Forgetting Japanese Fascism

Summary

Elliot Sang challenges the claim that Japan has deliberately used anime, food, and other popular culture to make the world forget its wartime atrocities. He argues that this framing treats Japan as a single actor and mistakes Western ignorance for a coordinated Japanese propaganda success. People in China, Korea, and Southeast Asia know Japan’s history; the larger question is why many Americans and Europeans know so little about it.

Sang says that understanding modern Japan requires tracing how imperialism shaped the country—and how Western powers, especially the United States, influenced both its rise and its postwar reputation. He notes that his account draws on English-language sources and that Japanese history involves contested interpretations.

The Rise of the Modern Japanese State

The video describes Japan’s rapid modernization in the 19th century as a response to Western pressure. After Commodore Matthew Perry’s arrival and the unequal treaties that opened Japan to foreign trade, leaders sought to strengthen the country so it could resist domination and compete with Western empires. The Meiji Restoration centralized government, ended the shogunate, and built a modern military and capitalist economy.

Sang emphasizes that many ideas now treated as timeless Japanese traditions were recast or institutionalized during this period. Compulsory education, conscription, state-supported Shinto, and newly promoted cultural symbols helped foster national unity and loyalty to the state. In his account, these cultural projects were aimed primarily at mobilizing Japanese people—not at marketing Japan to the world. Industrial growth also enriched powerful business conglomerates, or zaibatsu, while relying on cheap and often coerced labor.

Expansion, Militarism, and Colonial Rule

Japan’s expansion began with the incorporation of Hokkaido, the conquest of the Ryukyu Kingdom and Okinawa, and the acquisition of Taiwan. The video highlights the dispossession and forced assimilation of the Indigenous Ainu people in Hokkaido, including the use of prisoners and other forced labor in industries such as coal mining.

Competition with China over Korea and regional territory, followed by Japan’s victories in the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars, increased the military’s influence. Sang describes how the civilian government became increasingly unable to restrain military leaders. Assassinations and lenient treatment of far-right violence further weakened civilian authority. In 1931, the Japanese army staged the Mukden railway incident as a pretext for invading Manchuria and establishing the puppet state of Manchukuo. The military’s expansion continued despite the risks of overextension and international isolation, contributing to the wider war in China and the Pacific.

The video also covers Japan’s colonial rule in Korea: killings and massacres, the suppression of Korean language and identity, and the forced adoption of Japanese names. It discusses the system of “comfort women,” in which women and girls from Korea and other occupied areas were coerced or trafficked into sexual slavery for Japanese forces. Sang notes that survivors’ experiences varied, while stressing the system’s connection to the Japanese military and colonial power.

He also recounts atrocities across Asia, including the Nanjing Massacre, the Bataan Death March, the Sook Ching massacre, and the crimes committed at Unit 731, where prisoners were subjected to lethal medical and biological-warfare experiments.

Postwar Accountability and the U.S.–Japan Relationship

Sang argues that postwar accountability was shaped by American strategic interests. Emperor Hirohito was not tried, and the United States granted immunity to Unit 731 personnel, including Shiro Ishii, in exchange for information about biological warfare. The video describes this as part of a broader pattern in which individuals and institutions were spared when doing so served U.S. goals.

The U.S.-led occupation initially pursued demilitarization and democratic reforms, but Cold War priorities shifted policy toward suppressing left-wing movements, restoring business power, and rebuilding Japan as a strategic ally. The Korean War helped revive Japan’s economy through U.S. military procurement. The security treaties that followed allowed the United States to maintain bases in Japan, provoking major protests. Okinawa became a central site of U.S. military presence, despite strong local opposition.

Sang characterizes postwar Japan as deeply tied to U.S. economic and military power. He argues that this alliance helped shape what Western audiences learned about Japan and what they were less likely to hear.

Nationalism, Denial, and Cultural Influence

The video traces the growth of Japanese historical denialism and nationalist politics, including controversies over visits by prime ministers to Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan’s war dead, including convicted war criminals. Sang distinguishes between legitimate scholarly disputes over specific historical details—such as casualty estimates—and using those disputes to deny or minimize atrocities. He discusses the political efforts of Shinzo Abe and others to revise how Japan’s wartime history is portrayed, as well as the harassment faced by critics and historians.

Sang also disputes the idea that anime and other Japanese cultural products function as a unified propaganda machine. Governments have attempted to promote Japanese culture through initiatives such as “Cool Japan,” but he argues that these efforts were limited and came after many Japanese cultural exports had already become popular. Japanese artists have varied perspectives: some works are apolitical, while others are critical of militarism and nationalism.

The broader explanation, he concludes, lies less in Japanese media than in Western education, media, and political priorities. Western audiences often encounter Japan through its cultural exports without learning its regional history, while U.S. strategic interests have helped preserve a favorable postwar relationship. Treating Japan as a single, exotic national personality is itself a form of orientalism.

Sang’s closing argument is that nations are not unified people with one purpose: their histories contain competing interests and experiences, and cultural works can create human connections without serving as state propaganda.

Presenters and Contributors

• Elliot Sang — presenter
• Danae O. — editor (credited in the video metadata)