Given the current political antipathy between China and Japan, the recently published A Public Betrayed: An Inside Look at Japanese Media Atrocities by Adam Gamble and Takesato Watanabe, will surely shed some light on Chinese concerns and Japanese rebuttals. The historical matters underlying the Sino-Japanese impasse has long been brewing. A Public Betrayed puts these issues and the Japanese media in a new and at times harsh light.

The current demonstrations in Shanghai, Beijing, and in the south are apparently designed to blunt Japans attempt to join the Security Council.  If that is the immediate geo-political prompt, the leitmotif seems to be Japans unwillingnessin the Chinese viewto accept responsibility for its actions in World War II.

These actionsincluding the Rape of Nanjing and the militarys use of sex slavesare well documented historical facts and appear to lack only full disclosure on the part of Japan.  A Public Betrayed looks afresh at these and other post-World War II events from the perspective of the Japanese newsweeklies, a kind of anti-establishment press and, to believe the authors, something of a danger.   

Gamble and Watanabe, though they single out the newsweeklies, are not particularly kind to the Japanese press, particularly newspapers which, with some notable exceptions, are essentially in the pockets of government through the system of press clubs.  The press clubs are organized so government officials and bureaucrats can present the same information at the same time to representatives of the daily press.   This system is said to result in a certain editorial sameness, even blandness among Japanese daily newspapers.   The press clubs also results in a kind of journalism where there are few, if any, scoops.  The press clubs represent a tightly controlled, somewhat anti-democratic organization that is akin to a bureaucracy.   A Public Betrayed is less diplomatic: the authors view the Japanese news media as corrupt.

In this sterile climate the newsweekly magazines or shukanshi have found a foothold, often presenting these titles as an anti-establishment press and trumpeting their mawkish headlines on banners hanging from commuter railheads throughout Japan.  The shukanshi represent a curious mixture of tabloid journalism, erotica, serious reporting, and a generous amount of shoddy and occasionally inflammatory articles.   It is the latter that A Public Betrayed focuses on.

Gamble and Watanabe offer a series of case studies illustrative of how the shukanshi frequently distort history, invent stories, and embrace far right nationalist causes.  Perhaps most shocking is the amount of anti-Semitism found in the pages of some shukanshi, particularly since so few Jews live in Japan.  The authors are especially thorough in their treatment of the Nanjing Massacre and how legitimate journalists are attacked for telling what is generally accepted as historical truth about this event.  They bring the same scrutiny to how these weekly newsmagazines attack former sex slaves of the Japanese military.  There are other equally disturbing case studies.

Takesato Watanabe is a professor of media ethics at Doshisha University in Kyoto and was a visiting scholar at Harvard in 2001 (Adam Gamble did the actual writing).  The book obviously comes from within the Japanese psyche.  Moreover, it is well-documented and goes to pains to show that the shukanshi are a disservice to the Japanese consumer and a danger to the countrys democracy.  This is not Japan-bashing, the authors argue. 

At times I take issue with some of the books martial language and its attempt to show there are lessons here for the West.  Perhaps so, but thats not the primary objective.  One might argue that the shukanshi are an aberration and represent the shadow side of Japanese media.  Even if that were so, these newsweeklies are very popular and very influential.  They are an important part of Japanese culture.

A Public Betrayed is a disturbing book, offering a peak inside a sub-culture most know little about.  Anyone who wants a better understanding of one aspect of the Japanese media and a fuller appreciation of many of the issues that are front and center these days in the Asian and world mind, this is worth reading.