FUNDAMENTALISM OF JAPAN

-KYUSHU DYNASTY PRECEDING KINK EMPEROR-

FURUTA Takehiko

An outline for presentation at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan on October 5, 2001

Translated by  FUJISAWA Toru

1.    The recent controversy in connection with the adoption of history textbooks at the middle school is nothing but a storm in a teacup.
   Because, all the textbooks including the so-called new history textbook and the conventional history textbooks are sharing the same stand of the "government view" history compiled after the Meiji Restoration.
   It is the stand of the "ultra-nationalism" which explains the history of Japan solely from the viewpoint of the "unitarian Emperor worship," and excludes all the historical facts which do not get along with such viewpoint.
   It has indeed continued to prevail for these 130 years ever since the Meiji Restoration. As a result, the Japanese people were continuously brain-washed by the dishonest history textbooks and getting reproduced in a great large number over the four eras of Meiji, Taisho, Showa, and Heisei.
  The Japanese people were deeply addicted to such viewpoint that they are not even aware of the fact they have been poisoned. How dangerous it is!

2      On the other hand, the Chinese history books frankly told the truth of the Japanese history as a neighbor.
    In China, the "authentic chronicles" of its dynasties have been written continuously since the 2nd century B. C. (Shiji). As soon as one dynasty ceased to exist, Chinese described the history of their previous dynasty. They are indeed a rare great recorder in the world.
    Since the 1st century A.D. (Hanshu), those authentic history books continued to write about the neighboring country, the state of "Wa"; i. e. the western part of the Japan archipelago.
   The first example is the golden seal. It was written in a book that China's, latter-Han dynasty bestowed it on Wa in 57 A.D.. Actually, the golden seal was unearthed in the Shika island at the Hakata bay on a northern coast in Kyushu.
  The second example is the report the Sui's mission. On the basis of the mission's report, the Sui history book wrote about famous mountains in Kyushu. Special to note is a report saying, "there was Mt. Aso with its erupting fire rising up to the sky." Mt. Aso is a living volcano in Kumamoto Prefecture in Kyushu. The Sui history book of the 7th century also wrote about emperors of the rising sun. Therefore, it seems clear that the capital of the Wa state was at Dazaifu of Fukuoka Prefecture in Kyushu.

    By the way, at Dazaifu, there still exist such village section names as "Shishinden (the Hall for state Ceremonies)","Dairi (the Imperial Palace) ", and "Suzakumon (the Southern Gate to the Capital)." These are the proofs that there were once places concerning emperors.

    Furthermore, the China's Tang dynasty had had close relations with Japan. It had two old and new history books. About Japan, both of them wrote about Japan, as "Wa state" centering in Fukuoka Prefecture in Kyushu before the end of the 7th century, and as "Nihon or Nippon state" in Nara or Kyoto Prefecture in Kinki after the 8th century.
The Tang dynasty having relations with Japan may never make any mistakes about the fundamental international facts.

3     The truth may remain undistorted and talk itself eloquently however harsh a onetime regime brainwash its nation with a dishonest history.
   The following map will testify the truth:

   Reference photographs are next.

   These are the sites of ancient fortress ruins called Kogoishi.
   Around, the midslope of the mountains at the height between several hundreds and a thousand meters, brick shaped stones cut from big stones were laid to build the bases of doubly made outer walls of mountain fortresses.
   Without an exception, a water gate was attached to them. It was a water supply facility for soldiers and people who stay in the mountain castle in case of enemy invasions.
   I believe that they are the ruins of military fortress made in preparation for the possible invasion of foreign enemies such as Kokuryo, Shilla, and Tanng's China.
   Meanwhile, Japanese academics had thought that they were made in the period between the 6th and 7th centuries.
   However, recent dendrochronology has revealed that, in 70 to 80% cases, the results of the conventional archeological chronology by pottery should go back for about 100 years.
    Accordingly, those Kogoishi ancient fortress ruins should go back to the 5th and 6th centuries.

   Then, the question arises about who made those military fortresses. I think that the political power situated in the center of the surrounding fortresses did. This area is composed of Chikushi (Fukuoka Prefecture) and Hizen (Saga Prefecture). It is clear that the Emperor in Kinki (Nara and Kyoto) had nothing to do with them.
   This fact is very obvious. But the government compiled history after Meiji closed its eyes and cut of the map from the textbooks.
   As a matter of fact, these military fortresses had been constructed before the big war. You may remember that the allied forces of Tang's China and Shilla won the sea battle of Hakusukinoe off Paekche in 662 or 663 A. D. against the allied forces of Wa and Paekche.
    Nevertheless, today's Japanese academics and all textbooks have propagandized since Meiji that Queen Suiko and Prince Shotoku of Kink in the first half of the 7th century were the central power of the Japan archipelago.
     Therefore, I dare say that they are completely "dishonest."

4    During the Edo isolation period, fanatic ultra-nationalism was developed. It influenced the Mito school of Confucianism on one hand, and the Kokugaku school of the Study of Japanese Classical Literature on the other hand.
  Both of them had a great influence over the development of the spirit of the Meiji Restoration in 1868. After the Meiji Restoration, the two schools cooperated to build a nationalistic ideology called "Shinto fundamentalism." Their image history has built up the basis of Japanese thoughts for 130 years since then.

   Although freedom of study and thought was superficially permitted, and different opinions were also permitted to express after the defeat of the war in 1945, Japanese scholars living on history as their profession made it their secret art of living by not touching the Kyushu dynasty for discussion. In these suffocated circumstances, creativity of human being will never be possible.

   I am very happy to express my thoughts expecting human reason, because I believe that foreign correspondents are certainly not contaminated by the brainwashing of the history image of Japanese ultra nationalism.

We want several opinions about the Recognition of Human Beings, please send E-mail to Yukio Yokota. sinkodai@furutasigaku.jp

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