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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2025
“Historiography” refers both to the study of history and to the body of research, writing, and debates about a specific historical theme or topic. In historical debates, historians have tended to place priority on written documents, even when dealing with recent events. More recently, however, oral history—interviews with eyewitnesses and survivors and attempts to come to terms with how ordinary people see their own historical experience—has become mainstream among academic historians.
4 Portelli, viii
5 Watanabe Shōichi, Chūgoku wo eikyūni damaraseru 100 mon 100 tō (One Hundred Questions and Answers to Shut China Up for Good) (Tokyo: Wac, 2007), p. 36. http://www.truthofnanking.com/allegednankingmassacre1.pdf
1 The ‘Shin-Gomanizumu Sengen’ column started in SPA! in 1991 and moved to Sapio in 1995. See Frederik L. Schodt, Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga (Stone Bridge Press, Berkeley: 1996); pp. 224-8.
2 Kobayashi's other books include: Taiwanron (On Taiwan, 2000), Sensoron 2 (On War 2, 2001), Sensoron 3 (On War 3, 2003), Okinawaron (On Okinawa, 2005), Yasukuniron (On Yasukuni, 2005), Iwayuru A-kyu senpan (The So-Called Class A War Criminals, 2006), Heisei Jōiron (Expelling the Barbarians in the Heisei Period, 2007), Tennōron (On the Emporor, 2009).
3 For example, Uesugi Satoshi, Datsu Gōmanizumu Sengen, Kobayashi Yoshinori no “ianfu” mondai (Breaking Away from the New Declaration of Arrogance, The “Comfort Women” Issue According to Kobayashi Yoshinori) (Tōhō Shuppan, Osaka: 1997); Obinata Sumio et al, Kimitachi wa Senso de Shineru ka, Kobayashi Yoshinori “Sensoron” Hihan (Can you die for your country in war? A criticism of Sensoron) (Otsuki Shoten, Tokyo 1999); Uesugi Satoshi, Datsu Sensoron, Kobayashi Yoshinori to no Saiban wo Hete (Breaking Away from Sensoron: The Kobayashi Yoshinori Lawsuits) (Tōhō Shuppan, Osaka 2000).
4 Aaron Gerow, “Consuming Asia, Consuming Japan: the neonationalist revisionism in Japan” in Laura E. Hein and Mark Selden (eds) Censoring History: citizenship and memory in Japan, Germany and the United States (M. E. Sharpe, New York: 2000).
5 Rumi Sakamoto, “Will you go to war? Or will you stop being Japanese? Nationalism and History in Kobayashi Yoshinori's Sensoron”, The Asia-Pacific Journal, 2008.
6 Philip A. Seaton, Japan's Contested War Memories: the “memory rifts” in historical consciousness of World War II (Routledge, London: 2007), pp. 199-200.
7 Schodt, Dreamland Japan, pp. 225-6.
8 Kobayashi Yoshinori, Sensoron, Tokyo: Gentōsha; pp. 176-7.
9 Sensoron, p. 177.
10 A further argument is that the high wages “comfort women” could receive in comparison to the soldiers they “comforted” explains why women might want to work as “comfort women”. However, refuting abduction (“forced transportation”) is the primary goal for nationalists.
11 There are various renditions, but one prominent proponent of this analogy was Fujioka Nobukatsu. See Fujioka, Nobukatsu, “Jigyakushikan” no byōri (An Analysis of Masochistic Historical Views in Japan (Bunshun Bunko: Tokyo 2000), p. 126.
12 Sensōron, p. 180.
13 Sensoron, p. 179. Following the publication of the Japanese government's initial investigative report into the “comfort women” on 6 July 1992, the Korean government complained that it was based solely on documentary evidence and ignored “comfort women's” testimony. The second report, issued on 4 August 1993, which precipitated Konō's apology, did include testimony. The testimony was central to the report's conclusions that there had been the “forced transportation” of women. This is Kobayashi's primary objection to the second report and Konō statement. For details see Philip Seaton, “Reporting the ‘comfort women’ issue, 1991-1992: Japan's contested war memories in the national press,” Japanese Studies, Vol. 26, No. 1, May 2006, pp. 99-112.
14 The leading figure in the campaign to expose Yoshida as a liar was historian and Tsukurukai member Hata Ikuhiko, who visited the areas where Yoshida said he had served and abducted women to become “comfort women”. Hata's conclusion that Yoshida was lying was published in the nationalistic magazine Seiron in the June 1992 edition: “Shōwa shi no nazo wo u - Jūgun ianfutachi no shunjū” (In Pursuit of the Mysteries of Showa History - the age of the “comfort women”). Yoshida was forced to admit he had fabricated parts of his story.
15 Sensoron, p. 182.
16 Kobayashi suggests through his introductory anecdote (the murder plot against him) that testimony on its own is insufficient to bring criminal charges, but this is somewhat misleading. Groping on trains (chikan) is a crime for which there is typically little or no physical evidence, and court proceedings rest solely on the word of accuser, accused and witnesses. Such cases are notoriously difficult to prove (leaving thousands of molested women with little recourse to justice) but have also led to some well-publicized miscarriages of justice. Nevertheless, the existence of such trials (and the admission of testimony in all other trials) clearly indicates that testimony is an important form of evidence that will stand up in court.
17 Sensoron, p. 271.
18 Sensoron, p. 248.
19 Sakamoto, “Will you go to war?”.
20 John Dower, War Without Mercy: Race & Power in the Pacific War (Pantheon Books, New York: 1986), p. 65.
21 Sensoron, p. 180. See also Yoshimi Yoshiaki, Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military in World War II, (Columbia University Press, NY: 2000).
22 Sensōron, p. 18. It is highly ironic that such a critique of consumerist Japanese society exists in a text that has become so representative of “consumerist nationalism” on the war issue (see Gerow, “Consuming Asia, Consuming Japan”). Not only Kobayashi but also other nationalist writers put out dozens of mass-market books regurgitating the familiar nationalist arguments of “Japan did no wrong” or “Japan has been tricked into accepting war guilt”. A consumerist public that feeds on nationalism and the sensational controversy it creates is what enables Kobayashi to become extremely influential (and wealthy!) as an individual.
23 Sensōron, p. 96.
24 Sensōron, pp. 57-64.
25 Sensōron, p. 59.
26 Sensōron, p. 208.
27 Sensōron, p. 64.
28 Abiru Rui, “Dai-ni Murayama danwa wo soshi seyo” (Let's prevent a second Murayama communiqué), Seiron September 2009, pp. 92-3.
29 For a good recent example see Yonson Ahn, ‘Japan's “comfort women” and Historical Memory: The Neo-nationalist Counter-attack,” in Sven Saaler and Wolfgang Schwentker (eds) The Power of Memory in Modern Japan (Global Oriental, Folkestone: 2008), pp. 32-53.
30 Herbert Bix, “Tamogami's World: Japan's Top Soldier Reignites Conflict Over the Past”, The Asia-Pacific Journal, 2008.
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