80 Years On: Japan's Media Deployed as Propoganda Tool

   Tokyo, Aug. 20 (Jiji Press)--As Japan fought in the Pacific theater of World War II, the country's newspapers filled their pages with praise for the war effort.
   Why did Japanese media outlets, including newspapers and news agencies, abandon their journalistic mission and become entwined with the military?
   In an interview with Jiji Press, Toshihiko Kishi, professor of Asian history at Notre Dame Seishin University and professor emeritus at Kyoto University, said that a key turning point for the media came with Japan's military campaigns in 1931 that led to its occupation of Manchuria, now northeastern China.
   As expansionism gained broad support across Japanese society, newspapers that criticized the military were targeted by boycotts led by groups such as reservists' associations. "In the scramble to boost circulation, the core spirit of journalism began to crumble," Kishi noted.
   The more extreme, and the more populist, the coverage, the better the papers sold. Chasing dramatic scoops and racing to outpace rivals, reporters cultivated closer ties with the military and, despite military excesses, voiced support rather than trying to rein it in.

(2025/08/20-10:30)