Seiryu Hata Quotes
Newspapers at that time did not necessarily try to flatter those in power. Rather, they wrote to please readers. I may sound evasive. but there certainly existed some kind of mechanism that aggravated the situation through subtle interactions between newspapers and the public. Readers were waiting for articles reporting the exploits of the victorious Imperial Forces, Newspapers indulged themselves in a competition to appear more patriotic and to see who could print the most articles urging and exalting victory. Newspaper companies cooperated through the dispatch of entertainers, calls for patriotic songs, campaigns for contributions to build more airplanes, and various other ways. The heavy responsibility that the newspapers bear is second only to that of the government.
This was the veteran newspaper editor’s last column before retirement and he chose to write it about the role of the press in the Japanese imperialist and militaristic nation in the period before and during WWII. He was then a young journalist. While most Japanese see that period as disastrous where the nation lost its way, the ultra conservatives blame the insufficient attention and support of the military and in retrospect do not see that the Japanese have anything to apologize for. Most of Asia disagrees profoundly.
Seiryu Hata, Japanese editor in chief of the Asahi Shimbun, Column, Asahi Shimbun, 1987
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Bland was an expert in Asia and spent most of his time writing about Asian Politics. This quote shows that there was hostility and bad feeling between American and Japan long before WWII. This statement was written in 1921. The reality was that Japan was getting stronger as a militaristic expansionist nation which wanted to subjugate most of Asia. Ironically, they were using England and the European powers as models and sought to take Korea, Manchuria and much of Asia as Colonies, but this clashed with American values and even then there was animosity of the two systems.
Dunne put these words in the mouth of his famous character, Mr. Dooley. The part of the quotation, “comforts th' afflicted, afflicts th' comfortable” without the accent, became the motto for many journalists. This is the earliest use we have found, but it ironically was not very complimentary to newspapers.
This particular column brought criticism from some on the left who were distressed that a First Lady might be trying to intimidate the press. Mrs. Roosevelt was, like her husband, not wed to any particular dogma or ideology’ they were practical, common sense politicians who distrusted dogma of any kind.
This quotation appears to be typical of critics’ complaints about modern media and political reform movements lowing their standards and just trying to provide entertainment for the masses. The reason that it is noteworthy is that it was written in 1909. It is typical of the same class of complaints of 100 years later.
The three "estates" were the Lords Spiritual (Clergy), Lords Temporal (Aristocracy) and the Commons. The other three estates have been forgotten, but the press is still known as the "fourth estate." See Emanuel Sieyes, s.v. "Voters and Voting," on the Third Estate
