Uichiro Niwa: Japan is slowly approaching war

Author: Zhang Kexi (Senior Research Fellow, Chinese Think Tank, Research Fellow, World Studies Research Center, Xinhua News Agency)

The Black Dark Diary of a Modern Translation, edited and narrated by Uichiro Niwa, was officially released on December 3, 2021. On December 8, 2021, the weekly magazine "Toyo Keizai" published the article "Shock! published an interview with the author.

The editor's note for the report reads:

In his diary written during the war, the diplomatic commentator Kiyozawa described the absurd, irrational, bad, and extremely poor conditions together with the living conditions of the city. Surprisingly, the recorded wartime society is so similar to today's world. Today, when the war has changed from memory to record, what kind of wisdom have the Japanese learned from the tragic history and mastered? Mr. Uichiro Niwa, who edited and interpreted the Dark Diary of a Modern Translation, will talk about the significance of Kiyozawa's diary. ”

Mr. Uichiro Niwa is the president of the Japan-China Friendship Association, born in Aichi Prefecture in 1939, graduated from the Faculty of Law of Nagoya University, joined ITOCHU Corporation, where he served as chairman of the board of directors, general manager, member of the Cabinet Office Economic and Financial Advisory Council, chairman of the Cabinet Office Committee for the Promotion of Local Decentralization Reform, and president of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) Association, and from June 2010 to December 2012, he was the first ambassador of a private background to china. He is currently the Honorary President of the Global Business Association, a Visiting Professor at Fukui Prefectural University, and an Honorary Director of ITOCHU Corporation, and his books include "The Great Problem of the Niwa Yuichiro War" and "The Great Problem of China", and "The Dark Diary of a Modern Translation" is his latest work.

Mr. Niwa Uichiro hopes that young people will read Kiyozawa's Dark Diary: "In order not to go to war, I hope everyone knows that there was such an era." In order to make it understandable to ordinary people, I deliberately adapted Kiyozawa's diary into a modern language. This is the meaning of introducing the Dark Diary to society. ”

Kiyoshi (1890-1945) was a journalist active in the 1930s and 1940s, who graduated from Hotworth University in the United States and worked for the New Journal of Chinese and Foreign Business

From 1927 to 1929, he became deputy director of the planning department of the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun. He was engaged in the report of the London Conference on Disarmament in 1930, became an editorial writer of the Hochi Shimbun in the same year, and became an advisor to "Toyo Keizai Shinpo" in 1938. Since 1937, he has been opposed to the Japan-China all-out war and the U.S.-Japan war, and has continued to take the stance of the anti-military during the war. He left the company after the right-wing attack, and continued to follow the attitude of anti-militarism for life as a free critic.

From 1927 to 29, he became the deputy director of the planning department of the Asahi Shimbun in Tokyo, covered the London Disarmament Conference in 1930, worked as a commentator for the Newspaper Shimbun in the same year, and in 1938 became an advisor to to the Toyo Keizai Shinbun newspaper. After 1937, as a liberal critic, he stood against the all-out war against China and the war between Japan and the United States, and implemented an anti-militarist posture all his life. In addition to this wartime "Dark Diary", he also wrote works such as "History of Japanese Diplomacy" (source: Kodansha Digital Edition of the Dictionary of Japanese Names).

His diary began on December 9, 1942, the year after the Pearl Harbor, and ended on May 5, 1945, before his death.

On October 1, 1943, he wrote: "The Great East Asian War was a very great war of rise and fall. It is an obligation for the author to leave certain handwriting for future generations. That is, start writing a journal that you haven't written from here. In order to serve as a material for the diplomatic history of Greater East Asia in the future. God, save Japan. ”

Mr. Uichiro Niwa has the spirit of "learning from history", and the social phenomena that he repeatedly emphasizes are:

"It's been 80 years since the war started, and some people think that war is not a bad thing. It seems that Japan is slowly approaching war. Moreover, many Japanese people do not feel this. ”

"In the Dark Diary, written by the diplomatic critic Kiyosawa during the war, there are plots similar to those of modern Japanese society everywhere."

Kiyozawa's Dark Diary describes the absurdity of the countries that fought the war and the absurdities of the media that supported the war, as well as the absurdity of the people themselves, which are recorded together with the situation of Ichii's life. To my surprise, the society he recorded was so similar to today's. ”

Regarding the current Sino-Japanese relations, Mr. Niwa Yuichiro said, "At that time, Japan and China were in a state of war, and it was natural that they had the worst feelings for the enemy country, China. However, now that it is a time of peace, the Japanese people's feelings toward China are similar to those of the war, and it is no longer a general issue. ”

In 2017, Mr. Niwa Uichiro also published a book, "The Great Problems of the War by Niwa Uichiro". The book concludes: "Japan's goal should be a country that is respected by the whole world, not a great power that brings the world to its knees, but a country that the world admires and sets an example." You can't fight a war. What cannot be gained from war. Learning from the experience of war will make Japan no longer the beginning of being a force that guides war and can also contribute to the world. ”

"Japan is slowly approaching war." ——Mr. Niwa Uichiro's assertion is not a whim, but the heartfelt words of those who have experienced that tragic and inhumane war, which deserve the close attention and deep consideration of the Chinese people.