese people denigrating their own country.

In an open letter, the Council claims GHQ forced media outlets to make radio broadcasts based on these articles, which sought to justify the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as relating an account of the Nanking massacre, which some revisionist historians in Japan claim didn’t happen.

The Council said that “many people have not yet been able to escape from the thorough brainwashing by GHQ” and what it terms “the masochistic view of history that was instilled in them during the occupation. GHQ carried out brainwashing operations against all media, including newspapers, radio, and movies.”

The group criticized the continued use by Japanese media of the phrase “Pacific War,” stating that people using the phrase “are still brainwashed by GHQ.”

The Council was established last year, with Professor KOBORI Keiichiro of Tokyo University serving as chairperson and well-known revisionist historian YAMASHITA Eiji appointed as one of the vice chairpersons.

The open letter was signed by 56 dignitaries, who included a former chief of Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force, university professors and politicians.

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