Today, I'd like to talk about WGIP. This is a shortened word for War Guilt Information Program. You may not know this word because this is not famous. This program is a part of plans of GHQ(General Handquaters) to occupy Japan after W.W.II. Because of this program, many Japanese came to have a self-tormenting historical view. In other word, when Japanese think about their own history, they emphasize the negative aspects of the history of Japan. GHQ wanted to destroy the Japanese traditional custom by WGIP. As the name, WGIP, suggests, Japanese feel guilty when they mention the Japanese history, especially W.W.II. Here is an example of the effect of WGIP. Two atomic bombs destroyed two Japanese cities, Nagasaki and Hiroshima. When Japanese people mention this case, not a few Japanese people think think that Japanese militarism was responsible for this accident. Americans who dropped the two bombs were not responsible for the destruction. WGIP have enough power to make Japanese think like that way.
Then, why GHQ brainwashed Japan? The answer is clear. They want Japan to be quiet. Once Japan become angry, they are very strong. This is proven in the war against China, Russia, and W.W.II. A small country which floats on the Pacific Ocean have enough military force. U.S.A probably took advantage of Japan. They are clever. I think Japanese are stupid to accept the program. We can well see the effect of WGIP in the field of education. At least in my experience, in the history class, I was taught more negative aspects of Japanese history than the positive aspects. Pure students believe what they are taught. As a result, when they grow up, they are not proud of Japan. According to one research , the difference between the self-country evaluation of Japan and the evaluation from other country is only one percent. Many other counties have over ten percent of gap between their self-evaluation and evaluation by other countries. Through this research we can realize that Japanese underestimate themselves. I suspect that WGIP have not a little impact on the result of this research.
Japan have to be more proud of themselves. There are countless strong points of Japan. I pick up three points. First, Japanese spirit receive a high evaluation throughout the world. Japanese have hospitality and industriousness. In other words, they are very kind to others and work hard. This foundamental spirits support Japan in a profound way. Japan could recover from the miserable situation after WWII thanks to this spirits. If Japanese were not industrious, this developed country would not exist. Second, Japanese are very skillful. Japanese manufactured products are known in the world. I think the thing which prove how Japanese are skillful is Zero fighter plane. This is an amazing plane. Zero can constantly fly 2,200km. This also has a high motion performance. In addition, this is capable of loading a heavy weapon. These three factors; the long distance of flight, a high motion performance, and a loading capacity did not seem to be completed at the same time. But, Zero could. Zero was the most accomplished product during the first half of WWII. Third, Japanese subculture gain respect all over the world. Japanese animation and manga, such as One Piece, Naruto, and Titan on attack, are very popular in the world. These subculture are released to the world as a governmental project, named "Cool Japan".
In this way, Japan has a lot of fascination and many countries recognize Japan as a fascinating country. But, there is an undoubtful fact that Japanese self-country evaluation is very low. I suppose that WGIP is one of the reasons that make the Japanese self-evaluation low.
We must know that only one program after WWII could controll Japanese mind. Japanese have to understand the word , and delete the excessive negative historical view of them. In the field of education, teachers have to tell the history in the right way. Not too negative. Not too positive. They have to tell the fact. In my opinion, Japan have a possibility to lead the world in the future. Wake up Japan. Be proud of Japan