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Month: February 2026

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Japanese : https://i-rich.org/?p=2591

SAWADA Kenichi
Senior Researcher
 International Research Institute of Controversial Histories

Very early at the beginning of 2026, on January 10, a newly found fact was introduced during

an NHK TV program “Intelligent Exploratory Frontier by Tamori and Yamanaka Shinya—gigantic volcanic eruption gave birth to the “Japanese people!?” It was explained that the root of Japanese-ness derives from gigantic volcanic eruptions and people constantly exposed to the crises of volcanic eruption came to be equipped with a sense of awe toward nature and very active in terms of helping each other.

In addition, gene D-M55, typical to the Jomon people, and fear-inducing gene are explained, which make people fit for group-living and enhance people’s ability to discern danger. And it was also explained that cooperativeness is the key to overcoming difficulties. That is, to help each other and to be eager to sacrifice oneself for the sake of others. This TV program was very interesting to watch, dealing with various fields of physiology, genetics and earth physics.

Incidentally, regarding the Jomon people, who were the Japanese people’s ancestors, how did they come to the Japanese Archipelago?

The ancestors of the modern humans “Homo sapiens” are said to have originated in Africa about 200,000 years ago. Then, they moved to every part of the earth. In 2020, the University of Tokyo and others announced that not only Japanese Jomon people but also all the eastern Eurasians came via the southern route. They decisively asserted not “many” but “all” of them.

Homo sapiens, ancestors of the Jomon people are said to have reached as far as Indonesia about 70,000 years ago. Toba volcano erupted about 74,000 years ago. In the southern part of India, stoneware was unearthed from under the volcanic ash stratum.

Also, in Australia, a stone ax with a polished blade dating back to about 65,000 years ago was unearthed. This was a polished stone ax and with this tool in hand, people gained the ability to cut down big trees and make boats of wood.

Aboard their log boats, they arrived at the southwestern tip of Kyushu about 40, 000 years ago. Starting from the present Kalimantan (Borneo Island) aboard boats, stopping at the Okinawa islands, they arrived at the Honshu island. It was not at all easy to complete the nearly three thousand kilometers long voyage, riding against Kuroshio Current, one of the world’s strongest currents.

When a log boat got upset by transverse waves, throwing a member of the fellow crew into the sea, they helped each other up aboard the boat again. To desert those thrown into the sea meant to lose rowers of the boat, leading to death of oneself. That was why a strong comradeship was naturally born. To save others’ lives was tantamount to saving one’s own life. With this strong bond, only one thousand people finally arrived at the Japanese Archipelago, which is revealed by nuclear DNA analysis. The first group of the Japanese people were mere one thousand. Out of this group of one thousand people were formed the Jomon people.

It was a geopolitically lucky event that the Jomon people came to live in the Japanese Archipelago. Japanese Archipelago is surrounded by the seas and there was no danger of being the victims of wars waged by other peoples and no attempt was made to wage a war against other peoples and kill enemies.

From the ruins of the Jomon people, no weapons to kill others have been unearthed. After rice-growing was introduced during the Yayoi people’s period, probably there were wars over harvested rice and other crops and among the Haniwa figurines, some were made to resemble warriors. However, in Japan, which had never experienced a war waged by other peoples, there were a few wars or a few war casualties.

Certainly, in the short term, for one hundred years from the latter half of the fifteenth century and in the long term, for one hundred and fifty years, there was Sengoku, or warring-states period when one war after another took place. Even during this period, war was fought exclusively among warriors and in principle, there were no civilian deaths involved in the war. Clearly, Japan experienced few wars.

In the first half of the twentieth century, the Japanese people fiercely fought but it was for the cause or mission of self-defense or liberation of Asia that Japanese fought so violently, willing to sacrifice their own lives.

The Japanese people with such national trait cannot have massacred as many as 300,000 guiltless civilians at the time of siege of Nanjing in 1937. The supreme leader at the time of the establishment of the present People’s Republic of China Mao Zedong himself said, in Yan’an, half a year after the siege of Nanjing, “The Japanese Army had many sieges but few annihilations.” This means that there was no massacre, doesn’t it?

Nonetheless, at present, the Chinese government built the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders in the city of Nanjing, citing the Japanese Army killed 300,000 people.

After all, is it that this memorial hall reflects the self-image of the Chinese culture that prefers wars and nonchalantly commits one massacre after another. In that, this memorial hall can be said to be the symbol of the self-image of the horrible China or a symbol of China’s shame.

It was a profound discovery that the NHK’s program this time reveals that Japanese people’s cooperative and mutually assisting trait was formed through the rice cultivating culture that requires unified cooperation of many people and that at the same time genetically Japanese people have this tendency.

Japan should disseminate to the world its proud history with more confidence. Getting rid of the misunderstanding that the Japanese people are belligerent, Japan should conciliate countries of the world.    

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Written by SHIRAMATSU Shigeru
Published by Minerva Shobo, 2025

Reviewed by SUGIHARA Seishiro
President
International Research Institute of Controversial Histories

(1) Regarding the Japanese Navy’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, which triggered the war      between Japan and the United States in 1941, it is an important issue in the U.S. postwar history to clarify whether the United States President Roosevelt knew about it in advance.

At the time when the President spoke in the U.S. Congress on the next day of the surprise attack, no lawmakers could have imagined any knowledge but in due time, considering the scale and damages inflicted by the attack, suspicion naturally rose that Roosevelt knew it but did not tell the base in Pearl Harbor, which led to larger casualties.

Anyhow, how the United States failed to perceive in advance an attack of that size and scale, which inflicted such tragic casualties was the great concern of the American people and unravelling it became a historically important task. To probe the issue, eight official investigations were conducted during wartime and immediately after the war ended, a joint Senate and House investigation committee was held, amounting to the total of nine official investigations.

Among these, the committee most suspicious of Roosevelt’s foreknowledge of the Japanese Navy’s surprise attack, which investigated the issue most thoroughly was certainly the one held from November 15, 1945 through May 31, 1946 by the Joint Senate and House Investigation Committee. However, despite the grand-scale investigation, they could not obtain any testimony that Roosevelt knew beforehand about the attack or any source to verify it.

Thus, for a time being, documents related to the Pearl Harbor remained classified, and the issue of Roosevelt’s foreknowledge has been kept frozen.

(2) However, about forty years after the Pearl Harbor attack, two books using the sources from the above-mentioned official investigations were published and became popular in the United States.

One is At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor, written by Gordon W. Prange and published in 1981 (New York: McGraw Hill, 1981). And the other is Infamy: Pearl Harbor and Its Aftermath written by John Toland and published in 1982 (New York: Doubleday, 1982).

The two books are based on the same sources, but their conclusions are the opposite.

Prange concluded at the end of his book with the words, “...But in a thorough search of more than thirty years, including all publications released up to May 1, 1981, we have not discovered one document or one word of sworn testimony that substantiates the revisionist position on Roosevelt and Pearl Harbor.”

On the other hand, the book by Toland concluded quite oppositely that Roosevelt knew about the attack. One piece of compelling evidence which did not emerge in the nine official investigations was testimony from a wireless operator Z at the 12th Naval District in San Francisco intercepted signals transmitted from the Japanese Task Force, and pinpointed the Task Force’s location, and this had been reported to Washington. If this is true, it can hardly be denied that Roosevelt knew. However, at that time, according to the Japanese history study, it was believed that the Task Force that attacked Pearl Harbor maintained strict radio silence. Affected by this theory, the wireless operator’s testimony was not fully trusted and although Toland’s theory was widely discussed in the United States, most people regarded it as unacceptable.

Essentially, it is believed that the United States fought the war with Japan as a just war and under such psychology, Americans did not want to believe that Roosevelt knew about the attack in advance and had to take the blame for the Pearl Harbor victims and it was thought that although Toland’s book was an interesting read, it did not provide concrete evidence to support the Roosevelt foreknowledge theory, which kept readers from supporting Roosevelt’s foreknowledge theory.

(3) However, nearly ten years afterwards, in 1991, on the fiftieth anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, the United States National Security Agency (NSA), with a view to terminating the Roosevelt foreknowledge theory once for all, investigated documents declassified before the 50th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack and concluded that the United States Navy could not foresee the surprise attack by the Japanese Navy. However, the book published in Japan in that year The Surprise Attack on Pearl Harbor: Did Roosevelt Know? written by Konno Tsutomu (Tokyo: Yomiuri Shimbun-sha, 1991) presented a thesis that clearly refuted the U.S. conclusion. Konno investigated each of the seven testimonies which are not direct but supportive evidence of the theory widely spread across the world that Roosevelt knew about the attack in advance and the historical value of which cannot be denied. Konno proved that although those seven testimonies describe separate situations, on close examination of each of them, they fit into one pattern and align with each other beyond time and space. Although they are not based on direct evidence, they clearly indicate that the Roosevelt foreknowledge theory is substantiated.

In Toland’s book mentioned above, for example, it is pointed out that a wireless operator detected the transmission from the Japanese Task Force, pinpointed the location and reported it to Washington. Regarding this information, a theory was introduced that a task force was moving in the North Pacific Ocean in a range as large as the size of the Japanese Awaji Island, and radio waves transmitted from the Funabashi communication facility to the task force were reflected like a mirror by the task force, which produced an effect as if a new radio wave was transmitted. If this theory stands valid, it proves the validity of both testimonies that the Task Force was strictly observing radio silence and the U.S. Navy analyzed the radio wave transmitted from the Japanese Task Force, pinpointed the location of the Task Force and reported it to Washington.

(4) Nearly ten years afterwards, in 2000, a scholarly book titled Day of Deceit: The Truth about FDR and Pearl Harbor, written by Robert B. Stinnett was published (New York: Free Press, 2000). Navy documents around the start of the U.S.-Japanese War were declassified as historical sources and became accessible, which prompted the new development in the study of the Roosevelt foreknowledge theory.

Stinnet got access to the record of the wave reception from the Japanese Navy related to the Pearl Harbor attack, which clarified to considerable extent the movement of the Japanese Navy and with the vital information that the Washinton leaders did not inform the base in Pearl Harbor of these pieces of information, the crucial failure can be asserted based on historical facts. Incidentally, the unidentified wireless operator Z mentioned by Toland was identified as Robert Ogg and Toland put the photograph of Ogg holding the original source indicating that he caught the wireless transmission from the Japanese Task Force as Toland had pointed out. Thus, Toland’s assertion was decisively proven to be correct.

(5) Twenty-five years later, in 2025, the Japanese scholar Shiramatsu Shigeru got access to historical sources, including those Stinnett could not get access to, and clearly proved that the United States decoded the D Code which the Japanese Navy used, being fully confident that it was impossible to decipher. Then, he extensively read books published on the study of the Pearl Harbor issue in the world and published the book Pearl Harbor Attack: Roosevelt knew it—15 proofs that overturn the “Sneak Attack” theory (Tokyo: Minerva Shobo, 2025), the object of this book review.

Prior to the publication of this book, Shiramatsu published the book There was no aircraft carrier then—examining Pearl Harbor (Tokyo: Bungei-shunju-sha, 2013). He had read extensively books published across the world related to the Pearl Harbor issue, examined them and added the following historical facts of great significance.

On December 4, three days prior to the Pearl Harbor Attack on December 7 (U.S. calendar), The Chicago Daily Tribune reported a war plan to mobilize an army of 10,000,000 strong, which put Roosevelt in an utter predicament. In fact, this was an intended leak that Churchill plotted, and Roosevelt approved. In 1940, Roosevelt was successfully elected for his third term as President with his promise not to go to war. It could be tantamount to betrayal to the American people for him to make such a war plan. And if this fact had been known to the people, Roosevelt would have faced an extraordinary predicament. In the above-mentioned book, Toland describes how dismayed Roosevelt was over this leaking incident. However, in his book, Shiramatsu made it clear that this was an intentional leak plotted by Churchill and Roosevelt.

Why did they plot such a thing? Their aim was, with the knowledge of the Japanese Navy’s attempt to attack Pearl Harbor and on this premise, to manipulate Germany, which had no obligation to join the war after it broke out, into unfailingly entering war with the United States. If Hitler was to know about the war plan of this scale, Hitler would have judged a war with the United States unavoidable and there would be no alternative but to declare war at this point even though the preparation for war has not yet been completed. In fact, after Hitler went through agony after agony, he declared war against the United States on December 11.

This is the first book in Japan to introduce the mechanism of the leaking incident. Thus, the Roosevelt foreknowledge theory has been perfectly proven. It is an epoch-making fact to both Japan and the United States in postwar history studies to substantiate that a Japanese has perfectly proven the Roosevelt foreknowledge theory.

(6) In the first place, however, why are both Japan and the United States obsessed with the Roosevelt foreknowledge theory as a historical issue? Thinking about it, we learn that there is a big difference between Japan and the United States as to the significance of the obsession. In the United States, to put it in extreme terms, it goes that even though Roosevelt knew about the Japanese Navy’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in advance, he did not appropriately alert the Pear Harbor base, which led to many American casualties without cause. On the other hand, considering Japan was accused of being a despicable country for the “sneak attack” and forced into waging a devastating war, it is of much more significance to prove the Roosevelt foreknowledge theory.

Incidentally, though there remains a question of whether it was regarded as a form of declaration of war, thirty minutes prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan was to hand an “ultimatum” to the U.S. Secretary of State. However, due to the clerical blunder on the part of the Japanese Embassy in Washington, it was handed to the United States after the attack on Pearl Harbor started. In terms of formality, it turned out to be a “sneak attack,” without a notice in advance. As a result, the American people got far more furious than in the case if the event followed the scheduled course.

On the ground of the American people’s utter fury, on January 24, 1943, at Casablanca, Roosevelt declared the demand for unconditional surrender of Japan and Germany. Regarding Japan, on February 8, 1945, at Yalta, Roosevelt concluded a secret pact with Stalin that in two to three months after Germany surrendered unconditionally, the Soviet Union would enter war with Japan, abandoning the Russo-Japanese neutrality treaty. On the following day, Churchill learned about the pact and advised Roosevelt to the effect that if Japan was informed that the Soviet Union decided to enter war with Japan, Japan would certainly surrender and then war casualties would be terminated at that earlier point. However, Roosevelt turned a deaf ear to this advice. After all, war casualties on both parts of Japan and the United States after that time onward were victims whose lives were lost for no cause, because if the U.S. consolidated its victory at that time, they could have ended the war then but did not do so. On the part of Japan, clearly victims of the atomic bombing and Tokyo air-raids had nothing to do with the victory or loss of the war. Let alone, the result of the Soviet entering the war enticed by Roosevelt was that Roosevelt led Japan to the national division and total destruction as Roosevelt intended.

The Joint Senate-House Investigation Committee proved that Roosevelt provoked Japan into war by presenting the Hull Note to Japan. It was also found out that the United States decoded and read every Japanese diplomatic telegram and knew that Japan initially tried to hand the “ultimatum” to the U.S. 30 minutes prior to the Pearl Harbor attack, and it was substantiated that Japan did not intend to attack Pearl Harbor without any advance notice.

However, relying on the theory that it was not clear whether Roosevelt knew it before the Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor, the fact has been ignored that Roosevelt inflicted unnecessary hardship on the Japanese people and forced Japan to follow a bitter fate of a divided nation. And in the United States, all has been left unquestioned, including not only the fact that knowing in advance about the Japanese Navy’s Pearl Harbor attack, they did not tell the local Pearl Harbor base of the attack and American soldiers at Pearl Harbor fell a victim to the attack unreasonably but also that the war was expanded beyond the scope of victory or defeat and many American soldiers’ lives were lost in vain. We must have the American people clearly recognize all these facts.

Roosevelt intended to force such cruel destiny on Japan, well knowing that he himself provoked Japan into entering the war between Japan and the United States and that the Pearl Harbor attack without advance notice was not a planned “surprise attack,” and expanding the American casualties to such an unnecessary extent. According to statistics, more than half of the American casualties during the U.S.-Japanese War were caused after the surrender of Saipan in July 1944, when the victory of the United States over Japan was practically decided. That is, in the U.S.-Japanese War, more than half of the American casualties were caused after the winner was decided. This fact should equally be shared by both the American and the Japanese peoples.

For this purpose, in whatever way, we must prove completely the Roosevelt foreknowledge theory. This book, through the thorough investigation of historical sources and the examination of all scholarly books, proves perfectly the theory that Roosevelt knew about the Japanese Navy’s Pearl Harbor attack in advance and is a shining beacon as a book on history from now on.

Lastly, let me add that the author Shiramatsu plans to publish the English version of this book.

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China’s complex legal warfare and Japan’s unified defense strategy ~ Before 2026 deadline, urgent proposal to sustain national sovereignty

Japanese : https://i-rich.org/?p=2565

NAKAMURA Satoru
Senior Researcher
International Research Institute of Controversial Histories

Introduction: the narratives as an “invisible battleground”

The primary principle of this proposal is to reconfirm the fact that “in China’s strategy, narratives stand above military power.” The greatest crisis facing present Japan is that Japan is helpless and defenseless against the “complex legal warfare” waged by China attempting to rob Japan of sovereignty legally and ethically, which is more threatening than physical military invasion. Without decerning this strategy, it is impossible to defend Japan’s sovereignty.

1. October and November 2025: the truth about the silent declaration of war

From October to November 2025, the Japanese society was totally exposed to harsh diplomatic and verbal attacks by China. According to general reporting, these attacks were interpreted as “unilateral anger” or “emotional repulsion” on the part of China against specific incidents such as the so-called Prime Minister Takaichi’s statement. However, the truth is completely different.

What happened during this period was the start of a planned war or “silent declaration of war”. China has been preparing over several decades for the operation to deprive Japan of its sovereignty over Okinawa. China used the specific statement only as a “convenient trigger” and the true nature of China’s reaction was not emotional panic but the start of an extremely cool-minded, calculated and legally and ethically structured attack. While Japan has been attempting to “calm down through dialogue,” China has been steadily moving the process to deny Japan’s right to rule Okinawa in the international community.

2.Heavily layered logic of “deprivation of sovereignty” plotted by China

China’s invasion in the form of narratives aims to dissolve Japan’s sovereignty from within by pursuing the following three levels of logical structure.

(1) “Historical weapon” as the basis (the existence of the Ryukyu Kingdom)

The lowest level of logic is the distortion of history and emotional narratives. The narrative that the former independent state of the Ryukyu Kingdom was annexed by military power, deprived of its culture and during World War II was deserted as mere means to an end is disseminated to the world. By emphasizing such “historic tragedy,” China defines present Japan’ rule in Okinawa as “continuous and illegal colonial rule.”

(2) “Ethical weapon” as apparatus (United Nations human rights mechanism)

It is the United Nations human rights mechanism that changes the historic narrative into international “justice.” In the United Nations, China has made the narrative that the Okinawan people are indigenous people an established fact and switched the issue of the United States base in Okinawa with the ethical cause of “violation of human rights against the indigenous people.” Using this “human rights” weapon, China aims to deprive the Japanese Government of credibility in the international community and lead the global opinion in favor of China.

(3) “Legal weapon” as the conclusion (the theory of the superiority of the Potsdam Declaration)

After cementing the outer moat with history and ethics, China inflicts the final blow of legality. Its core is the assertion that “San Francisco Peace Treaty (SFPT) was an illegal secret pact intended to conceal human rights violation, and the Potsdam Declaration is the supreme law.”

  • The nullification of the SFPT: to deny the SFPT as the hindrance to the “liquidation of colonialism” which the Potsdam Declaration upheld.
  • The fulfilment of the Cairo Declaration: Based on the Cairo Declaration as quoted in Article 8 of the Potsdam Declaration “The terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out and Japanese sovereignty shall be limited to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and such minor islands as we determine,” China claims that the territorial position of Okinawa is not yet defined and therefore Japan has no territorial right to Okinawa. China imposes this new interpretation in terms of international law.

Along this logic, activities of the Japan Self-Defense Forces are to be regarded as “challenge to the new post-war order” and Japan’s national defense itself can be branded as “violation of international law.”

3. Historical trap of “2014 Agreement”

China has been elaborately promoting its long-term plans since 2012. Among them, the 2014 Four-article Agreement between Japan and China was a fatal point in which Japan willingly recognized “the existence of conflict” and gave China a “permission” for international maneuvering on the part of China. Japan had “different views” on the concept of “crisis management” but China interpreted it as “official recognition of the territorial conflict” and posted it on its digital museum and elsewhere as historical outcome. On the leverage of this agreement, China has completed the syllogism in which it justifies Chinese Coast Guards expelling activities around the Senkaku islands belonging to Okinawa as legitimate official duty based on the agreement.

4. March 2026 -- The final time limit for the defense of sovereignty (deadline)

The plot to deprive Japan of sovereignty over Okinawa has entered the final countdown.

  • Phase 1 (now to March 2026): In the United Nations Human Rights Council, China condemns Japan as a human rights violator and continuous colonial ruler. If Japan fails to clearly refute China’s claim and passes this period without taking any action, “Acquiescence” in terms of international law comes into effect and the legal ground for defending Japanese sovereignty over Okinawa will be lost forever.
  • Phase 2~3 (2027 and thereafter); in the case of Okinawa emergency, China will demand “Ryukyu’s neutrality,” backed by the United Nations resolution and the U.S.-Japan deterrent power is legally numbed. This is the moment of “check mate” when China will take hold of the hegemony over East Asia.

5. Counterstrategy: Integrated defense policy led by NSC (National Security Committee) 

Given that the enemy attacks using historical, ethical and legal narratives, Japan needs integrated defense, getting rid of the ineffective “vertical administration.”

Operation A (International front): legal and diplomatic attack

Clearly declare to the international community that “the final determinant of the postwar order is not the Potsdam Declaration but the San Francisco Peace Treaty.” Completely destroy China’s legal interpretation based on “piecemeal history” from the root and let the world re-recognize the legitimacy of Japan’s territorial right in terms of international law.

Operation B (Domestic front): development of national unification narrative

  • Reform of ceremonial events: change the role of memorial days to the symbol of “national unity,” not “division.”
  • Use of the authority of the Royal Ryukyu Family: The head of the Royal Ryukyu Family should make a historically and culturally significant statement that “The Okinawan people are Japanese,” which will be distributed and officially used by the Japanese Government. Through the message, the false historical structure of the narrative “Ryukyu versus Japan” which China depends on will be destroyed from within.

Conclusion: Sovereignty should not be lost without fighting

The United Nations examination in March 2026 will be the last turning point to defend Japan’s sovereignty. Here, representatives from Okinawa will directly refute China’s demands by stating, “We are not an indigenous people but Japanese.” This simple and yet powerful statement of the truth is the only means to stop China’s invasion steadily under way through the silent declaration of war. Now, we must fully recognize that we are in the middle of a war fought with weapons called words.