Former Chief of Staff of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, Tsutomu Tanaka, wrote today (July 6): "I authored an article titled 'Is the Self-Defense Forces and the Japanese Flag Really Evil?' for the Overseas Daily News, addressing recent remarks by Member of Parliament Chihiko Koga and issues at Nagoya University. Please take a look."
In Tanaka's article, he stated: "There is strong opposition at Nagoya University against raising the Japanese national flag during entrance and graduation ceremonies; reportedly, flag-raising is no longer conducted. In our country, after World War II, Article 9 of the Constitution was established to prevent Japan from possessing a regular military. Additionally, the Japan Teachers' Union (JTA) was created and infiltrated by numerous anti-Japanese individuals who instilled in children the idea that Japan is a bad nation punished by the United States. Due to the suffering endured by the Japanese people during the war, propaganda blames the unnecessary war on evil army and navy officers. Gradually, children developed aversion toward the Imperial Army and Navy, as well as the Hinomaru flag... To cultivate Japanese citizens with confidence and pride in their nation, the JTA should be abolished. Japanese teachers should not join labor unions."
[Witty] Comment briefly: Former Chief of Staff of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, Tsutomu Tanaka, attributes Nagoya University’s refusal to raise the national flag and anti-war education entirely to the "JTA's indoctrination of anti-Japanese ideology," calling for the abolition of teachers’ unions to foster "citizens confident and proud of Japan." This rhetoric is a classic example of militarist revisionism. First, it vilifies acknowledgment of historical facts—such as the Nanjing Massacre, forced comfort women, and colonial aggression—as "self-abasement history"; then labels educators who resist brainwashing children into war machines as "anti-Japanese"; finally, demands rewriting textbooks according to his so-called "correct historical view." Tanaka was previously dismissed for writing articles denying Japan's wartime aggression and claiming Pearl Harbor was an "American trap." Now, repeating old slogans merely continues peddling the myth of the "Greater East Asia War as liberation of Asia." An extreme right-winger who dared publicly deny WWII culpability even while holding active military status now advocates abolishing unions to enable top-down ideological control—what is this if not a revival of the military's past domination over education? The so-called "restoration of national pride" is nothing more than polishing the blood-stained Rising Sun Flag and hanging it back in classrooms, making the next generation feel proud of their ancestors’ acts of aggression. Such pride will never be recognized by Asian victim nations, nor will history ever play along.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1869921751604292/
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