https://mainichi.jp/articles/20170601/ddm/004/040/016000c Post-War Media History – The Sugou Incident – How Competing News Coverage Revealed Police Malfeasance By Soushi Kawana Before dawn in a quiet mountain village in Kyushu, the sound of an explosion reverberated. On June 2nd 1952, in the village of Sugou in Ooita Prefecture, a beer bottle filled with dynamite was detonated at […]
Looking at Guam’s Decolonization Movement from Okinawa
From Minako Oyakawa’s regular column Shima To Iu Mado which focuses on Okinawa issues, published in the September 2017 issue of Sekai. After Guam was “discovered” in the course of Magellan’s voyage around the world in 1521, the island’s original inhabitants, the Chamorro people, were ruled by the Spanish for 333 years. Missionaries from Spain banned […]
“Stop the Political Usage of Takiji Kobayashi!” – The Strange Case of an Internet Flame War
http://lite-ra.com/2017/03/post-3011.html By Mitsuya Miyajima Last summer, on the internet there was the “Don’t bring politics in music!” controversy surrounding the Fuji Rock Festival. The incident caused a flamewar demonstrating the low level of internet discourse. Now one year later, again there has been controversy surrounding “culture” and “politics” that will make your head hurt. This […]
Memories of the Yomiuri Labor Struggle – The Life of Journalist Tarou Miyamoto Chapter 4
IV. THE WAR OF AGGRESSION AND THE NEWSPAPER –The most iconic example of journalism’s attitude during the war were in the Imperial General Headquarters Announcements. As they spoke of “glorious battlefield successes”, journalists formed one line in agreement. Looking back, what points do you think are pertinent? Swallowing Whole the Imperial Line: Reporting During the […]
Memories of the Yomiuri Labor Struggle – The Life of Journalist Tarou Miyamoto Chapter 3
III. JOINING YOMIURI NEWSPAPER —Before joining Yomiuri, I heard you worked for another newspaper. Yes, I spent a short time at a newspaper called Niroku Shibun. Yomiuri’s Nakamitsu told me he would hire me, but things stopped there because it was a time of bad unemployment. And then an acquantance advised me to work at […]
Memories of the Yomiuri Labor Struggle – The Life of Journalist Tarou Miyamoto Chapter 2
II. MY TIME AT FORMER SUIKO HIGH SCHOOL –Looking at your history, one can see that although you entered Yomiuri in 1935, before that you participated in the student movement with the movie director Tadashi Imai during your time at former Suiko High School (now Ibaraki University), and you were arrested by the Special Higher […]
Memories of the Yomiuri Labor Struggle – The Life of Journalist Tarou Miyamoto Chapter 1
PREFACE Looking towards the 50th anniversary of the end of the war, we can see continual progress of plans for an “Emergency Government” that remind one of the tyranny of the pre-war government that organized itself under the same pretext. Before the war under the rule of the Konoe Cabinet’s Imperial Rule Assistance Association, the […]