By the end of the war, in 1945, the number of copies of the magazine had more than doubled compared to 1931, the year the Manchurian Incident broke out. War reporting was a lucrative business. While the people were living in poverty during the war, saying, "We don't want it, not until we win," the editorial director was indulging in geisha entertainment, which had been banned at high-class restaurants.
March 22, 2024

June 7, 2011
War Responsibility of the Mass Media...From "Message to the People of Japan" by Naoki Komuro.
Omission.
The "system" of self-censorship was already established before the war.
Japanese journalism had abandoned "freedom of speech" before economic reasons.
It was now at full stretch.
It would not take long for the press to become beholden to the military.
The domination of "air" is a characteristic of Japan.
Where "air" goes, Japan goes.
The "self-censorship by editors" has come to precede the military.
For example, look at significant newspapers' tone just before the war outbreak.
Isn't this mostly a battle argument?
It is almost all about the war.
The Japanese significant newspapers, inheriting the tradition of "fierce war advocacy in the private sector" since the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars, urged the government and the Diet with their fierce advocacy of war.
Do not miss the opportunity to start the war.
　
It was the attitude of all the major newspapers and NHK in Japan.
We want to look at the situation during this period, especially in the Asahi Shimbun.
The Asahi Shimbun was Japan's leading newspaper regarding the quality of its articles, its power (e.g., it cooperated with the military on long-range flight plans such as the Kamikaze and the A26 long-range plane), and its influence on the public.
Therefore, we would like them to appear here as a representative example of the prewar mass media.
A book called "The Asahi Shimbun's War Responsibility'' (Ota Publishing) was once published. It became a hot topic (Lyon Publishing published the first edition, but for some reason, the publisher dropped it soon after).
If you read the articles introduced there, it is clear how the Asahi Shimbun newspaper encouraged the people to go to war before the war.
　
The wartime slogans "We don't want it until we win" and "We won't stop fighting until we shoot the enemy" were also sponsored by Asahi, the Imperial Rule Assistance Association, and other organizations.
Not only did Asahi serialize these slogans in its newspaper, but it also displayed them on the walls of the Nichigeki Theater (the site of the current Yurakucho Marion), along with photos of soldiers to arouse the war spirit of the people.

Even after the defeat of the Battle of Midway in June 1942, when the Japanese forces shifted from the offensive to the defensive, he wrote in his morning column "title & no title" (September 21, 1942), which corresponds to the current "Tenseijingo" (Tenseijingo), "In some respects, the Greater East Asia War is a battle between rice-eating people and bread-eating people, between vegetarian people and meat-eating people. 
He also said that bread was "incomparable to rice" and that "those who eat meat produce temporary strength, but they lack staying power. 
A kirin would beat a lion in a long-distance race," was one of his completely irrational arguments.
　
　
By 1945, when the color of defeat was deepening, the phrase "100 million suicide attacks" appeared daily in the paper.
In the morning edition of June 14, 1945, an article titled "If the Enemy Comes, Let's Oust Them with '100 Million Suicide Attacks'" appeared.
The article called for "100 million kamikaze" guerrilla tactics, stating that "some of the people may not yet have fully committed themselves to the spirit of a suicide mission," and included illustrations of how to throw hand grenades and use bamboo spears, and urged "old men and women alike to prepare for the coming day.

After the war, Asahi shifted the responsibility for advocating this tone to military regulations and public opinion, but this is unreasonable.　
It was Asahi that dragged down both the military and public opinion.
How belligerent and inflammatory were Asahi's articles?
Compare, for example, the editorial in the Shinano Mainichi Shimbun (August 11, 1943) that pointed out the pointlessness of air defense exercises or the article in the Mainichi Shimbun (February 23, 1944) that slandered the army, saying, "You cannot fight with a bamboo spear when the enemy is coming at you by airplane.
　
After the Manchurian Incident, the Asahi Shimbun drove the nation toward the catastrophe of war against the U.S. 
All employees, from the president down, donated money to the military and even dedicated military aircraft.
The "Western brute (esp. American and British)" was more than just a force to control speech; it was also a means to incite hostility.
According to the "Asahi Shinbun Shimbun Shaishi (History of the Asahi Shimbun)," the circulation of the Asahi Shimbun continued to increase after the Manchurian Incident, and by the end of the war in 1945, the circulation had more than doubled compared to 1931, the year the Manchurian Incident broke out.
　
War reporting was a lucrative business.
While the people of Japan were living in poverty during the war, saying, "We don't want it until we win," the editorial bureau chief was indulging in geisha entertainment, which was forbidden at high-class restaurants.
Mr. Takamoto Hosokawa, the chief editor at the time (a relative of former Prime Minister Hosokawa), himself wrote clearly in his book "Jitsuroku Asahi Shimbun" (The True Story of the Asahi Shimbun) (published by Chuokoron-sha, Inc.).
The Asahi Shimbun was a Class A war criminal for the "war of aggression.