【ニッポンの新常識】「ファクトを無視した歴史学者」として名を残したいのか 米教科書論争
http://www.zakzak.co.jp/society/domestic/news/20150418/dms1504181530003-n1.htm
Common Knowledge Revisited ⑪
Discussion Based on Facts and Fair Logic
As you know, I am an American foreign resident of Japan. I have actually lived longer in Japan than the United States, but I am still an American. I have not ever seriously considered taking out Japanese citizenship.
As an American, I think of American interests first. That is why I think it would be dangerous to give me voting or election rights in Japan.
If I were suddenly to say that I wanted to change my citizenship to Japanese, then I should make a statement that “I pledge my allegiance to Japan, and from here on out I will act in accordance with the interests of Japan.” And if, after becoming a Japanese citizen, I were to act against this pledge, then my citizenship should be revoked, and I should be sent back to my country of origin.
Some people upon reading my articles and statements clamor that I have “defected to the right” or that I am a “historical revisionist.” Some even say that I am a “racist capitalizing on the anti-Korean or anti-Chinese boom.”
Some people say that I am betraying the United States by playing up to Japan. Conversely, some people speak under their breath that perhaps I am a CIA agent.
It is really interesting to look at the various irresponsible reactions on the internet. I always wonder how so many people who have read the same article could have such different interpretations.
If you subtract the negative reactions to my opinions which fit into the categories of “labeling,” “conspiracy theory,” “paranoia,” “faultfinding,” “manipulative changing of the subject,” “emotionalism,” “abstract argument,” or “defamatory statements about me personally or the U.S. which have nothing to do with the subject at hand,” there is really nothing left to speak of. I rarely run into an opposing opinion where the proponent actually wants to engage me in a debate.
These people misread the substance of my arguments. I am interested only in fair and logical opinions based on fact.
When I say “fair,” I lean towards satisfying the national interests of both the United States and Japan at the same time. Accordingly, it doesn’t matter if arguments based on fact lean toward one position or another based on that person’s standpoint. However, regardless of the nationality of the proponent, I am critical of any illogical arguments not based on fact.
I am not willing to overlook arguments even from my own country which ignore facts. That’s why I assert that “Remember Pearl Harbor” is American propaganda, and why I think that the carpet bombing of Tokyo and the dropping of nuclear bombs were violations of the international rules of warfare. I am also willing to point out that fact that the “War Guilt Information Program” carried out by GHQ was for the purpose of breaking down the traditional values of Japan.
At present, nineteen historians are defending the assertions printed in textbooks published by McGraw-Hill that “200,000 comfort women were recruited forcibly.”
I cannot imagine that these historians have thoroughly examined the historical materials available. Perhaps they have a masochistic desire to have their names be remembered in the annals of history as “historians who ignore the facts.”
